tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38741235976232597182024-03-17T16:21:17.346-05:00Stop Baptist PredatorsShining light on Baptist clergy sex abuseChrista Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04560409585720043015noreply@blogger.comBlogger572125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3874123597623259718.post-34294454637048667852017-01-25T18:17:00.000-06:002017-11-01T18:59:30.450-05:00Hopeless and Hopeful: Reflections on the past and thoughts for the future<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">A decade ago, when I first began calling on Baptists to institute
protective measures against clergy sex predators, some people warned me that “Baptists
are hopeless.” But I was an optimist.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri";">I thought that, if only Baptists understood the extent of the problem,
they would surely choose to implement clergy accountability systems similar to
those that exist in other major faith groups.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri";">I was wrong.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri";">I thought that, if only Baptists understood the soul-murdering trauma
that comes from sexual abuse by clergy, they would take action to better prevent
the harm and minister to the wounded.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri";">Again, I was wrong.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri";">The inaction of Baptists derives not from a failure of understanding
but from a denominational lack of will and a surfeit of institutional
self-protection.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri";">Does the fact that I was so wrong mean that this decade of effort in
Baptistland has been of no value? Far from it.</span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">Gains during the last 10 years</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri";">Over the past decade, there have been over 560,000 pageviews on this
blog, and even more on the </span><a href="http://stopbaptistpredators.org/index.htm" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue; font-family: "calibri";">StopBaptistPredators.org</span></a><span style="font-family: "calibri";"> website (which I stopped
maintaining in 2012). So a whole lot of people have been made aware of this
systemic problem in Baptistland, and many have seen the cruelty that resides at
the heart of this faith group -- the cruelty of turning a deaf ear to those sexually
savaged by clergy and of leaving children as sitting ducks for predatory
pastors.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri";">Over the past decade, many journalists have become more savvy in
understanding the dynamics of clergy abuse cover-ups in Baptistland. I will
always feel grateful for the few journalists who were at the forefront in chronicling
Baptist clergy abuse stories, and now, the next generation’s </span><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";"> </span></span><span style="font-family: "calibri";">journalists are more attuned. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri";">Over the past decade, more attorneys have begun exploring avenues for
legal accountability in Baptist abuse cases. For the first time ever, a </span><a href="http://stopbaptistpredators.blogspot.com/2014/01/125-million-verdict-shows-change-is.html" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue; font-family: "calibri";">jury verdict</span></a><span style="font-family: "calibri";"> was handed down against a statewide Baptist
denominational entity, and you can bet that we will see more of such </span><a href="http://stopbaptistpredators.blogspot.com/2015/11/frankly-this-ruling-is-appropriate.html" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue; font-family: "calibri";">“appropriate”</span></a><span style="font-family: "calibri";"> rulings in the future. I’ve been told that Baptist
denominational entities have settled other abuse claims, and though it sadly
seems that Baptists are still using confidentiality agreements, even with such secrecy,
the spending of denominational dollars on defense will eventually have an impact.
The tenacity and creativity of America’s trial lawyers will someday bring
Baptists into the movement for clergy accountability.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri";">Over the past decade, other </span><a href="http://thewartburgwatch.com/2016/11/16/memphis-victims-snap-boz-tchividjian-and-the-sbc-pastor-who-allegedly-claimed-gay-teen-wanted-to-be-molested/" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue; font-family: "calibri";">bloggers</span></a><span style="font-family: "calibri";"> and </span><a href="http://watchkeep.blogspot.com/2016/11/courage-begets-courage-in-memphis.html" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue; font-family: "calibri";">advocates</span></a><span style="font-family: "calibri";"> have begun to speak out about Baptist clergy sex abuse
cover-ups, and no doubt, more will follow. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri";">Over the past decade, the world’s largest clergy abuse survivor network,
</span><a href="http://www.snapnetwork.org/" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue; font-family: "calibri";">SNAP</span></a><span style="font-family: "calibri";">, has increased
outreach efforts to Baptist abuse survivors, and recently, SNAP </span><a href="http://stopbaptistpredators.blogspot.com/2016/06/snap-prediction-next-spotlight-style.html" target="_blank"><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: "calibri";">predicted</span></span></a><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";"> that the next </span></span><a href="http://stopbaptistpredators.blogspot.com/2016/02/spotlight-lessons-to-be-learned.html" target="_blank"><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: "calibri";">“Spotlight”-</span></span></a><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">style </span></span><span lang="EN" style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">exposé would likely focus on the Southern Baptist
Convention.</span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">Over the past decade, Baptist churches themselves have begun adopting policies
for dealing with clergy sex abuse. One prominent pastor estimated that, ten
years ago, </span></span><a href="http://sbcvoices.com/grace-sexual-predation-and-dealing-with-the-past/" target="_blank"><span lang="EN" style="margin: 0px;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: "calibri";">“probably much less than 1%”</span></span></a><span lang="EN" style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";"> had any kind of policy at all. Now, at least some
churches do. The policies tend to be inherently inadequate and often little
more than window-dressing -- for reasons I’ll talk about below -- but ten years
ago, most in Baptistland were denying even the existence of a problem.</span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">Finally, and most importantly, over the past decade, hundreds of Baptist
clergy abuse survivors have begun their own healing journeys and have realized
that they are far from alone in what was done to them -- done to them not only
by the sexual abuse of predatory pastors but also by the re-victimizing complicity
of countless other Baptist leaders. Some of their stories have been reported in
the media; most have not. But this much I know for sure: What will someday
bring change to this recalcitrant faith group is not the preached platitudes of
Baptist leaders but the cumulative courage of clergy abuse survivors. This is
where hope resides -- in the terrible truth of survivors’ stories.</span></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN" style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">Backward steps in 2016</span></span></b></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">Despite the decade's many gains, 2016 was a year in which that
</span></span><a href="http://stopbaptistpredators.blogspot.com/2009/12/are-baptists-hopeless.html" target="_blank"><span lang="EN" style="margin: 0px;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: "calibri";">“hopeless”</span></span></a><span lang="EN" style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";"> word often took hold in my head. Not only was
there the continuing flood of clergy abuse </span></span><span style="font-family: "calibri";">cases with the same awful</span><a href="https://medium.com/@michael_hansen/how-the-church-conspired-to-cover-up-my-sexual-abuse-f748638e5c56#.2phmcgrwh" target="_blank"><span lang="EN" style="margin: 0px;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: "calibri";"> patterns</span></span></a><span lang="EN" style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";"> of cover-ups and do-nothingness</span></span><span style="font-family: "calibri";">,</span><span lang="EN" style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";"> but there were also institutional decisions that made the Baptist badlands
seem even bleaker.</span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">For starters, in 2016, the Southern Baptist Convention, this country’s
largest Protestant faith group, </span></span><a href="http://stopbaptistpredators.blogspot.com/2016/06/southern-baptists-elect-clergy-sex.html" target="_blank"><span lang="EN" style="margin: 0px;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: "calibri";">elected a known clergy sex abuse cover-upper</span></span></a><span lang="EN" style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";"> as its president. It
was as though the cover-up of child sex crimes had rendered the pastor promotion-worthy
rather than making him subject to accountability.</span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">The Baptist General Convention of Texas, the largest statewide Baptist
denominational entity, </span></span><a href="https://www.baptiststandard.com/news/texas/18825-bgct-sexual-misconduct-policy-replaces-file-with-prevention" target="_blank"><span lang="EN" style="margin: 0px;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: "calibri";">announced</span></span></a><span lang="EN" style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";"> that it was abolishing its confidential file of
abusive ministers. Though the BGCT’s public relations people spun this as a
positive, survivors saw it for what it was -- a step backwards. The BGCT’s file
was always part of </span></span><a href="http://stopbaptistpredators.org/documents/Dallas_News_No_more_church_secrets.pdf" target="_blank"><span lang="EN" style="margin: 0px;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: "calibri";">a seriously flawed practice</span></span></a><span lang="EN" style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";"> -- because the BGCT would receive reports only
from churches (who almost never report their own ministers) and because it kept
the information in a closed cabinet rather than proactively seeking to warn
other churches -- but survivors had long hoped that the BGCT would amend its
practice so as to accept abuse reports from the victims themselves. In 2016,
that hope was dashed.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri";">The national body of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship established a </span><a href="https://cbfblog.com/2017/01/11/the-clergy-sexual-misconduct-task-force-an-update/" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue; font-family: "calibri";">“clergy sexual misconduct task force”</span></a><span style="font-family: "calibri";"> in 2016, and from
initial </span><a href="https://baptistnews.com/article/leaders-report-progress-on-task-force-addressing-sexual-misconduct-by-clergy/" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue; font-family: "calibri";">reports</span></a><span style="font-family: "calibri";">, it appears the CBF has opted to follow the
denominational hands-off model of the BGCT and SBC, with the timid provision of “awareness”
workshops and policy samples for churches. These things are fine but they’re a far
chasm from what’s needed -- and from what other faith groups, including some
congregationalist groups, are already doing. I had long hoped that the CBF
would eventually follow the model of the American Baptist Churches USA, the one
Baptist group that has implemented denominational review bodies and
record-keeping so as to provide at least the possibility of holding abusive pastors
accountable within the faith group even when they cannot be criminally
prosecuted. And, back in 2007, the small Alabama CBF had actually </span><a href="http://www.ethicsdaily.com/news.php?viewStory=11848" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue; font-family: "calibri";">adopted</span></a><span style="font-family: "calibri";">
such a model, giving rise to even greater hope that the national CBF organization
would someday follow suit. That hope is now gone. (The Alabama CBF’s prior denominational
review policy can no longer be found on </span><a href="http://www.alabamacbf.org/templates/cusacbf/details.asp?id=23139&PID=514080&Style=" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue; font-family: "calibri";">its website</span></a><span style="margin: 0px;"><u><span style="color: blue; font-family: "calibri";">,</span></u></span><span style="font-family: "calibri";"> but you can
still see the elements of that policy </span><a href="http://stopbaptistpredators.blogspot.com/2007/11/kudos-to-alabama-cbf.html" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue; font-family: "calibri";">here</span></a><span style="font-family: "calibri";">).</span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">Rationalization for
denominational do-nothingness</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri";">It was particularly sad to see the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship offer
up the same </span><a href="http://stopbaptistpredators.blogspot.com/2009/12/local-church-autonomy-theory-or-reality.html" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue; font-family: "calibri";">“local church autonomy” rationalization</span></a><span style="font-family: "calibri";"> that Southern Baptists
have spouted from the get-go, as though their purported </span><a href="https://cbfblog.com/2017/01/11/the-clergy-sexual-misconduct-task-force-an-update/" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue; font-family: "calibri";">lack of “hierarchical structures”</span></a><span style="font-family: "calibri";"> could insulate
denominational officials from </span><a href="http://www.ethicsdaily.com/news.php?viewStory=8272" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue; font-family: "calibri";">moral
obligation</span></a><span style="font-family: "calibri";">. It is a rationalization that has left a trail of destruction in
countless lives, as survivors have pleaded with denominational officials to consider
their reports and to help them in trying to protect other kids. But even when
it’s too late for criminal prosecution (as it so often is, in part </span><a href="https://baptistnews.com/article/words-alone-wont-stop-baptist-predators/" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue; font-family: "calibri";">because of church cover-ups</span></a><span style="font-family: "calibri";"> in the past), and even when the
accused pastor is still in the pulpit, and even when he’s still working with
kids, denominational </span><a href="http://www.stopbaptistpredators.org/documents/PontiusPilateholdslessonknoxville.pdf" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue; font-family: "calibri";">leaders wash their hands</span></a><span style="font-family: "calibri";"> of the problem and tell survivors
to go to the church of the accused pastor to report him. Not only is this a callous
response in terms of care for the wounded -- akin to telling bloody sheep that
they should go to the den of the wolf who savaged them -- but it’s also an
ineffective response in terms of prevention -- local churches necessarily lack
the objectivity to responsibly consider abuse reports against their own
ministers. This is why Baptist church policies are usually inadequate: Effective
accountability systems require the </span><a href="https://baptistnews.com/article/why-paige-patterson-s-anti-outsider-stance-is-wrong/" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue; font-family: "calibri";">use of outsiders</span></a><span style="font-family: "calibri";">.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri";">The reality of how few cases can be criminally prosecuted and the importance
of outsiders in accountability systems are two reasons other faith groups have
instituted denominational processes for considering abuse reports and warning
