In The Faith - A Chronicle of the Christian Faith

This story has been reported by several news sources in the past 24 hours. It’s an intriguing scandal about a remote Pacific island, inhabited by 47 people, and their choice between pedophilia and survival.

Personally in my arrogance and ignorance, I say drop the tradition, close the island, charge the men according to British law, relocate the remaining 40 people back to the United Kingdom or New Zealand.

SYDNEY, Australia (Reuters)—A group of women on Pitcairn Island in the South Pacific are standing by their men, who face underage sex charges, saying having sex at age 12 is a tradition dating back to 18th century mutineers who settled on the island.

A handful of Pitcairn women have told reporters on the eve of a trial that sex with young pubescent girls is always consensual and that the sex charges against their men is an attempt by Britain to close their island, home to a few dozen people.

Seven men, half of Pitcairn’s male population and descendants of 18th century mutineers who rebelled against Captain William Bligh aboard the Bounty, face a total of 96 sex charges, some dating back more than 40 years.

“I was 13 … I felt like a big lady. I wanted it,” Darralyn Griffiths, 26, told reporters on Tuesday on Pitcairn, which lies east of the international dateline and is the last British territory in the Pacific. She was quoted in The Australian newspaper on Wednesday.

But one Pitcairn mother, who wished to remain anonymous for fear of being ostracized, disagreed.

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