RealTime: Clinton Hostage Drama Rooted in Sex Abuse

The hostage crisis at Clinton campaign headquarters in New Hampshire proves once again why reality trumps dogma when it comes to human sexuality.

Tim Grieve at Salon reports on the alleged sexual molestation by Catholic priests of the man, Lee Eisenberg, who held hostages in Clinton campaign headquarters yesterday.

Leeland Eli Eisenberg, the man arrested tonight after taking hostages at Hillary Clinton's campaign office in Rochester, N.H., appears to have served time in prison for aggravated rape and filed a lawsuit in 2002 alleging that he had been molested 20 years earlier by a Catholic priest in Massachusetts.

The suit alleged that Eisenberg was 21, "homeless and living in abandoned cars in a local junk yard" when he sought help at a Catholic parish in Westford, Mass. A priest offered him work at the parish in exchange for room and board until he could get back on his feet, the lawsuit alleged.

While Eisenberg was living and working at the parish, the lawsuit alleged, a second priest would frequently take him to dinner, buy him drinks, then return to the parish afterward for more drinks. The priest would then "bring out a box of pornographic material, sit behind Plaintiff on a couch, pull out pornographic pictures and magazines and insist the Plaintiff look at the pornographic materials. [The priest] would then sexually molest the Plaintiff."

The lawsuit alleged that the priest molested Eisenberg at a "peep show" in Boston and attempted to "rape" him after he'd been picked up drunk by local police. After that incident, the lawsuit alleged, Eisenberg fled the parish and, a short while later, attempted to kill himself by jumping off a bridge in Ayer, Mass.

Once again we see the reality of sexual repression, the abuse of power in sexual relationships, the ability for the powerful to prey on people perceived as weak, and the horrifying results in one man's life, and the harm he in turn is guilty of inflicting on others.

"Pro-life" forces who accuse women of crimes for exercising their rights to bodily autonomy, deny comprehensive sexuality education, and would prohibit the use of contraception if given the power to do so, need to understand the correlation between denying people the right to healthy, respectful, informed choices about natural human sexuality and the painful consequences of sexual dysfunction.