congregations. But Baptists refuse to follow this developing standard of care,
and their refusal gives rise to a critical safety gap. Less than ten percent of
child molesters ever encounter the criminal justice system, and so most won’t
have a record that shows up in a criminal background check. So, </span><a href="https://baptistnews.com/article/prestonwood-saga-shows-clergy-abuse-database-is-overdue" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue; font-family: "calibri";">without denominational record-keeping</span></a><span style="font-family: "calibri";">, most clergy sex
predators can easily roam to find new prey. </span></div>
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<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">The simple truth is that Baptist churches are networked in all sorts of
ways and they cooperate for all sorts of other endeavors. This is why Baptist
ethicist Robert Parham wrote that </span><a href="http://www.ethicsdaily.com/news.php?viewStory=8759" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue; font-family: "calibri";">“Baptist
leaders are being disingenuous</span></a><span style="font-family: "calibri";"> when they hide behind the shield of local
church autonomy to avoid taking needed actions to protect children from
predatory preachers.” In effect, by </span><a href="http://www.ethicsdaily.com/news.php?viewStory=9395" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue; font-family: "calibri";">distorting
their doctrine</span></a><span style="font-family: "calibri";"> of polity, Baptist leaders render faith itself complicit in
abuse: “It’s our religion” is the Baptist excuse for denominational inaction
against clergy predators.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri";">Like many, I have come to believe that Baptist leaders’ posturing on </span><a href="http://stopbaptistpredators.org/autonomy.html" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue; font-family: "calibri";">“local
church autonomy”</span></a><span style="font-family: "calibri";"> is primarily a risk management strategy. They have weighed
the </span><a href="http://www.stltoday.com/lifestyles/faith-and-values/fate-of-baptist-pastor-accused-of-abuse-is-in-the/article_f4f2f71c-b0cf-555f-94b1-76d79cc191c3.html" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue; font-family: "calibri";">“responsibility and liability issues”</span></a><span style="font-family: "calibri";"> and, unlike most of
this country’s other major faith groups, Baptists have come down on the side of
trying to protect their denominational coffers against liability risks rather
than on the side of trying to protect kids against the risk of clergy
predators. It is a </span><a href="http://www.ethicsdaily.com/news.php?viewStory=8070" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue; font-family: "calibri";">perverse ordering</span></a><span style="font-family: "calibri";"> of priorities and one that,
shortsightedly, serves only the corporate structures of the denomination rather
than its people.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri";">Without modern systems for accountability and record-keeping, Baptists’
denominational structures enable the secrecy that allows clergy sex abuse to
thrive. A church in Florida should be able to readily learn if a new minister
from Texas has been credibly accused of sexual abuse. But without
denominational systems to facilitate the sharing of such information, it will
reside at best, and if at all, in the closed file cabinets of local churches --
churches that are often reluctant to say anything when another church calls for
a reference for fear of being sued by the very man who has been accused. So they
do little more than to confirm dates of employment. This is such a common
practice that it has a name: </span><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";"> </span></span><a href="http://stopbaptistpredators.blogspot.com/2009/05/passing-trash.html" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue; font-family: "calibri";">“passing the trash.”</span></a></div>
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<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">Networked churches should rightly carry networked responsibilities and
risks. A denominational review board wouldn’t intrude on the autonomy of churches
but would instead empower them. Not only could it provide churches with the
resource of outside experts to assess abuse reports, but with systematic
record-keeping, it could provide churches with better information for better
decision-making. In addition, it would allow autonomous churches to pool the
risk of speaking out about a minister who has been credibly accused but who has
not been criminally convicted.</span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">What’s needed in Baptistland</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri";">Here is what Baptistland needs: (1) a denominational “safe place”
office to receive reports about clergy sex abuse (particularly for cases that
cannot be criminally prosecuted, which is most); (2) the systematic logging of
abuse reports within the denomination; (3) the responsible assessment of abuse
reports by a trained panel of experts who are outside the church of the accused
minister; and (4) an efficient means of assuring that assessment information
reaches people in the pews -- i.e., a database. In these ways, not only would
Baptist churches be better served with shared information about a minister's fitness, but children and congregants would be better
protected. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri";">Someday, </span><a href="https://baptistnews.com/article/change-is-coming-to-baptistland/" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue; font-family: "calibri";">change will come</span></a><span style="font-family: "calibri";"> even to this most recalcitrant of faith
groups, and these sorts of denominational safeguards will seem quite ordinary. People
will look back in wonder at why it took Baptists so long.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">Thank you</span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "calibri";"><br /></span></b></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">Many thanks to my readers over the course of this past decade. I don't plan to blog further at this site, but I will post a notice here when my next book is released. Survivors: My heart is always with you. Happy trails.</span></div>
Christa Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04560409585720043015noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3874123597623259718.post-70699846751590790272016-11-05T22:50:00.001-05:002017-09-30T08:57:00.327-05:00Common misconceptions about the Baylor sexual assault scandal<b><span style="font-family: "arial";"></span></b><br />
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; margin: 0px;">The media coverage of Baylor
University’s sexual assault scandal continues, and I give thanks that the
outside world is keeping the world’s largest Baptist university in the
spotlight.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; margin: 0px;">In one of the more recent news
accounts, the headline proclaims that Baylor’s scandal is </span><a href="http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/baylor-sex-assault-scandal-far-worse-than-previously-disclosed/ar-AAjDJuF?li=BBmkt5R&ocid=spartandhp" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: blue;">“far worse than previously
disclosed.”</span></span></a><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; margin: 0px;"> This “far worse” reality
should come as no surprise to anyone who read the Pepper Hamilton investigatory
</span><a href="http://www.baylor.edu/rtsv/doc.php/266596.pdf" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: blue;">report,</span></span></a><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; margin: 0px;"> released last May, because the horror of the scandal’s scope was
always right there, both in the lines and between the lines. As one </span><a href="http://sportsday.dallasnews.com/college-sports/collegesports/2016/11/02/read-dallas-radio-hosts-powerful-takedown-baylor-sexual-assault-scandal" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: blue;">Dallas radio host</span></span></a><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; margin: 0px;"> recently said: “We knew it was all going to
come out someday. It was a matter of time.”</span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; margin: 0px;">With multiple legal claims now
pending against Baylor, I predict that still more of the ugly truth will come
out via the slow drip of revelations from depositions and discovery. Here are a
few common misconceptions that I expect will be completely debunked in the
coming months. <span style="margin: 0px;"> </span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; margin: 0px;">Baylor’s
failure in dealing with sexual assault is not a recent anomaly.</span></b></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; margin: 0px;">Many have talked about the
Baylor scandal as though it were an anomaly of recent years coinciding with
Baylor’s push toward becoming a football powerhouse. This is a mistaken
assumption that is not supported by the Pepper Hamilton investigatory report.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; margin: 0px;">The reason the investigatory
report focused on only three academic years, 2012-2015, is because Baylor
officials specified those years as the “scope of engagement” when they hired
the investigatory firm, and because the firm stayed within the designated “scope
of engagement,” as it expressly stated on pages 1 and 2 of </span><a href="http://www.baylor.edu/rtsv/doc.php/266596.pdf" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: blue;">its report</span></span></a><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; margin: 0px;">. The mere fact that <span style="color: black; margin: 0px;">Baylor officials
limited the investigatory firm’s scope of engagement to only three years does
not mean that Baylor’s problem existed for only three years. Rather it simply
means that the investigatory firm was never hired to review anything beyond
those three years.</span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; margin: 0px;">One can only
imagine what a predicament it may have been for Baylor if it had allowed the
investigatory firm to review the university’s handling of sexual assault
reports prior to 2012. Why? Because federal law requires that universities
report crime statistics to the U.S. Department of Education, and because
despite this federal requirement, Baylor </span><a href="http://www.wacotrib.com/news/higher_education/critics-challenge-baylor-claim-of-no-sex-offenses-in-years/article_d0802148-d696-11e5-888f-7b2d8839d972.html" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: blue;">did not report</span></span></a><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; margin: 0px;"> a single instance of sexual
assault occurring between 2008 and 2011.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; margin: 0px;">The fact that
Baylor didn’t report any assaults for that four-year period doesn’t mean there
weren’t any. To the contrary, Neena Chaudhry of the National Women’s Law Center
</span><a href="http://www.wacotrib.com/news/higher_education/critics-challenge-baylor-claim-of-no-sex-offenses-in-years/article_d0802148-d696-11e5-888f-7b2d8839d972.html" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: blue;">described</span></span></a><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; margin: 0px;"> Baylor’s “zero incidents” report
as a “red flag” which means, she said, that “it’s probably not true.” Similarly,
assistant district attorney Hillary LaBorde, who works for McClennan County
where Baylor is located, </span><a href="http://www.wacotrib.com/news/higher_education/critics-challenge-baylor-claim-of-no-sex-offenses-in-years/article_d0802148-d696-11e5-888f-7b2d8839d972.html" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: blue;">said</span></span></a><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; margin: 0px;"> it was “ridiculous” to think that
Baylor had no sexual assaults during those years.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; margin: 0px;">Not only do
Baylor’s “zero incident” filings suggest that the university was likely
noncompliant with federal law even prior to 2012, but there is also powerful
evidence that Baylor had a problem with its handling of sexual assault reports as
far back as 1991. That was when Baylor failed to act on a freshman girl’s
sexual assault report against undergraduate ministerial student Matt Baker, who
was later convicted of murder. According to a 2008 </span><a href="http://www.texasmonthly.com/articles/the-valley-of-the-shadow-of-death/" target="_blank"><i><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: blue;">Texas Monthly</span></span></i><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: blue;"> </span></span></a><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; margin: 0px;">exposé, </span><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; margin: 0px;">Baylor not only “took no action” on the </span><a href="http://stopbaptistpredators.blogspot.com/2010/02/loras-response-to-baptist-bill.html" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: blue;">girl’s assault report</span></span></a><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; margin: 0px;">, but it also discouraged her from
going to the police; then a few years later, Baylor even readmitted Baker into
its Truett Theological Seminary. The institutional failures described in that </span><a href="http://www.texasmonthly.com/articles/the-valley-of-the-shadow-of-death/" target="_blank"><i><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: blue;">Texas Monthly</span></span></i><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: blue;"> </span></span></a><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; margin: 0px;">article</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; margin: 0px;"> are quite similar to the failures that we now see
described in the Pepper Hamilton report. If only Baylor had shown some care
when its failures were made public in 2008, much subsequent harm may have been
prevented. </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; margin: 0px;">But it didn’t, as the current
scandal makes apparent. </span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; margin: 0px;">The
football program was only one part of Baylor’s broader institutional failures.</span></b></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; margin: 0px;">In its gross mishandling of
sexual assault reports, Baylor’s institutional failures went far beyond the
athletic program. Yet, over and over again, columnists and commentators have talked
about Baylor’s failures as though things had simply gotten “</span><a href="https://baptistnews.com/article/ethicist-says-football-got-the-best-of-baylor/" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: blue;">out of hand with football</span></span></a><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; margin: 0px;">” while the rest of the university was doing
things right. Baylor regent, James Cary Gray, recently reinforced this
misconception, telling the </span><a href="http://www.wsj.com/articles/baylor-details-horrifying-alleged-sexual-assaults-by-football-players-1477681988" target="_blank"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: blue;">Wall Street Journal</span></span></i></a><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; margin: 0px;"> that
Baylor had been “putting winning football games above everything else.” </span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; margin: 0px;">This notion that the scandal
was only about football got a lot of traction, but it was never true. Worse, it
is a misconception that has served to minimize the true massive scope of Baylor’s
institutional failures. </span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; margin: 0px;">From the get-go, the Pepper
Hamilton </span><a href="http://www.baylor.edu/rtsv/doc.php/266596.pdf"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: blue;">findings of fact</span></span></a><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; margin: 0px;"> refuted this misconception by pointing to
“<i>broader</i> University failings” and by expressly stating that there were
“institutional failures at <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">every</i>
level of Baylor’s administration.” More recently, this misconception was
refuted by Baylor’s first full-time Title IX coordinator, Peggy Crawford, who
