To be fair, this kind of sexual abuse happens in other religions in the US. All churches, including non-denominational ones, need to clean house.
True, but not on the scale of the Catholic church.
This is simply due to the difference in organization. Protestant churches, both non denominational and denominational (say, Southern Baptist) are not hierarchial. Rather, each church is totally independent.
Thus, sex criminals cannot be transferred from church to church. They can, however, be allowed to resign in "good standing" where they are free to re-apply somewhere else. Even still, cover ups are still smaller in scale.
Another contributing factor is that Protestant churches are governed locally. As a church board personally knows the victims, they are less likely to tolerate sex abuse. As the criminal can't be transferred, he is fired. That does not mean that all protestant churches have informed the police, and there could be more than a few "quiet resignations". But cover ups are still smaller.
The only churches that have the hierarchical ability to transfer sex criminals maybe be Mormon (even here, I don't know if Mormon bishops truly have the authority to transfer ministers. Each church may do its own hiring) and Orthodox churches.
Each national Orthodox church, however, Russian, Greek, etc. or subgroup is independent giving a bishop more limited transfer ability. Likewise, I have a vague belief that Orthodox churches might traditionaly allow local parishes more say in selecting priests. Thus, Saint Sofia's parish might be able to say that they are not looking for a new priest right now and refuse a transfer for any motive.
This is not to say that Orthodox churches have always informed the police, that there have been no criminals transferred, or criminal allowed to quietly go "in active", but such things are simply smaller in scale.
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