When it comes to religion, even the slightest controversy tends to have a snowballing effect that spreads rapidly around the world, leading to disputes, riots and sometimes even full-fledged wars between opposing parties. Such were the effects of the scandals you are about to read here that merely a mention of them is more than enough to shock you to the core.
The Book of Abraham
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Mormons believe that the Book of Abraham was a hand written account of Prophet Abraham, as was supposedly revealed by Smith using his Angel given tools to translate a handful of ancient Egyptian scrolls in 1835. Smith claimed that the scrolls were indeed the Book of Abraham following which the church accepted the scripture.
It was only many years later that the scrolls were again examined to reveal that they were in fact nothing but a standard Egyptian text found to be buried with the dead. A number of Mormons left the church after hearing about the fraud which continues to be one of the most shocking religious scandals.
2002 Clergy Sexual Abuse
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In 2002, reports surfaced of several priests in Boston having sexually molested scores of minors. The news of the scandal spread like wildfire to the Vatican, with revelations of bishops moving the guilty priests from one parish to another in order to conceal the crimes adding more fuel to the protests. Reports of bishops also entering into secret settlements to keep the matter under wraps brought the image of the Catholic Church to an all-time low.
Metzitzahb’Peh in Judaism
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Metzitzah is a rather controversial form of circumcision practiced by certain Hassidic and Haredi Jews. The practice involved the mohel or circumciser removing the foreskin and then sucking out blood from the wound as an act of cleaning it.
However, disputes surfaced after it was found out that the act of sucking out blood caused many infants to contract herpes transferred from the mohel. While New York placed a restraining order against the mohels, some people from around the globe still continue to follow the practice of Metzitzah b’ peh.
Lisa McPherson and Scientology
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Not much is known about the church of Scientology except that its influence on many prominent stars and celebrities is profound. However, the church came into the limelight for all the wrong reasons in 1995 when Lisa McPherson, a devout scientologist, died of pulmonary embolism.
The church as well as its beliefs was indicted with the charges of abuse and neglect of a disabled adult as well as the practice of medicine without a proper license. However, the charges were dropped in 2000 after the cause of the death was ruled as an accident by the State’s medical examiner.
Over the years, a lot of religious scandals have threatened to shake the grounds of faith on which they stand. These scandals have led to many people dis-announcing their faith altogether, with many others embroiled in disputes to either oppose or back these claims.