stated that football was </span><a href="http://www.wsj.com/articles/baylor-official-claims-retaliation-over-sexual-assault-inquiries-1475693481" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: blue;">“only a small component”</span></span></a><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; margin: 0px;"> of Baylor’s problem and who affirmed that
Baylor’s failure was manifest at the highest levels, <a href="http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/baylor-sex-assault-scandal-far-worse-than-previously-disclosed/ar-AAjDJuF?li=BBmkt5R&ocid=spartandhp" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">including the board of regents</span></a>. Crawford also filed a formal
complaint against Baylor, </span><a href="http://www.wsj.com/articles/baylor-official-claims-retaliation-over-sexual-assault-inquiries-1475693481" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: blue;">claiming that</span></span></a><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; margin: 0px;"><u><span style="color: blue;"> </span></u></span></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; margin: 0px;">the university’s senior leadership had retaliated
against her for trying to do her job of addressing sexual assault allegations. Finally,
</span><a href="http://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/16231776/these-34-voting-members-baylor-board-regents" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: blue;">the regents</span></span></a><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; margin: 0px;"> themselves effectively negated this
misconception when they informed the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Wall
Street Journal</i> that “football players were involved in </span><a href="http://www.dallasnews.com/opinion/editorials/2016/10/31/baylor-regents-say-briles-mishandled-one-case-sexual-assault-reports" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: blue;">10.4 percent</span></span></a><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; margin: 0px;"> of the Title IX-reported incidents during the
four-year period ending in 2014-15.” A recent <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Dallas Morning News </i></span><a href="http://www.dallasnews.com/opinion/editorials/2016/10/31/baylor-regents-say-briles-mishandled-one-case-sexual-assault-reports" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: blue;">editorial</span></span></a><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; margin: 0px;"> asked the obvious question: “What about all
the other sexual assault reports?”</span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; margin: 0px;">Certainly, Baylor did indeed
throw </span><a href="http://www.si.com/college-football/2016/05/18/baylor-bears-allegations-sexual-assault" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: blue;">“all manner of decency to the
wind”</span></span></a><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; margin: 0px;"> in favor of building its
football program. That is clear from the three pages that Pepper Hamilton
devoted to findings about failures in Baylor’s athletic program. But from the
other ten pages of findings, it is also clear that the problem at Baylor is
about a whole lot more than the sexual violence of some student athletes. </span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; margin: 0px;">It is about university
officials who became inured to violence against women. It is about university
officials who essentially thumbed their noses at federal laws designed for the
protection of women. It is about university officials who allowed themselves to
become complicit in violence and in the betrayal of young women charged to
their care. It is about the abysmal failure of university officials to be
forthright in their handling of problems. It is about university officials who
not only “contributed to or accommodated a hostile environment,” but who also </span><a href="http://www.baylor.edu/rtsv/doc.php/266596.pdf" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: blue;">“</span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: blue;">directly</span></i><span style="color: blue;">
discouraged”</span></span></a><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; margin: 0px;"> sexual
assault complainants from reporting.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; margin: 0px;">Federal
law, civil lawsuits and the media are prodding change, not Baptist
values.</span></b></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; margin: 0px;">Within mere days after the Pepper
Hamilton report was released, many Baptist bloggers and commentators were immediately
singing the praises of Baylor’s regents for rising to their </span><a href="https://www.baptiststandard.com/opinion/editorial/19123-editorial-in-a-defining-moment-baylor-leans-into-legacy" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: blue;">Baptist heritage</span></span></a><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; margin: 0px;"> and restoring Baptist values. This too-fast
optimism not only belied the entrenched depth of the institutional problem, but
it also misplaced priorities in envisaging a solution. Rather than beating the
drum for “Baptist values,” Baylor would do far better to focus on the values
that underlie federal laws for the protection of women and to ensure Baylor’s compliance
with both the letter and the spirit of those laws. </span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; margin: 0px;">After all, Baylor has not been
brought to accountability by virtue of any oversight exercised by Baptists. No.
Despite Baylor’s strong affiliation with the Baptist General Convention of
Texas (which elects <a href="http://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/16231776/these-34-voting-members-baylor-board-regents" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">25 percent of the Baylor board of regents</span></a>), we are not
learning the truth about this horrific scandal from within the world of Baptists,
but rather, from without it.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; margin: 0px;">This is why I am so thankful
for the continuing media coverage of this scandal. I have seen no reason to
believe that Baylor’s regents are truly committed to the hard road of
institutional change; rather, it is the discomfort of the media’s spotlight,
the processes of our civil justice system, and the obligations of federal law
that will ultimately prod Baylor into creating a campus where young women who
report sexual assault will be treated with dignity and decency. That day is long
overdue. <span style="margin: 0px;"> </span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; margin: 0px;">Sexual violence is pervasive
and pernicious, and all sorts of institutions have failed miserably in dealing
with it. Baylor has that in common with the rest of the world. But as a Baptist
institution, Baylor has some additional challenges. It is “<a href="https://baptistnews.com/article/a-christian-feminist-response-to-baylor" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">commonplace in Baptist life to dismiss women’s voices,”</span></a> and
this aspect of Baptists’ heritage tends to work against their ability to hear
women who allege sexual assault. Moreover, in Baptistland in general, we have
seen massive resistance to institutionally addressing sexual violence in
churches, particularly when the violence is committed by Baptist clergy. This too
is an aspect of Baptist culture that works against Baylor. </span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; margin: 0px;">It is as though the masses in
Baptistland hold some unspoken belief that this just doesn’t happen in their
world. Indeed, this was one of the findings of fact in the Pepper Hamilton </span><a href="http://www.baylor.edu/rtsv/doc.php/266596.pdf" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: blue;">report</span></span></a><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; margin: 0px;">:
Baylor’s failures occurred in “the context of a broader culture and belief by <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">many</i> administrators that sexual violence
‘doesn’t happen here.’” Thus, the Baylorite belief that Baptist values make them
somehow special is not necessarily a belief that forms part of the solution; to
the contrary, it is more likely to be part of the problem.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial";">____________________</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial";"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial";"><b><i>Updates:</i></b><i> </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial";"><i>"</i><a href="https://www.baptiststandard.com/news/texas/19799-sexual-assault-crisis-could-cost-baylor-223-million-expert-estimates" target="_blank"><i>Sexual assault crisis could cost Baylor $223 million, expert estimates</i></a><i>," The Baptist Standard, 12/13/2016. (Included in those costs are $32.9 million in "legal, consulting and public relations" expenses. Yet, even while spending millions on lawyers and public relations gurus, Baylor has not been able to squelch the stench of the scandal. Not this time. Note too that a prominent donor, who has naming rights to the football field, is considering putting his next installment into an escrow account "until we have transparency, accountability and reform" at Baylor.)</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial";"><i>"<a href="http://www.dallasnews.com/news/baylor/2017/01/27/new-baylor-lawsuit-describes-show-em-good-time-culture-cites-52-rapes-football-players-4-years" target="_blank">New Baylor lawsuit alleges 52 rapes by football players in 4 years</a>," Dallas Morning News, 1/27/2017. ("As hard as the events at Baylor have been for people to hear, what went on there was much worse than has been reported.")</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial";"><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/09/sports/baylor-football-sexual-assault.html?emc=edit_th_20170310&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=61931273" target="_blank"><i>"The Rise, Then Shame, of Baylor Nation,"</i></a><i> New York Times, 3/9/2017. ("The group estimated that the scandal had cost Baylor $223 million in expenses such as legal fees and settlements as well as in lost revenue from projected contributions.")</i></span><br />
<i><span style="font-family: "arial";"><a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2017/09/22/ex-baylor-president-some-women-willingly-make-themselves-victims-sexual-assault/694376001/" target="_blank">"Ex-Baylor president: Some women 'willingly' make themselves victims of sexual assault,"</a> Associated Press, USA Today, 9/22/2017. (Court filing reveals email in which Baylor's former interim president, David Garland, "referred to some women who said they had been sexually assaulted as willing victims" and then cited Bible verses referencing God's wrath on those who commit "sexual sin." Attorney says Garland's viewpoint is shared by other Baylor leaders.) And in another email, Baylor's former regent Neal "Buddy" Jones calls students suspected of drinking alcohol <a href="http://www.wacotrib.com/news/courts_and_trials/garland-s-email-about-rape-victims-was-misrepresented-baylor-responds/article_c3eff9be-fa63-5ccd-b79d-15f540e55124.html" target="_blank">"perverted little tarts.")</a></span></i></div>
Christa Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04560409585720043015noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3874123597623259718.post-12129048763660596632016-06-30T23:18:00.003-05:002016-10-25T17:36:11.124-05:00SBC church seeks to 'out' child sex abuse victims<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-RpYi6XQrdZ4/V3Xr-0IttuI/AAAAAAAACHk/ra_6r09R8zUeulrMhvLYEfOij0vQWgXnQCLcB/s1600/SNAP%2BWestside%2BFamily%2BChurch.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="211" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-RpYi6XQrdZ4/V3Xr-0IttuI/AAAAAAAACHk/ra_6r09R8zUeulrMhvLYEfOij0vQWgXnQCLcB/s320/SNAP%2BWestside%2BFamily%2BChurch.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div>
David Clohessy speaking to the press, along with other SNAP members, </div>
<div>
outside Westside Family Church in Lenexa, Kansas<br />
<i>(Kansas City Star photo)</i></div>
</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: "calibri";"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">A Southern Baptist megachurch that is being sued over sexual
abuse inflicted on minor <span style="font-family: "calibri" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%;">girls
<a href="https://baptistnews.com/article/church-seeks-to-out-minor-victims-of-sexual-abuse/" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">has filed</span></a></span></span><span style="font-family: "calibri";"> a court petition requesting that the girls’ names
be made public.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "calibri";"><br /></span>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">Although sexual abuse lawsuits involving minors are
typically filed under “Jane Doe” or “John Doe” pseudonyms in order to preserve
the children’s anonymity, Westside Family Church in Lenexa, Kansas, has requested
that the court require the children and their mother to proceed in open court
under their real names.</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">David Clohessy, executive director of the Survivors Network
of those Abused by Priests, </span><a href="https://baptistnews.com/article/church-seeks-to-out-minor-victims-of-sexual-abuse/" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue; font-family: "calibri";">described</span></a><span style="font-family: "calibri";"> it as a “stunningly callous” and “mean-spirited” tactic.
</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">Clohessy’s organization, SNAP, has been instrumental in
bringing countless clergy sex abuse cases into the light of day. It was
originally formed by survivors of sexual abuse committed by Catholic priests,
but today, SNAP has members who were sexually abused within many other faith
groups, including Baptist groups. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">Clohessy </span><a href="https://baptistnews.com/article/church-seeks-to-out-minor-victims-of-sexual-abuse/" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue; font-family: "calibri";">stated</span></a><span style="font-family: "calibri";"> that, in his 28 year history of advocacy work, this
was the first time he had ever seen a religious institution seeking to “out” a
minor who was bringing forward a claim of sexual abuse. “I’ve never seen a
defendant try to ‘out’ kids who are still kids in a child sex case,” he said.</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">For those of you who don’t know much about SNAP, let me just
point out that SNAP is the organization whose work helped bring to light the
child molestation cases that formed the basis for the movie “Spotlight,” which
recently won an Academy Award. Clohessy himself has talked with hundreds upon
hundreds of child sex abuse survivors and mostly survivors abused in religious
institutions. He knows the ugly patterns of such cases better than probably
anyone else in the country. Yet, with all the cases he has seen, Clohessy had
never seen a church seek to “out” the identities of children who were sexually
abused.</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">Incidentally, there’s no doubt that these children were
sexually abused. The perpetrator is currently serving a </span><a href="http://shawneemissionpost.com/2016/06/09/family-of-lichteneggers-victims-says-church-knew-history-of-sexual-violence-allowed-him-access-to-kids-anyway-51304" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue; font-family: "calibri";">17-year prison sentence</span></a><span style="font-family: "calibri";">. The fact that he also had two </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">prior</span></i><span style="font-family: "calibri";"> felonies was a factor in
determining the length of his sentence, and it also forms part of the basis for
the family’s civil lawsuit against the church. The </span><a href="http://shawneemissionpost.com/2016/06/09/family-of-lichteneggers-victims-says-church-knew-history-of-sexual-violence-allowed-him-access-to-kids-anyway-51304" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue; font-family: "calibri";">suit alleges</span></a><span style="font-family: "calibri";"> that the church knew the perpetrator was
dangerous and failed to take adequate precautions for the protection of kids.</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">And now … so desperate is this Southern Baptist church to
pull out all the stops in trying to defend against the family’s civil suit that
it is doing what virtually no other religious institution has previously done.
