Java is easy to use once you understand it. I can code Java just as fast as C# or Python. In fact C# and Java are close enough to be mutually intelligible. The ceremony is all optional crap that most people don't worry about, it happens to any language used a lot in corporate.
The security issues were mostly in Java applets. The language itself is pretty damn secure. I can't remember the last time I saw a web exploitable issue in the JVM.