There was a rather large elephant in the room at church on Sunday. Sullivan believes that child abusers are repressed gay men. I don't buy it and was rather surprised that a gay man wrote that. Child abusers are broken individuals, who were often abused themselves as children. But I have been following Sullivan's other posts on the church and largely agree with them.
The church made the mistake of mixing up sin and crime. Child abuse is a crime, not a sin. Give unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's. And perverts should be given up to Caesar. Crime is not an internal matter. The mistakes are piling up as the church hierarchy gets defensive and tries to rationalize past decisions.