It is seeking to publicize the names of children who were sexually violated.</span></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-KqFow5z4e1w/V3Xs3PxyGRI/AAAAAAAACHw/BIwa--Zm30g9Vr9-T3N3oBb06mB1xuMfQCLcB/s1600/attorney%2BBrad%2BRussell.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-KqFow5z4e1w/V3Xs3PxyGRI/AAAAAAAACHw/BIwa--Zm30g9Vr9-T3N3oBb06mB1xuMfQCLcB/s1600/attorney%2BBrad%2BRussell.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div>
Brad Russell, attorney for</div>
<div>
Westside Family Church</div>
<div>
<i>(photo: Shawnee Mission Post)</i></div>
</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">The </span><a href="http://shawneemissionpost.com/2016/06/09/saying-lichtenegger-court-petition-replete-with-factual-inaccuracies-lenexa-church-defends-volunteer-policies-51326" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue; font-family: "calibri";">attorney for the church</span></a><span style="font-family: "calibri";"> -- i.e., the guy who is pursuing
this deplorable tactic -- is Brad Russell. In his court filing, he tried to
justify the tactic by </span><a href="https://baptistnews.com/article/church-seeks-to-out-minor-victims-of-sexual-abuse/" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue; font-family: "calibri";">claiming</span></a><span style="font-family: "calibri";"> that the family had used “a Pearl Harbor styled barrage
of negative publicity” against the church.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "calibri";"><br /></span>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">As SNAP often does when it is trying to draw attention to a
serious safety problem in a church, it held a </span><a href="http://www.kansascity.com/news/local/article82716232.html" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue; font-family: "calibri";">press
conference</span></a><span style="font-family: "calibri";"> outside the church. I’ll leave it to you to take a look at the photo of that group of concerned citizens speaking out for the protection of children and
decide for yourself whether you think it looks like “a Pearl Harbor styled
barrage.” To me, it looks like attorney Russell went off on a grossly exaggerated
and untenable rant. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">Since Westside Family Church is affiliated with the Southern
Baptist Convention, SNAP </span><a href="http://www.snapnetwork.org/mo_big_baptist_church_tries_to_forcibly_out_abused_kids" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue; font-family: "calibri";">called on</span></a><span style="font-family: "calibri";"> SBC officials, including newly-elected SBC
president Steve Gaines, to denounce the church’s “inexcusable” tactic of trying
to “out” children victimized by sexual violence. But of course, I wouldn’t hold
my breath waiting. Gaines himself has a </span><a href="http://stopbaptistpredators.blogspot.com/2016/06/southern-baptists-elect-clergy-sex.html" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue; font-family: "calibri";">much-publicized prior history</span></a><span style="font-family: "calibri";"> of having kept quiet about an
admitted child molester on his own ministerial staff. Yet, despite Gaines’ known
cover-up history, Southern Baptists </span><a href="https://baptistnews.com/article/advocates-fault-sbc-presidents-record-on-child-sex-abuse/" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue; font-family: "calibri";">chose him</span></a><span style="font-family: "calibri";"> as their leader just a couple weeks ago. That’s
how dysfunctionally oblivious this denomination is to the dynamics of child sex
abuse and to the ways in which its own leaders create such a hostile climate for
those who would seek to report child molesters who prey on church kids.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: calibri;">_____________________________</span><br />
<span style="font-family: calibri;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: calibri;"><i><b>Update 10/25/2016:</b></i> <i>The district court judge rejected the argument of the church's attorney and </i><a href="https://baptistnews.com/article/judge-says-girls-suing-church-can-remain-anonymous" target="_blank"><i>ruled</i></a><i> that the minor plaintiffs will remain anonymous in court proceedings. The judge also </i><a href="http://www.kansascity.com/news/local/article105972327.html#1" target="_blank"><i>denied</i></a><i> the church's motion to dismiss the lawsuit. So, the case is currently set to go to trial in August 2017.</i></span></div>
Christa Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04560409585720043015noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3874123597623259718.post-48797729934090399422016-06-16T20:00:00.000-05:002016-11-06T19:27:53.404-06:00Southern Baptists elect known clergy-sex-abuse-cover-upper as president<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ueuFWhBNKDI/V2NJM04BclI/AAAAAAAACHU/F13hkvncSxwEjC4AOlvwICOe7-KWFcpqwCLcB/s1600/steve%2Bgaines%2B2016%2Bjoni%2Bhannigan%2Bphoto.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ueuFWhBNKDI/V2NJM04BclI/AAAAAAAACHU/F13hkvncSxwEjC4AOlvwICOe7-KWFcpqwCLcB/s1600/steve%2Bgaines%2B2016%2Bjoni%2Bhannigan%2Bphoto.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div>
Steve Gaines, pastor of Bellevue Baptist Church in Memphis</div>
<div>
<i>(photo by Joni B. Hannigan)</i></div>
</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">At its June 14-15 annual
meeting in St. Louis, the Southern Baptist Convention <a href="http://www.christianexaminer.com/article/breaking-steve-gaines-elected-sbc-president-by-acclamation-after-j-d-greear-withdraws/50801.htm" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">elected Steve Gaines</span></a> as SBC president. Gaines, who is the
pastor of Bellevue Baptist Church in Memphis, Tennessee, was implicated in a <a href="http://stopbaptistpredators.org/scandals/bellevue" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">widely-publicized</span></a>
clergy child molestation cover-up about nine years ago.</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">Here's what was uncovered at the time: Gaines knew for <a href="http://www.wmcactionnews5.com/Global/story.asp?S=5840120" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">at
least six months</span></a> that a Bellevue staff minister, Paul Williams, had
molested a child, and Gaines simply kept quiet. He did <a href="http://www.ethicsdaily.com/news.php?viewStory=8330" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">not report</span></a>
the crime to the police, and he also kept Williams’ conduct a secret from the
congregation. If <a href="http://www.ethicsdaily.com/news.php?viewStory=8308" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">a blogger</span></a> had not made the news public, there’s no telling
how long Gaines would have persisted in keeping Williams’ dangerous conduct
under wraps.</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">Nevertheless, despite the
fact that Gaines had obviously chosen to prioritize the protection of his staff
minister rather than the protection of kids, and despite Gaines’ secrecy, the
church <a href="http://www.wmcactionnews5.com/Global/story.asp?S=5840120" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">chose to retain</span></a> Gaines as its senior pastor. Gaines faced
virtually no consequences.</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">Furthermore, not only did
Gaines keep quiet about the fact that a staff minister had <a href="http://www.ethicsdaily.com/news.php?viewStory=8330" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">admitted</span></a>
to molesting a child, thereby leaving other kids at greater risk, but he also allowed
Williams to continue to serve as a counselor for congregants who had been sexually
abused as children. Can you imagine how those people felt when they learned
that the very minister who had been counseling them was someone who himself
had molested a kid? As one woman later <a href="http://www.snapnetwork.org/news/baptist/abuse_thrives_silence.htm" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">explained</span></a> her pain: “That a suspected pedophile might have
been titillated by the story of her abuse at the hands of a since-deceased
relative -- the thought turns her stomach.”</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">It seemed plenty bad enough at
the time that Gaines’ mega-church, Bellevue, had no apparent problem with retaining
a senior pastor who kept quiet about a child-molesting-minister. But leave it
to Baptists to go from bad to worse in dealing with clergy sex abuse. It now appears
that the entire Southern Baptist Convention also has no problem with such cover-up
conduct in their highest leaders.</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">In electing Steve Gaines as SBC president, the largest Protestant denomination in the country has spoken loud and clear: Clergy child molestation cover-ups are no big deal in Baptistland.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial";">__________________</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial";"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial";"><i>See also SNAP's 6/15/2016 <a href="http://www.snapnetwork.org/ky_victims_blast_new_southern_baptist_national_president" target="_blank">press release</a> blasting Southern Baptists' election of new president.</i></span><br />
<i><span style="font-family: Arial;"><br /></span></i>
<i><span style="font-family: Arial;">Update: "<a href="https://baptistnews.com/article/advocates-fault-sbc-presidents-record-on-child-sex-abuse" target="_blank">Advocates fault new SBC president's record on child sex abuse,"</a> Baptist News Global, 6/17/2016</span></i><br />
<i><span style="font-family: "arial";"><br /></span></i>
<i><span style="font-family: "arial";">Related posts: </span></i><br />
<i><span style="font-family: "arial";"><a href="http://stopbaptistpredators.blogspot.com/2007/12/steve-gaines-on-protecting-kids.html" target="_blank">"Steve Gaines on Protecting Kids,"</a> 12/4/2007</span></i><br />
<i><span style="font-family: "arial";"><a href="http://stopbaptistpredators.blogspot.com/2011/04/malignancy-of-baptist-oblivion-to.html" target="_blank">"The Malignancy of Baptist Oblivion to Clergy Sex Abuse,"</a> 4/8/2011</span></i></div>
Christa Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04560409585720043015noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3874123597623259718.post-751337808003037692016-06-07T08:46:00.000-05:002016-06-07T09:03:26.957-05:00SNAP prediction: Next "Spotlight"-style exposé will focus on Baptists<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-oL7jA-E_xeY/V1bKccNCAbI/AAAAAAAACHE/OiiJWv4JnV06DJ6hRt6YiX4m3ASED9fvwCLcB/s1600/David%2BClohessy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-oL7jA-E_xeY/V1bKccNCAbI/AAAAAAAACHE/OiiJWv4JnV06DJ6hRt6YiX4m3ASED9fvwCLcB/s1600/David%2BClohessy.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div>
David Clohessy</div>
<div>
Executive Director, SNAP</div>
</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<i>On June 3, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests </i><a href="http://www.snapnetwork.org/mo_victims_beg_baptists_for_action_on_clergy_sex_cases" target="_blank"><i>released</i></a><i> a letter to top officials of the Southern Baptist Convention, calling on them to create a "safe place" office to which clergy sex abuse survivors can file reports about their alleged perpetrators and predicting that, without action, Baptists will become the next target of a "Spotlight"-style expos</i><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><i>é</i></span><i>. The letter, from SNAP's Executive Director David Clohessy and Outreach Director Barbara Dorris, was directed to SBC Executive Committee President Frank Page and SBC Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission President Russell Moore. Here it is.</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt;">Dear
Dr. Page and Dr. Moore:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"></span><br />
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt;">With the approach of the Southern Baptist Convention’s
2016 annual meeting, we are writing with two requests:</span></div>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"></span><br />
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt;">First Request.</span></b><span lang="EN" style="font-size: 10.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">We ask for the creation of a denominationally-funded
“safe place” office to which Baptist clergy abuse survivors may file a report
about their alleged perpetrators and that the “safe place” office be widely
publicized.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"></span><br />
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt;">Reason for First Request.</span></b><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt;"> It is flat-out cruel for Baptist denominational officials to persist in
telling clergy abuse survivors that they must go to the church of the accused
pastor if they want to report him within the faith community. This is like
telling abuse survivors that they must go to the den of the wolf who savaged
them. It is a response that inflicts additional harm on greatly wounded people
and that turns a cold shoulder to those who seek only to protect others. To avoid
the hopelessness that often besieges survivors who see no realistic avenue for
even making a report, and to encourage Baptist clergy abuse survivors to speak
out, the SBC needs to provide a “safe place” where survivors may report their
perpetrators to people who have the professionalism and experience to receive
those reports with compassion and care.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"></span><br />
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt;">Because of the traumatic damage that is done to them,
most clergy abuse survivors are well into adulthood when they seek to formally
report those who abused them in childhood. Often, their claims can no longer be
criminally prosecuted. Indeed, most experts estimate that less than 10 percent
of child molesters wind up in the criminal justice system. Church cover-ups
frequently contribute to the failure of prosecution because many survivors made
some outcry in childhood only to have their outcry suppressed within the church
while the perpetrator was allowed to move on. Yet, despite these harsh
realities, many survivors still strive in adulthood to protect others by
reporting their perpetrators within the faith community. By providing a “safe
place,” the SBC could facilitate their reports rather than stifling them.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"></span><br />
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span lang="EN" style="font-size: 10.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">As you know, in the past, we requested that the SBC
provide its affiliated churches with the resource of trained outsiders for assessing
clergy abuse reports that cannot be criminally prosecuted and for informing congregations
about credible allegations. These were reasonable requests because realistic
response protocols are essential to the prevention of clergy sex abuse, and
realistic response protocols require the use of outsiders. Sadly, the Executive
Committee declined those requests, claiming that “local church autonomy”
precluded them, and that is why we are now making this smaller request for the
creation of a “safe place” to receive reports. The mere fact of denominational
record-keeping -- i.e., of receiving reports and logging allegations --
presents no plausible possibility of interfering with local church autonomy. </span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"></span><br />
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-size: 10.0pt;">
</span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt;">Frankly,
our hope is that, if the SBC Executive Committee would simply begin to receive
reports and systematically log allegations, there would eventually come a point
when SBC officials would realize the need to provide churches with a
professionally-staffed office for responsibly assessing those reports and for
informing churches about credible allegations -- and would also realize that
providing churches with this kind of information doesn’t violate their autonomy.
