A rant. I have posted before about non-Christian abuse but now I have questions to ask

[intaglio]

47. Nice selection bias

But first I'll deal with your general point;

Unquestioning obedience to the hierarchy means precisely that, it means that there are no courts of appeal except God. Police, doctors even the NSA can, at some point, be called to account and can be questioned by people who can still 'benefit' from those services; question the Pope or your minister and you can be refused the supposed benefits of your faith - because obedience to authority is a part of faith. If you video a minister being a racist then the chances are that nothing will happen within the church; do so for any other group you named and there are consequences within the group as well as the legal consequences.

Now to the selection bias in the example you chose; it was a wonderful result for your family but look at the counter example, the woman for whom the medical opinion is correct. The doctor removes her from his list but he cannot have her refused medical treatment he can only refuse to take responsibility for the consequences of her actions. The person making the choice to continue is not forced to seek help from homeopaths and acupuncturists, she will receive medical care until her death. It is the cases where the mother and/or child dies that you do not hear about because the result is not wonderful and inspiring but tragic.

To your point about campaigns in the wider world, it is true that some churches are not anti-marijuana but several are (start looking at the churches who support alcohol prohibition); the difficulty is I am not talking about the wider world, I am talking about the failings of churches within the Church. It is these congregations, such as the abhorrent "Prosperity Gospel", that need to be preached into insignificance; the churches that support Daniel and Debbie Pearl must be anathematised until they admit that child abuse is not a valid parenting tactic; it is churches that must campaign to have the ACE boarding schools brought back into State oversight because it was other churches that got these torture chambers a pass.

Just saying "Oh, it's part of a wider problem," is to ask the State to take part in the policing of faith and abrogates the responsibility of the Liberal Church to speak out.