One Data Item Doesn't Mean Anything By Itself

I've mentioned in the past that along with the various studies demonstrating that homosexuals are disproportionately victims of childhood sexual abuse (which at least suggests that for some it may be a factor in determining adult sexual orientation).  I have also mentioned that some rather prominent homosexuals have described being sexually abused as children, but denying that it played any part in their current preferences.

I was looking for some information on the hero of the 2007 New Life Church tragedy, Jeanne Assam, a member of the church who shot the psychotic mass murderer who had entered the church with a rifle and 1000 rounds of ammunition.  I knew that within a couple of years, she had left New Life Church, feeling that she was shunned because she was coming to grips with her homosexuality.  I grieve for her situation.  But then I found this article giving a bit more background on her life:

As a kid in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, Jeanne Assam went to church on Sundays. Mom went regularly, which meant Jeanne had to go. Her parents were well-known around the city, though they weren’t always home, and Jeanne was often left in other people’s care. When she was four, she was sexually abused for the first time. When she was 14, an elder at her church molested her. When he told her not to tell, she didn’t. This was a man of God, and she was just a child. Who would people believe? The abuse continued for years.

Yeah, just another one of those coincidences, I guess.

Molesting kids starts many of them down a path of destruction: major depression; substance abuse; prematurely sexualized behavior; attempted suicide, and based on the studies that are increasingly coming out, adult homosexuality.  There needs to be a really major to get people aware of the damage that is being done.