In other words, we hope for incremental change. Our view is that an outsider’s assessment
should happen whenever a minister has even a single allegation, but even if you
disagree with us on that, surely you would agree that there would be some point
at which multiple allegations against a minister should be responsibly assessed
and churches should be warned. For example, if a minister had accrued 3 abuse
allegations in 3 churches in 3 different states, would you think this was
enough to warrant a denominational assessment as to whether churches should be
informed? What if the minister had accrued 10 allegations? 20? Surely there
would be some point at which you would agree that denominational officials
should help churches with the provision of information about church-hopping
ministers who have multiple credible accusations of child sex abuse? Whatever
that point may be, the place to start is with receiving reports and systematically
logging the allegations.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"></span><br />
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt;">The SBC Executive
Committee has the power.</span></b><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt;"> Dr. Page, your
predecessor, Morris Chapman, described the role of the Executive Committee as
the “fiduciary of the Convention” and as the denominational entity “empowered
to function” on behalf of the SBC. Therefore, we ask that the Executive
Committee exercise its power for the creation of a “safe place” office for
receiving reports about clergy sex abuse in SBC churches.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"></span><br />
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt;">Alternatively,
the SBC Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission has the power. I</span></b><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt;">n 2008, when the Executive Committee rejected the proposal for a
denominational database of admitted and credibly-accused clergy sex abusers, it
pointed to the existence of the SBC’s Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission
and said that no additional office was needed because the ERLC was “fully
capable” of “the provision of ministry called for by sexual abuse
victimization.” The Executive Committee further stated that “should the ERLC
arrive at a different conclusion in the future about the advisability of
receiving reports of sexual abuse … and desire to serve as the office of
receipt, it may so advise the Convention….” Dr. Moore, although your ERLC predecessor
chose to do essentially nothing for the provision of ministry to clergy abuse
survivors, we are asking you to choose differently and to “serve as the office
of receipt” for reports about clergy sexual abuse in SBC churches. Put an end
to the dysfunctional denominational cruelty of insisting that survivors report
to the church of the accused perpetrator.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"></span><br />
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt;">Second Request.</span></b><span lang="EN" style="font-size: 10.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Dr. Page, nine years ago on April
19, 2007, you wrote a column, published in the </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Florida Baptist Witness,</span></i><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"> in which you demonstrated the antithesis
of compassion and care for clergy sex abuse survivors, and once again, we are asking
for an apology. </span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"></span><br />
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt;">Reason for Second
Request.</span></b><span lang="EN" style="font-size: 10.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"> Writing as the president of the largest Protestant
denomination in the country, you labeled those who were speaking in the media
about Baptist clergy sex abuse as “nothing more than opportunistic persons.” As
was noted in </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">EthicsDaily</span></i><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"> at the time,
the only group that was publicly speaking out about Baptist clergy sex abuse
was our organization, SNAP, whose members are, for the most part, people who
were molested and raped by clergy when they were children. Your words were
extremely hurtful, set a terrible example, and helped to foster within your
faith group a climate of hostility toward clergy abuse survivors. We are still hoping
that, someday, you will understand the harm of what you wrote and will make a
public apology, which we would be happy to receive. </span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"></span><br />
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt;">Conclusion.</span></b><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt;"> Data gathered by the Associated Press demonstrated that clergy sex abuse
is not only a Catholic problem but also a huge problem for Protestants. If the
SBC persists in denominational do-nothingness, we predict that the next
“Spotlight”-style exposé will be focused on the nation’s largest Protestant
denomination, the Southern Baptist Convention. Before that time comes, we
earnestly implore you to at least take the step of creating a “safe place” for
denominationally receiving clergy abuse reports.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms"; font-size: x-small;">__________________________</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms"; font-size: x-small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms"; font-size: x-small;"><i>Reported by </i><a href="https://baptistnews.com/article/victims-group-asks-southern-baptists-to-create-safe-place-for-reporting-sexual-abuse/" target="_blank"><i>Baptist News Global,</i></a><i> "Victims' group asks Southern Baptists to create 'safe place' for reporting sexual abuse," June 3, 2016.</i></span></div>
Christa Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04560409585720043015noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3874123597623259718.post-78706070737832915572016-04-17T15:43:00.000-05:002017-01-15T08:56:26.391-06:00What's wrong with the "sexual predation" resolution<div style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">In anticipation of the Southern Baptist Convention’s June
14-16 annual meeting in St. Louis, Pastor Bart Barber of Farmersville, Texas, </span><a href="https://baptistnews.com/2016/04/15/pastor-seeks-higher-standard-for-reporting-sexual-abuse/" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue; font-family: "calibri";">has floated</span></a><span style="font-family: "calibri";"> a proposed resolution </span><a href="http://sbcvoices.com/on-sexual-predation-in-the-southern-baptist-family/" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue; font-family: "calibri";">“on sexual predation in the Southern Baptist Convention.”</span></a><span style="font-family: "calibri";">
In explaining his reason, Barber </span><a href="http://sbcvoices.com/preface-to-a-resolution/" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue; font-family: "calibri";">wrote</span></a><span style="font-family: "calibri";">:
“What drives me to submit this resolution is my concern that the worst days of
church sexual misconduct may be ahead of us rather than behind us.”</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">I believe Barber is probably right that the worst days of clergy
sex scandals may be ahead for Baptists -- because they don’t yet seem to have
learned the needed lessons from past scandals -- and I applaud Barber for his
apparent recognition that Baptists do indeed have a dire problem. However, I
don’t think for one second that Barber’s resolution will actually bring about
any significant change in how the Southern Baptist Convention deals with clergy
sex abuse. Here’s why. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">1. What’s being proposed is a “resolution.” Nothing more. It’s
just talk. A resolution doesn’t actually do anything. It was almost 10 years
ago that </span><a href="http://stopbaptistpredators.org/documents/SBCletter02.pdf" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue; font-family: "calibri";">SNAP wrote</span></a><span style="font-family: "calibri";"> its first <a href="http://www.snapnetwork.org/snap_letters/2006_letters/092606_southern_baptist.htm" target="_blank">letters</a> to top SBC officials, requesting
specific action, and action is still what’s needed. It is not enough -- not
nearly enough -- to simply resolve that things should be better.</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">2. While the resolution generically expresses disapproval of
churches that have acted in ways to prevent victims or others from reporting sexual
abuse, the fact of the matter remains that the SBC provides no denominational mechanism
by which survivors may safely report clergy abuse and church cover-ups with any
realistic hope of being compassionately and objectively heard. By continuing to
insist that clergy abuse survivors must go to the church of the accused pastor,
the denomination itself institutionally discourages the reporting of clergy
abuse, and assures that, most of the time, denominational officials will not
even have to feel the discomfort of hearing about clergy abuse and cover-ups.
Cases that make it into the media are the bare tip of the iceberg. If the SBC
wants to express disapproval of churches that have acted in ways to prevent people
from reporting instances of sexual abuse, then it must start by being willing
to institutionally hear the voices of those who are trying to tell about such
instances. And that would require a system by which survivors could make a
report to a “safe place” office staffed by people with the training, experience,
objectivity and professionalism to at least receive them with compassion and
care.</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">3. While the resolution affirms the role of “proper
authorities” in investigating sexual abuse allegations, it gives no
consideration to the reality that the vast majority of clergy sex abuse claims
cannot be criminally prosecuted -- often because of church cover-ups in the
past -- and it makes no mention of how the SBC should deal with the many clergy
abuse survivors who, even when their claims cannot be criminally prosecuted,
would nevertheless seek to report their claims within the faith group in the
hope of protecting others.</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">4. While the resolution cites 1 Timothy 5 with its call for
“public rebuke” of "sin on the part of elders,” the resolution itself does not
even attempt to actually make any rebuke of any church, pastor, deacon or
minister. Denominational entities have disfellowshipped churches for having
women pastors and for being too welcoming of gay people, but I am unaware of
any instance in which the SBC has ever disfellowshipped a church on the basis
of a clergy sex abuse cover-up. So, rather than a toothless resolution, it
would be far more meaningful if this were an actual motion to rebuke or
disfellowship a specific church based on a clergy sex abuse cover-up. The
prominent Dallas megachurch, Prestonwood, would be a good place to start.
