A Proposal: Remove All Privileges of Religious Organizations that Exceed

[qazplm135]

29. Because

1. Yes, it is better. One assumes that most of those priests/rabbis/etc will counsel the confessor to turn themselves in. One further assumes at least some of those folks will in fact do so, in part because they felt enough guilt to come in and confess. The alternative is that they do not come in and confess and do not get such counsel. Those who are going to "confess anyway" aren't avoiding confessing because the priest-penitent privilege exists. Those who might not confess, at least some of that do it after confession and counseling/influence to turn themselves in.

2. I didn't say physician-patient privilege, I said psychotherapist-patient privilege. The latter extends to licensed social workers, so it isn't simply restricted to doctors treating patients, it's a lot broader than that. The military for example allows chaplains to operate both as religious figures and secularly as counselors. I'm agnostic and I could go to the Chaplain right now and discuss a problem from a counseling POV. There's more overlap between the two privileges and the purposes involved than you want to admit.

3. Removing the privilege in what way solves any problem? It leads to more police confessions how? It results in more convictions in what way? It might work for about five minutes, then once everyone knows you can't admit that to the priest without knowing it's going to be reported, then those folks are simply going to stop going to the priest, and that's one less person with influence over that person who can convince them to do the right thing.