I'm healthful but don't believe in organized health care

Doctors Reluctant To Report Colleagues For Being Impaired, Incompetent - Kaiser Health News

This is a good side-by-side read with clergy sex abuse stories.

It shows that any profession or institution can have misconduct, secrecy, self-protection, and all kinds of other ills. One hears people using clergy misconduct as a justification for lack of faith or, really, failure to practice a faith they claim to have.

When we get hung up on particulars, we are usually just fishing out an excuse to turn our back on some group against which we are prejudiced. "I knew they were like that. Their (beliefs, job, name-your-factor) always leads to something bad."

These abuse and misconduct cases are human problems, not problems-of-certain-people-we-don't-like. We are all part of a fallen race. We all make moral compromises or violate the good altogether.

For what it's worth, an MD gave me one of the best illustrations of responsibility ever, way back when I was being interviewed to go to seminary. He looked at a group of candidates and said, "I have a job where people walk into my office and I say, 'Take off your clothes' - and they do." He didn't need to say more than that. He was warning us that we were seeking positions that would give us influence over trusting people.

That doctor understood that the issue wasn't religion, or medicine, or law enforcement or pick-the-field-you-want-to-accuse. The issue was and will always be the values that shape our actions.