Thanks to the enormous efforts of </span><a href="http://stopbaptistpredators.blogspot.com/2013/02/people-to-remember-in.html" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue; font-family: "calibri";">SNAP member Amy Smith</span></a><span style="font-family: "calibri";">, it was finally brought to light, as reported
in several </span><a href="https://baptistnews.com/2013/01/29/abuse-cover-up-alleged-at-sbc-mega-church/" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue; font-family: "calibri";">news sources</span></a><span style="font-family: "calibri";">, that Prestonwood church officials had not
reported child molestation allegations involving a staff minister, John
Langworthy, but rather had allowed him to move on to another church, essentially
</span><a href="https://baptistnews.com/2011/08/19/prestonwood-saga-shows-clergy-abuse-database-is-overdue/" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue; font-family: "calibri";">unleashing him</span></a><span style="font-family: "calibri";"> into the denomination at large where he was
able to continue in a position of leadership with children. It was only years
later, after more than two years of effort on Smith’s part and with no help
from Prestonwood or the SBC, that Langworthy finally pled guilty on multiple molestation
charges in Mississippi. Not only did Prestonwood officials, including senior
pastor Jack Graham, fail to make kids’ safety a priority at the time, and not
only have they shown </span><a href="https://baptistnews.com/2013/03/19/pastor-says-let-god-judge-accusers/" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue; font-family: "calibri";">no public remorse</span></a><span style="font-family: "calibri";"> since then, but in a <a href="http://newsok.com/article/3595760" target="_blank">statement</a> to </span><a href="http://stopbaptistpredators.org/documents/JohnLangworthy.pdf" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue; font-family: "calibri";">WFAA-News</span></a><span style="font-family: "calibri";">, executive pastor Mike Buster publicly bragged
that the church had “dealt with the matter firmly and forthrightly” because
Langworthy was “dismissed immediately.” Thus, from all appearances, to this day,
Prestonwood officials seem to think that what they did was right. Furthermore,
since SBC officials made Jack Graham a </span><a href="http://stopbaptistpredators.blogspot.com/2013/06/southern-baptist-leadership-is-lacking.html" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue; font-family: "calibri";">featured speaker</span></a><span style="font-family: "calibri";"> on “leadership” at the 2013 Pastors’
Conference, it appears that SBC officials have no problem with what Prestonwood
did either. Yet, this is exactly the sort of conduct that the SBC should rebuke
in its affiliated churches if the SBC hopes to have any moral credibility on
this issue. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">5. Finally, by using the language of “sexual misconduct,”
the resolution inappropriately (and perhaps inadvertently) minimizes conduct
that should not be minimized. When you are talking about the molestation and
rape of children by trusted religious leaders, and the cover-up of those crimes
by other religious leaders, you are talking about something a great deal more
serious than mere “misconduct.”</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">Conclusion:</span></b><span style="font-family: "calibri";"> The time for mere talk is long past. The
Southern Baptist Convention needs to undertake cooperative action for (1) the
provision of a denominational “safe place” office to which Baptist clergy abuse
survivors may make a report when it cannot be criminally prosecuted; (2) the
systematic logging of clergy abuse reports within the denomination; (3) the
assessment of clergy abuse reports by a panel of experts who are outside the church
of the accused pastor; and (4) the provision of a denominational resource by
which local churches may obtain reliable information about clergy who have been
credibly accused of sexual abuse.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">_____________________</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "calibri";"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">1) The comments under the SBC Voices "<a href="http://sbcvoices.com/preface-to-a-resolution/" target="_blank">preface to a resolution</a>" post are worth reading as are the comments under this <a href="http://sbcvoices.com/grace-sexual-predation-and-dealing-with-the-past/" target="_blank">related post</a> which argues for "grace" to those pastors who handled things poorly in the past. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">2) Thanks to the widely-read <a href="http://www.patheos.com/blogs/slacktivist/2016/04/20/the-revolution-is-just-a-t-shirt-away/">Patheos.com</a> for linking to this post, saying "Christa Brown discusses the limits of that resolution, and what more the SBC needs to do."</span></div>
Christa Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04560409585720043015noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3874123597623259718.post-57954917083898799272016-03-03T19:45:00.000-06:002016-03-09T11:39:46.579-06:00Why Ted Cruz should see "Spotlight"<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-hJVTG9UAWCg/VtjgFkudq2I/AAAAAAAACGM/Y6MXYcMH0kE/s1600/Paige%2BPatterson%2BAP.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-hJVTG9UAWCg/VtjgFkudq2I/AAAAAAAACGM/Y6MXYcMH0kE/s1600/Paige%2BPatterson%2BAP.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Paige Patterson <i>(AP photo)</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">In the same week that the movie “Spotlight” won Oscars, Republican
presidential candidate Ted Cruz created a Religious Liberty Advisory Council
and </span><a href="https://baptistnews.com/2016/03/02/paige-patterson-named-to-cruz-advisory-council/" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue; font-family: "calibri";">named Paige Patterson</span></a><span style="font-family: "calibri";">, president of Southwestern Baptist
Theological Seminary, as one of its members to provide Cruz with guidance.</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">This is the same Paige Patterson who, in emails made public
by the </span><a href="http://www.nashvillescene.com/nashville/what-would-jesus-say/Content?oid=1196003" target="_blank"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: "calibri";">Nashville Scene</span></i></a><span style="font-family: "calibri";">
and </span><a href="http://www.ethicsdaily.com/news.php?viewStory=12262" target="_blank"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: "calibri";">EthicsDaily</span></i></a><span style="font-family: "calibri";">,
characterized SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, as
“evil-doers” and said they were “just as reprehensible as sex criminals.” SNAP
is the very organization whose tireless work helped to uncover the story on
which “Spotlight” is based -- i.e., the story of clergy sex abuse and cover-ups
in the Boston archdiocese. SNAP’s former New England leader, Phil Saviano, is
portrayed in the movie by actor Neil Huff, and Phil himself attended the Oscars
ceremony and took the stage, along with the actors and filmmakers, when the
“best picture” award was announced. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">“Just as reprehensible as sex criminals.” Think about those
words. Can you imagine anything more hateful for a religious leader to say
about a group of child rape victims? SNAP people are people who seek only to
support one another, protect others, and shine a light on the problem.</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">Furthermore, Patterson wrote those words </span><a href="http://www.ethicsdaily.com/news.php?viewStory=12294" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue; font-family: "calibri";">to a
distraught young woman</span></a><span style="font-family: "calibri";"> who, as a teen, had been sexually assaulted by a pastor
who was still in the pulpit. Patterson’s response was obviously far from
compassionate or helpful. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">But it’s not just harsh talk. Patterson wrote those ugly
words shortly after </span><a href="http://www.ethicsdaily.com/news.php?viewStory=12262" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue; font-family: "calibri";">SNAP
requested</span></a><span style="font-family: "calibri";"> that Southwestern’s trustees put Patterson on administrative
leave to consider whether he should have done more in the handling of repeated abuse
allegations against Darrell Gilyard, a pastor whom Patterson had mentored. By
the time Gilyard was convicted on </span><a href="http://jacksonville.com/news/metro/crime/2009-05-21/story/former_jacksonville_pastor_pleads_guilty_in_sex_case" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue; font-family: "calibri";">child sex charges</span></a><span style="font-family: "calibri";"> in Florida, <a href="http://stopbaptistpredators.blogspot.com/2008/08/how-many-does-it-take.html" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">over forty</span></a> young women and
underage teens had made allegations against him -- and that’s just the ones we
know about. According to the </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><a href="http://stopbaptistpredators.org/article/darrell_gilyard2.html" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue; font-family: "calibri";">Dallas Morning News</span></a></i><span style="font-family: "calibri";">, many of those claims had been
reported directly to Paige Patterson, but to no avail.</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">So, at the time Patterson made those hateful remarks, SNAP
was doing the same sort of work to try to expose Baptist abuse cover-ups as
what it had done to expose Catholic abuse cover-ups. And Patterson didn’t like
it. SNAP’s president Barbara Blaine </span><a href="http://www.ethicsdaily.com/news.php?viewStory=12294" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue; font-family: "calibri";">pointed
out</span></a><span style="font-family: "calibri";"> that, even with all the difficult work that SNAP had done over a period
of twenty years, and even with all the hostility that many Catholic clergy had
dished out, no one had ever before called the organization “evil” or said that
they were just as bad as sex criminals. It took a Southern Baptist preacher named
Paige Patterson to stoop to such a low level as that.</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">I can’t imagine why a presidential candidate would want to
seek guidance from someone who has demonstrated such a harsh and wrong-headed attitude
toward a support group for child rape victims. And I would think that a presidential
candidate should have considered the import of the Patterson-Gilyard connection
before elevating Patterson to the role of a trusted advisor.</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">Perhaps Ted Cruz should take a break from the campaign trail, go see "Spotlight," and ponder the lessons that it offers.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">___________________</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "calibri";"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">Thanks to <a href="https://baptistnews.com/2016/03/04/why-ted-cruz-should-see-spotlight/" target="_blank"><i>Baptist News Global</i></a>, <a href="http://www.realclearreligion.org/2016/03/07/why_cruz_should_see_emspotlightem_271860.html" target="_blank"><i>Real Clear Religion</i></a>, and <a href="http://mychristiandaily.com/dr/why-ted-cruz-should-see-spotlight" target="_blank"><i>My Christian Daily</i></a> for picking up this column. And SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, did a <a href="http://www.snapnetwork.org/tx_ted_cruz_gives_role_to_victim_hater_victims_respond?recruiter_id=342" target="_blank">press release</a> urging Cruz to oust Patterson from his advisory panel.</span></div>
Christa Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04560409585720043015noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3874123597623259718.post-92053802919361457102016-02-25T00:09:00.000-06:002016-02-27T11:26:44.859-06:00Spotlight: Lessons to be Learned<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-BaXklVEmHEg/Vs6Vj7NHTdI/AAAAAAAACF8/72_SXEfV0Us/s1600/spotlight.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="201" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-BaXklVEmHEg/Vs6Vj7NHTdI/AAAAAAAACF8/72_SXEfV0Us/s320/spotlight.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">The movie “Spotlight” has received six Oscar nominations,
including best picture, and on February 28 when the Oscars are presented, clergy
sex abuse survivors all across the country will be watching and cheering. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">The story focuses on the </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">Boston
Globe </span></i><span style="font-family: "calibri";">journalists</span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";"> </span></i><span style="font-family: "calibri";">who exposed the patterns of clergy sex abuse
and cover-ups in the Boston Archdiocese. But for many of the survivors who will
be watching, we know the story is much bigger than Boston and much broader than Catholicism. Many of us were not abused by Catholic priests but rather by Baptist
pastors and by clergy in other faith groups. Yet we will all be cheering for “Spotlight”
because we all share similar experiences. We too know the horror of sexual
abuse perpetrated in the name of religious authority and the nightmare of
religious institutions that turn a blind eye. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">It would be a mistake to view the “Spotlight” story
as pertaining only to Catholics. To indulge that sort of thinking would be to
engage in the same sort of denial that allowed the Boston abuses to persist for
so long. The lessons of “Spotlight” are not merely about “those bad
Catholics” but rather are lessons about <span style="font-family: "calibri" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%;">what
one of “Spotlight’s” screenwriters, Josh Singer, called the <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/film/2016/jan/13/spotlight-reporters-uncovered-catholic-child-abuse-boston-globe?CMP=share_btn_fb" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">“collective looking away.”</span></a></span> From
beginning to end, the movie illustrates the natural human tendency to want to
turn away from realities too repugnant to acknowledge, and it shows us the role
that such denial can have in allowing for horrific crimes and cover-ups. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">Clergy sex abuse and cover-ups are not just a Catholic
problem. “In reality, the likelihood is that more children are sexually abused
in Protestant churches than in Catholic churches.” Those are the </span><a href="http://boz.religionnews.com/2015/12/07/spotlight-its-not-just-a-catholic-problem/" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue; font-family: "calibri";">words of Boz Tchividjian</span></a><span style="font-family: "calibri";">, a former sex crimes prosecutor, a
law professor at Liberty University, the founder of GRACE, and a grandson of
Billy Graham. He’s a man who has devoted his life to dealing with these sorts
of crimes and to understanding the dynamics of collusion within faith
communities. Tchividjian knows what he’s talking about, and </span><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/16/us/16protestant.html?_r=2&" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue; font-family: "calibri";">the available data</span></a><span style="font-family: "calibri";"> backs him up. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">I know that Tchividjian’s words are probably gut-wrenching for
many of you in Baptistland, but I beg you to ponder them and to not turn away
from this reality.</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">For those who might like to more closely consider the data,
I suggest the </span><a href="http://www.insurancejournal.com/news/national/2007/06/18/80877.htm#sthash.0M8R2y6Y.dpuf" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue; font-family: "calibri";">Insurance Journal</span></a><span style="font-family: "calibri";"> and </span><a href="http://www.ethicsdaily.com/news.php?viewStory=9149" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue; font-family: "calibri";">Ethics
Daily</span></a><span style="font-family: "calibri";"> as starting points. I wish we had even better data, and I have long
advocated that Baptist churches need to cooperatively maintain clergy abuse reports
in denominational offices so that congregants might at least be informed about
church-hopping abusive ministers and so that we might better understand the
extent of the problem. But the day when Baptists decide to keep records on
their clergy and to systematically share ugly information has not yet arrived,
and that is part of why the data is so limited.</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">But let me be clear, I have no interest in a debate about
whose clergy abuse more kids. The numbers are plenty awful for </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">both</span></i><span style="font-family: "calibri";"> Catholics and Protestants, and for both,
the numbers are undoubtedly the product of underreporting, which means the real
numbers are probably even higher. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">Clergy sex abuse and cover-ups are an epidemic problem for </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">all</span></i><span style="font-family: "calibri";"> faith groups. The problem is facilitated
by individual and institutional denial, and in this sense, Catholics and
Protestants have far more similarities than differences. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">Because the human tendency toward denial is so common, faith
groups need to have systems in place to try to counteract it. This is where
Baptists have fallen behind as compared to many other faith groups. While mainline
Protestant groups have developed denominational boards for receiving reports
about clergy sex abuse, for keeping records on abuse reports, and for warning
congregations, Southern Baptists and most other Baptist and evangelical faith groups
have not. (The American Baptist Churches USA are the exception; even though
American Baptists also profess the autonomy of the local church, they have
cooperatively allowed for the implementation of regional review boards in an
effort to assure a measure of clergy accountability.) </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">This failure to keep denominational records on clergy abuse
reports is a critical safety gap for Baptists because less than ten percent of
child molesters wind up in the criminal justice system. This means that it is
up to the institutions who afford clergy the mantle of trust to also do the job
of policing their ranks and of warning congregations when the risks of trusting
a particular individual become too great. When religious institutions fail to
step up to the plate with their own functional accountability systems, ninety
percent of clergy child molesters will likely slip through the cracks and
church-hop their way to new prey.</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">Every day I continue to wonder how much longer Baptists will
stew in their own denial, refusing to see the depth and difficulty of the
problem that confronts them. Given the </span><a href="https://www.baptiststandard.com/news/texas/18825-bgct-sexual-misconduct-policy-replaces-file-with-prevention" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue; font-family: "calibri";">news released</span></a><span style="font-family: "calibri";"> this week from the Baptist General Convention
of Texas, it appears as though Baptists will remain mired in the quicksand of denial. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">The largest statewide Baptist denominational entity <a href="https://www.baptiststandard.com/news/texas/18825-bgct-sexual-misconduct-policy-replaces-file-with-prevention" target="_blank">announced</a>
that it was doing away with its confidential file of abusive ministers who had
been reported by churches based on “substantial evidence,” a confession, or a
conviction, and was instead going to focus on providing churches with resources
for prevention. Though the BGCT’s file was always seriously flawed in practice
-- because the BGCT would receive reports only from churches (who almost never
report their own clergy) and because the BGCT did not proactively seek to warn
other churches but simply kept the information in a closed file cabinet -- many
clergy abuse survivors had hoped that, eventually, the BGCT would amend its practice
so as to also accept clergy abuse reports from the victims themselves. That
hasn’t happened, and instead the BGCT has doubled down on denominational do-nothingness.
