• Teacher at Christian academy accepts plea deal on child porn charges; victim’s family outraged (archived link)
• Catholic priest accused of sexual assault fathered children of victims, court hears
• Pastor among those charged in human trafficking investigation in Cumberland County
(archived link)
• Women’s soccer coach at Central Christian College arrested for sexual battery against student (archived link)
• Texas approves new Bible-based curriculum for public elementary schools
• Writer excommunicated during Mormon purge is posthumously “re-baptized” with restoration of “temple blessings” (archived link)
• Indiana pastor is arrested for child exploitation, possession of child pornography, sexual battery, child seduction and voyeurism-using a camera (archived link)
• Nazarene pastor says he was threatened that he might not have a job if he reported church molestations (archived link)
• Oklahoma schools superintendent demands students watch him pray for Trump (archived link)
Uh… No? A religion is a belief system shared by many people. Organization, let alone hierarchies is optional but not at all necessary. For example as a Muslim I’d argue that at least mainstream Sunni Islam (excluding deviant groups such as Sufists) doesn’t fit the Western concept of organized religion. Setting aside the merits and demerits of religion, it feels to me that discussion on this topic on English-speaking media is very eurocentric for the conclusions it attempts to reach.
to be honest Judaism isn’t particularly organized either. there is no central authority past each synagogue’s own rabbi and even then their “authority” is rather limited