What's The Connection Between Steubenville Catholic Youth Conferences and The Steubenville Rape Case ?

Not much  I have to think even after reading  My Steubenville - It was a base for the teen evangelical movement, where I saw fundamentalist Christianity's power, and its danger 

The article is by  Molly McCluskey and as you can see is in Salon.

Now there is a lot to say about this article including the lead in (  I am never sure if it is an editor or the author that writes that ) that I suspect is a tad too free with the word "fundamentalist"  right off the bat.

Also there could be a lot to say about the pros and cons of the Charismatic movement in the Catholic Church  which is quite strong at the Franciscan University in Steubenville Ohio.

But what really sort of worries me is the too casual link and it seems guilt by association with the Steubenville rape case that got the nation's attention and the Franciscan University at Steubenville.

Now some of this perhaps is just because of the ignorance of the author that might not realize how Franciscan Univ at Steubenville is sort of an island to itself as to the larger area  community.

Still I am not sure how apt it is to compare her weekends there to a rape case.  Further I think the  indirect association of the Steubenville teen conference movement with this rape case was done in a careless fashion. That might be done by simple ignorance but it seems regrettable .The casual reader might jump to a ton of conclusions.

That being said I am a general fan of these youth conferences and I hear much more good than bad. I also think as to "recollections" of youth we can be a tad dramatic as to both the good and bad. At least I know I can be.

But I do do think the author's experience is a good caveat. The Steubenville youth conferences are good at showing Catholic youth that Catholicism is at it's core a RELATIONSHIP with Christ. They God smack you with that real truth in a big  dramatic way but they only have teens attention for a couple of days. For many these events are really life changing.

However not everyone is going to have the same emotional spiritual experience as others might at the same conference.   That is not a bad thing and Catholicism is a pretty big tent in different ways that relationship can be had. I have a feeling this is a little bit of what is going on.

Note I see Catholic Vote has an article up on this at Huh? Salon Learns Anti-Catholic Lesson From Steubenville Rape

Update- An Alumni and writer at Patheos has a post up on this at An Open Letter to ‘Salon’ and Molly McCluskey