Its press release makes clear its view that the local congregation is where responsibility
for dealing with “clergy sexual misconduct” must rest. (The very fact that the BGCT
uses the minimizing language of “misconduct” says a lot about the extent of
their denial … but I digress.) </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">The goal of prevention is a good one, but Baptists persist
in sidestepping the most powerful prevention strategy of all. Most child
molesters have multiple victims, and so the best means to prevent abuse in the
future is to assure that, when someone tells about abuse in the past, the
report is dealt with responsibly. This is what Baptists are not doing. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">Prevention requires realistic response protocols, and realistic
response protocols must include the use of outsiders. Many other faith groups
have learned this lesson, but Baptists still haven’t. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">For Baptist denominational officials to persist in telling
clergy abuse survivors that they must go to the church of the accused pastor is
like telling them they should go to the den of the wolf who savaged them. It is
hurtful from the get-go and many abuse survivors won’t even attempt it -- and for
good reason. Not only will the local church likely lack the expertise, but
necessarily, it will also lack the objectivity to responsibly consider an abuse
report against its own pastor. In the typical scenario, churches lash out against
the accuser. Then, what often happens is that the pastor is simply allowed to
move on to a new church, sometimes in another state, with few records kept and even
fewer records shared.</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">For those children who wind up being sexually abused by a pastor who has moved on after abuse allegations at a prior church, the fact that the pastor was merely "allowed" to move on and not "assigned" is a fact that does not diminish by one iota the pain and trauma of the children. Nor does this fact diminish the moral repugnance of a denominational system that turns a blind eye and refuses to intervene.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: calibri;">______________________</span><br />
<span style="font-family: calibri;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: calibri;">Thanks to <i><a href="https://baptistnews.com/perspectives/spotlight-lessons-to-be-learned/" target="_blank">Baptist News Global</a></i> for picking up this column and publishing it under "Perspectives." (<i>Baptist News Global</i> is not affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention.)</span></div>
Christa Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04560409585720043015noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3874123597623259718.post-88624349143008257062015-11-16T17:56:00.000-06:002015-11-21T19:59:09.222-06:00"Frankly, this ruling is appropriate ...."A couple weeks ago, the Georgia Baptist Convention held “its first-ever <a href="https://baptistnews.com/culture/social-issues/item/30629-church-denies-negligence-in-abuse-lawsuit" target="_blank">sexual abuse summit</a>” at First Baptist Church in Atlanta.
<br />
<br />
So far so good, right? After all, it wasn’t so long ago that Southern Baptist officials were denying there was even a problem. So the fact of a “sexual abuse summit” sponsored by a statewide denominational entity is a small measure of progress. Some officials have apparently moved past the denial stage ... finally.
<br />
<br />
As part of the summit, the Georgia Baptist Convention posted <a href="http://gabaptist.org/sexual-abuse-summit-resources/" target="_blank">resources</a> on its website, including an analysis done by a couple attorneys called “<a href="https://gabaptist.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/pdf-SAS15-Stds-of-Care-Rising-Myers-Case-6-22-2012.pdf" target="_blank">Standards of Care Are Rising</a>.” The attorneys wrote at length about a clergy sex abuse lawsuit in Florida in which liability was assessed, not only against the local church, but also <a href="http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/2012-05-17/news/os-baptist-sex-abuse-verdict-20120517_1_triangle-community-church-douglas-w-myers-church-planter" target="_blank">against the Florida Baptist Convention</a>. As monetary damages to the victim, the jury awarded $12.5 million.
<br />
<br />
It was a <a href="https://baptistnews.com/culture/social-issues/item/28266-lawyer-abuse-verdict-possible-game-changer" target="_blank">game-changer</a> of a case. <a href="http://stopbaptistpredators.blogspot.com/2014/01/125-million-verdict-shows-change-is.html" target="_blank">I said so at the time</a>. Baptist officials’ “local church autonomy” defense failed. The court refused to allow them to distort this doctrine of polity into a legal strategy for the denominational evasion of accountability. I praised the decision and my prediction was that the Florida case would trigger more lawsuits.
<br />
<br />
But hey -- you don’t have to take <em>my</em> word for it. In the <a href="https://gabaptist.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/pdf-SAS15-Stds-of-Care-Rising-Myers-Case-6-22-2012.pdf" target="_blank">analysis</a> recently posted on the Georgia Baptist Convention’s own website, attorneys said this:<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><span style="color: #cc0000;">“<em>Frankly, this ruling is appropriate -- </em></span></b><br />
<b><span style="color: #cc0000;"><em>and we will see more like it.</em>"</span></b>
</div>
<br />
So make no mistake about it: Southern Baptist denominational officials know that they are not doing enough for the protection of kids against clergy predators. Attorneys have flat-out told them that it was “appropriate” for the court to impose liability on denominational officials in Florida and that we will see more of such cases.
<br />
<br />
The question now is whether denominational officials will heed the words of the attorneys and take seriously their own responsibility, or whether they will they continue to insist that it’s all up to the local churches.
<br />
<br />
Sadly, I think it’s going to take many more lawsuits before Baptist denominational officials will actually step up to the plate. While the fact of a “sexual abuse summit” shows progress, I haven’t seen any change in how the denomination actually responds to reports of clergy sex abuse. This is critical. <a href="http://lacrossetribune.com/news/local/billy-graham-grandson-churches-must-practice-what-they-preach-on/article_fdfc0c69-ed63-5fcd-9e25-2f2f971936f5.html" target="_blank">Response protocols are just as important</a> as child safety protocols. And in other faith groups, denominational response protocols are becoming standard.
<br />
<br />
The surest way for faith groups to prevent clergy molestations in the future is to responsibly listen to those who are trying to tell about clergy molestations in the past. Yet, Southern Baptists persist in pretending that “local church autonomy” is a valid reason for refusing to develop denominational protocols for hearing clergy abuse reports or for even keeping systematic records on them. When abuse survivors try to report a Baptist pastor, denominational officials claim powerlessness and tell them to go to the church of the accused pastor. This is like telling abuse survivors that they should go to the den of the wolf who savaged them.
<br />
<br />
It is a system that doesn’t work. It is a system that is <i>designed</i> to fail. It is a system that inflicts enormous additional harm on greatly wounded people. And it is a system that does no good for the local churches, either.
<br />
<br />
In a denomination whose average church has about 100 people in the pews, the local churches don’t have the ability -- or the objectivity -- to adequately respond to clergy abuse reports on their own. A realistic response protocol must include the use of outsiders. As is done in other major faith groups, Baptist denominational entities should provide the local churches with the resource of trained outsiders for responding to clergy abuse reports and for facilitating the denominational sharing of information about abusive clergy.
<br />
<br />
Imagine a<a href="http://stopbaptistpredators.blogspot.com/2008/11/three-legged-stool.html" target="_blank"> three-legged stool</a>. In most of this country’s major faith groups, clergy sex abuse survivors have three main ways for exposing their perpetrators and warning others: (1) criminal prosecution, (2) civil litigation, and (3) ecclesiastical process. With Southern Baptists -- and with most other Baptist groups -- that third leg is missing.
<br />
<br />
Yet, as the Georgia Baptist Convention’s own posted resources recognize, <a href="https://gabaptist.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/pdf-SAS-powerpoint.pdf" target="_blank">less that 10 percent</a> of child molesters wind up in the criminal justice system. This means that, if a faith group waits for a criminal conviction before removing a suspected molester from ministry, at least 90 percent of child-molesting ministers will slip through the cracks. And though time limitations in civil lawsuits are sometimes more flexible, civil lawsuits also face many hurdles that may make their pursuit unfeasible. Besides, many clergy molestation survivors don’t want to pursue a lawsuit. What they want is for their perpetrator to be removed from a position of ministerial trust so that he can’t hurt more kids. In other denominations, an ecclesiastical process can often do just that, but for those abused by Baptist clergy, it’s typically not an option.
<br />
<br />
With respect to the “sexual abuse summit,” Georgia Baptist Convention executive director Robert White <a href="https://baptistnews.com/culture/social-issues/item/30629-church-denies-negligence-in-abuse-lawsuit" target="_blank">announced plans</a> to repeat the event in 2016. That sounds good, but while it may indicate that denominational officials now realize there’s a problem, there remains a vast chasm between realization of the problem and realization of their own responsibility.
<br />
<br />
Ten years ago, Mr. White was one of the “<a href="http://stopbaptistpredators.org/blind_baptist_leaders.html" target="_blank">blind Baptist leaders</a>” to whom I sent my own report about a Southern Baptist minister’s abuse of me as a kid. Even though my perpetrator had worked in a Georgia church and was continuing to work in children’s ministry in Florida, Mr. White did nothing to help me. Would he do anything any differently now? I doubt it because I’ve seen no documentation of any response protocol offered by the Georgia Baptist Convention.
<br />
<br />
The fact that the first Southern Baptist “sexual abuse summit” was held at First Baptist Church of Atlanta is also of interest. My own perpetrator worked as a children’s minister there, after leaving churches in Texas and before moving to churches in Florida. After I had written to the <a href="http://stopbaptistpredators.org/blind_baptist_leaders.html" target="_blank">chairman of the deacons</a>, and had received no help, and after a second certified letter had been sent to FBC-Atlanta officials, <a href="http://stopbaptistpredators.org/opeds/clergy_child_molesters_should_not_be_secret.html" target="_blank">I finally went in person to FBC-Atlanta</a> to hand out flyers so that parents could know that their church’s prior childrens’ minister had been a man with a substantiated report of child molestation. I figured parents needed to be able to talk with their kids about it. But officials at First Baptist Church of Atlanta ran us off the premises, sent out a tough-guy to try to intimidate us, and finally called the police on us. (Since we were on a public sidewalk, the police had no problem with us being there.)
<br />
<br />
So, my question for FBC-Atlanta is similar to my question for Mr. White: Would the church do anything differently today than what it did eight years ago? What response protocol does it have to assure that any clergy abuse report, whether for a prior minister or a current minister, would receive an appropriate and compassionate response?
