Mr. Rhein, this essay has plagued me for days. I cannot stay silent any longer.

I think it fair to ask: Are children safe in private schools? My answer is NO – and here are my reasons.

89.9% of those convicted of sexually abusing children are white men.

In 1981, reports of boys molested and raped by Catholic priests and employees began surfacing. It was soon clear, that pedophilia was an epidemic in white Christian institutions. For the next 40 years, revelations continued stacking up, one after another. It is far from over.

In 1991, a major five-part investigation entitled "Scouts Honor" on sex abuse in the Boy Scouts of America, a Christian youth organization for boys, was released. Instead of protecting children, the Boy Scouts refused to report pedophiles to the police and the abuse continued.

In 2002, the Boston Globe published over 300 stories about the Catholic clergy’s sexual abuse of children, mostly boys, as young as 4. Instead of protecting children, the church refused to report pedophiles to the police and the abuse continued.

In 2007, it was revealed that the Southern Baptist Convention had also been protecting pedophiles for decades. While experts say that the number of abused children is in the thousands, more than 700 cases of sexually abused children have been documented to date. Today, many of these pedophiles are still working with children.

In 2020, the Boy Scouts of America, filed for bankruptcy. More than 88,000 boy scouts had been molested by scout leaders. Many boys had been molested for years, beginning at age 10 when they joined the boy scouts.

By 2021, the Catholic church had identified an estimated 330,000 children who were victims of sex abuse committed by more than 3,000 priests and other church employees. Over 80% of the victims were boys.

Again, 89.9% of those convicted of sexually abusing children are white men.

Tragically, white Christian institutions are controlled by white men.

For white Christians, the depth of cognizant dissonance is unfathomable. The assault on their identity is brutal. No one wants to be associated with pedophilia. No one wants to be held responsible. No one wants their personal identity dirtied. Guilt by association made the situation untenable.

How do people united by their skin color and religious identity, justify, reconcile, explain, or cope with hundreds of thousands of children who were sexually abused while in their care?

White Christians coped with pedophilia, the same way they’d coped with slavery and racism in their midst – denial, avoidance, projection, distraction, deflection, gaslighting, rage, propaganda, intimidation, and Bait and Switch.

Beginning in the 1980s, white Christians began hiding their identity, by calling themselves “Conservatives”. The Republican Party quickly united them under the banner of the Moral Majority and began manufacturing and marketing myths.

From the 1980’s on, massive propaganda campaigns deflected attention away from the unchecked epidemic of pedophilia infecting white Christian institutions - and the Republican Party. These propaganda campaigns included the 1980s welfare queen to today’s liberal pedophile rings, the gay agenda, conspiracy theories, QAnon, fake news, transgender sports and bathrooms controversy, Christian persecution, and white persecution.

Today, white Christian Conservatives are Hell bent on driving every American child into “private” schools – and making taxpayers pay for the “privilege” of a “religious” education.

WTF do they mean by a “religious” education?

The epidemic of pedophilia did NOT happen in public schools or public institutions, (regulated by our government). It happened in “private” schools and institutions (controlled by white Christian conservative men).

It is fair to ask, what if we measured the damage? Would we discover that sexually abused boys forced into silence, grow up and express their pain in toxic masculinity? Would we discover that mass-shootings and domestic abuse are linked to a grandfather, father, or son who was sexually abused in a white Christian institution – then forced to remain silent? Would we discover the loss of trust in white Christian institutions spilled over into public institutions, including Democracy itself? What if, my fears and suspicions are even partly true?

I have the awful feeling that toxic masculinity, domestic violence, mass shootings and rape are rooted in white Christian culture. I also suspect that conservatives’ obsession with “free speech” and “the 2nd amendment” stem from their unconscious need to protect themselves, from the evils hiding inside white Christian culture.

When it comes to children, I error on the side of caution. I attended a private Catholic high school for girls that provided such an extraordinary education, 97% of students went on to earn Masters and Doctorates. However, up on the mountain, the private Catholic high school for boys did not have similar success – not even close. Years later, we learned that the rumors that leaked out of the boy’s school, were not rumors after all.

Time and again, I have seen that white culture in the eyes of men, like Boris Johnson in Britain and Brett Kavanaugh here in the states. One does not have to be a victim, to be a victim. Just knowing what is happening to another boy, while you are forced to remain silent, infects you with filth. The powerlessness is unforgettable.

Instead of closing public schools, I think it time we put children first, by protecting them. Do not send children into institutions that neither the public, nor our government, can enter.

Religion is invisible and it should remain so. The minute religion takes physical shape, it becomes a prison that locks people inside it – forever.

If anyone here thinks children are safe in private schools, I would like to know your reasons. If whataboutism is all you can offer, I am still interested.

Mr. Rhein, thank you for inspiring me to speak out.