<br />
<br />
So long as Southern Baptists refuse to develop realistic denominational response protocols -- protocols that include the involvement of outsiders -- children in Baptist churches will remain at undue risk. When denominational officials have no process for doing anything about clergy child molesters they’re specifically told about, why should anyone imagine that they will be able to prevent the clergy child molesters they don’t yet know about?<br />
_______________________________<br />
<br />
<br />
<em>11/20/2015: Thanks to <a href="https://baptistnews.com/perspectives/frankly-this-ruling-is-appropriate/" target="_blank">Baptist News Global</a> (a news site that is not affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention) for picking up this column and publishing it under "Perspectives."</em>
Christa Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04560409585720043015noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3874123597623259718.post-972040156096940982015-10-05T18:15:00.000-05:002015-10-05T18:52:59.359-05:00Mitigating the trauma of clergy sex abuse<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<em>"A life of wholeness does not depend on what we experience. Wholeness depends on how we experience our lives."</em></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
-- Desmond Tutu</div>
<br />
I felt so honored when retired judge Sheila Murphy invited me to contribute a chapter for a book on restorative justice that Archbishop Desmond Tutu was supporting and writing an introduction for. I had never met Sheila before, but after my speech at the 2013 SNAP convention for clergy sex abuse survivors, Sheila introduced herself and pressed into my palm a yellow post-it note with these words: "Yoga as Restorative Justice." That was the topic she wanted me to write about. I looked at my palm, looked at her, and then said, "Huh?"<br />
<br />
Fortunately, Sheila wasn't deterred by my monosyllabic response. "You may not have used the language of restorative justice," she said, "but I think it's what you were really talking about just now in your speech."<br />
<br />
"It was?" Again, any pretense of wit or wisdom eluded me.<br />
<br />
But ultimately, the more we talked, the more I decided that Sheila was right. It's funny how communication is a two-way street like that. Sometimes, what gets communicated depends as much on what's in the mind of the listener as it does on what comes out the mouth of the speaker. Sheila had heard more in my speech than what even I had realized I was saying.<br />
<br />
So, I wrote the chapter, and the book has recently been released. You can read my chapter here: <a href="https://christabrown.files.wordpress.com/2015/09/yoga-restorative-justice.pdf" target="_blank">"Yoga as a Practice of Restorative Justice."</a><br />
<br />
I'm happy that I could bring this discussion of clergy sex abuse and of yoga's therapeutic benefits into a perhaps unexpected context -- i.e., a law book. Below is a short excerpt:<br />
<br />
"In so many clergy molestation cases, we have seen that, in the churches and communities in which such abuse occurs, little care or thought seems to be given to the needs of the victims. It is as though the crime itself, if spoken of, renders the victims into untouchables. We are left bleeding out in the sands of a spiritual desert while others ride their donkeys right past us. This is the typical pattern. When such grievous wounds are inflicted from <em>within </em>a faith community, then the faith community does not care to look too closely, and so it does not try to bind the wounds.<br />
<br />
"I yearn for the day when we will see more cases that defy this pattern, but I know that we cannot idly wait for that day to come. The bleeding must be staunched, and so we ourselves must do the job of binding up our own wounds. To accomplish that, we can extend peach and wholeness, compassion and care to our own most inner selves. And though no other form of justice may be possible, we ourselves can engage in a form of self-restorative justice."<br />
<br />
Read the rest of it here: <a href="https://christabrown.files.wordpress.com/2015/09/yoga-restorative-justice.pdf" target="_blank">"Yoga as a Practice of Restorative Justice."</a> It's in the book <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1600422608?keywords=restorative%20justice%20in%20practice&qid=1444088392&ref_=sr_1_1&s=books&sr=1-1" target="_blank"><em>Restorative Justice in Practice: A Holistic Approach.</em></a>Christa Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04560409585720043015noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3874123597623259718.post-60976397293193548202015-01-19T11:54:00.000-06:002015-01-19T12:18:04.309-06:00Clergy sex abuse and "the silence of the many"<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span id="goog_946624754"></span><span id="goog_946624755"></span><em>"True evil lies not in the depraved act of the one,</em></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><em>but in the silence of the many."</em></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">-- Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Hello to all of you!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It's been a long time since I visited my blog, but today is Martin Luther King Day and I found myself reconnecting with </span><a href="http://stopbaptistpredators.blogspot.com/2013/01/clergy-sex-abuse-and-silence-of-many.html" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">a column</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> I wrote for MLK day in 2013. It was previously picked up and published by the </span><a href="http://baptistnews.com/opinion/commentaries/item/8150-clergy-sex-abuse-and-%e2%80%98the-silence-of-the-many%e2%80%99" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Associated Baptist Press</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> -- now known as Baptist News Global -- which by the way is <em>not </em>affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention. I think this may just be the best job I ever managed to do in succinctly summarizing the complex issues at work in the problem of Baptist clergy sex abuse and denominational complicity. An excerpt:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;"><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-family: " mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">"In countless stories of
Baptist clergy sex abuse, we have seen the sad truth of King’s words made manifest.
Even with childhood histories of horrific abuse – of having been molested,
raped and sodomized by Baptist preachers – countless such victims have said that
the worst of their experience came when they tried to tell about the abuse within
the faith community.</span></span></span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;">That was when they faced 'the silence of the many.'</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial;">That was when the relational fabric of community, and often even of family, was torn asunder.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial;">That was when faith itself was deemed a fraud."</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial;">Read the rest of it </span><a href="http://stopbaptistpredators.blogspot.com/2013/01/clergy-sex-abuse-and-silence-of-many.html" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">here</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> or at </span><a href="http://baptistnews.com/opinion/commentaries/item/8150-clergy-sex-abuse-and-%e2%80%98the-silence-of-the-many%e2%80%99" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Baptist News Global</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">.</span><br />
<br />Christa Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04560409585720043015noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3874123597623259718.post-926269249385174922014-06-21T12:03:00.001-05:002014-06-22T15:29:10.134-05:00SNAP at the 2014 SBC annual meeting<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-O9thSfK1OPM/U6WzelLfgTI/AAAAAAAACCQ/-D_GTAX8vpE/s1600/SNAP+2014+SBC.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-O9thSfK1OPM/U6WzelLfgTI/AAAAAAAACCQ/-D_GTAX8vpE/s1600/SNAP+2014+SBC.jpg" height="220" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<a href="http://www.snapnetwork.org/" target="_blank">SNAP</a> was at the Southern Baptist Convention's annual meeting June 11 in Baltimore, handing out flyers and urging Baptists to <a href="http://www.abpnews.com/ministry/organizations/item/28808-protestors-say-southern-baptists-not-taking-clergy-sex-abuse-seriously" target="_blank">get serious</a> about dealing with clergy sex abuse and cover-ups.<br />
<br />
The evangelical "good-old-boys" network is just as effective at covering up clergy sex crimes as the Catholic hierarchy, said Pam Palmer, a SNAP member who spoke with the media there.<br />
<br />
This problem is not going away, and the sooner Baptists start responsibly addressing it, the safer kids in Baptist churches will be.<br />
<br />
Thank you to SNAP!<br />
___________________<br />
<br />
<strong>Related:</strong><br />
<a href="http://www.abpnews.com/ministry/organizations/item/28782-snap-seeks-independent-review-of-abuse-handling-by-prominent-sbc-churches" target="_blank">SNAP seeks independent review of abuse handling by prominent SBC churches</a>, <em>ABP News</em>, 6/5/2014.<br />
<br />
<strong>Special Note:</strong><br />
To the person who wrote <a href="http://stopbaptistpredators.blogspot.fr/2011/01/to-people-of-fbc-orlando.html?showComment=1400257410716#c3570691000561994255" target="_blank">the May 16, 2014 comment</a> on my "<a href="http://stopbaptistpredators.blogspot.fr/2011/01/to-people-of-fbc-orlando.html" target="_blank">To the People of FBC-Orlando</a>" post: Please email me.Christa Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04560409585720043015noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3874123597623259718.post-79672538140694114402014-01-23T11:10:00.001-06:002014-02-13T17:42:54.732-06:00$12.5 million verdict shows change is coming to Baptistland<br />
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">Last Saturday in Florida, a unanimous jury </span><a href="http://touch.orlandosentinel.com/#section/-1/article/p2p-78973906/" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;"><span style="color: blue;">awarded
$12.5 million</span></span></a><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;"> to a
man who, as a child, was sexually abused by a Southern Baptist minister. Significantly,
this verdict was assessed, not only against the local church, but against the
Florida Baptist Convention.</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;"></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">To my best knowledge, this is the first time in history that
a verdict has been handed down against a Baptist statewide denominational
entity in a clergy sex abuse case. <a href="http://www.wqmlaw.net/ronald-weil.html" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">Attorney Ron Weil</span></a>
of Miami is the person who brought this </span><a href="http://www.abpnews.com/culture/social-issues/item/28266-lawyer-abuse-verdict-possible-game-changer" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;"><span style="color: blue;">“game-changer”</span></span></a><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;"> of a lawsuit to fruition.</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;"></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">I’d like to imagine that Baptists will view this as a
wake-up call to begin implementing the sorts of systematic safeguards that
other major faith groups have. But Southern Baptists have shown themselves to
be recalcitrant in this arena, and so I expect it will likely take still more
lawsuits – and still more needlessly wounded kids – before that happens. For
now, the Florida Baptist Convention is simply saying that it </span><a href="http://www.abpnews.com/culture/social-issues/item/28255-florida-baptists-to-appeal-abuse-award" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;"><span style="color: blue;">plans
to appeal</span></span></a><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">.</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;"></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">For twenty-five years, I practiced law as an appellate
attorney in Texas. So I know a thing or two about what can happen in the
appellate process and what the possibilities are. But whatever may happen next,
this case has already brought a seismic shift in the terrain of Baptist clergy
abuse litigation.</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;"></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">For far too long, Baptist denominational leaders have acted
as though they believed that by doing nothing, they could protect denominational
coffers against the risk of liability. In essence, they prioritized the safety
of denominational dollars over the safety of kids. Now however, denominational leaders
will have to consider that doing nothing also puts those dollars at risk.</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;"></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">This $12.5 million verdict will
also garner the attention of other trial lawyers, who
will now see that the Southern Baptist wall has been breached, and who will
bring still more lawsuits in an effort to widen that breach.</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;"></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">No more will Baptist officials be able to brag that they
always prevail on summary judgment. They likely had to incur much larger
attorney fees in defending this case in a full trial, and it is likely that many
more cases will go to full trial in the future. With trials, you get the
public disclosure of many more facts – facts that denominational officials
might prefer to keep hidden.</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;"></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">Because Southern Baptist officials have historically prioritized
the protection of denominational dollars, cases such as this are what are
needed if kids are to gain better protection against Baptist preacher-predators.
When Baptist officials are forced to spend down enough of their denominational dollars,
they may eventually see the sense in re-ordering their priorities for
the protection of kids. It’s a shame this is what it takes . . . but it does.</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;"></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">For far too long, preacher-predators have been able to
easily church-hop through this porous denomination because Baptist leaders have
pretended that their version of “local church autonomy” precludes any
systematic denominational sharing of information about reported clergy child
molesters. This religious rationalization has amounted to little more than a
candy-coating on Baptist leaders’ irresponsible inertia, and it has left a trail
of destruction in the lives of countless kids. But Baptist leaders have been
successful with this religious-sounding ruse . . . until now.</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;"></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">On the facts of this case, the Southern Baptist Convention’s
“local church autonomy” defense failed, and a jury found that a statewide
denominational office bears responsibility. Some may argue that this case was
unique or that other cases will be different. But while other cases may indeed
bring other facts to the table, most Baptist ministers bear commonalities by
virtue of their affiliation with the denomination. For example, it is common
for Baptist ministers to be aided in job searches through denominational
services and to be listed in denominational directories. In any event, there
are always variables in particular cases, and this is the very essence of how tort
law develops – i.e., case by case.</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;"></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">In the not-too-distant past, when a drunk driver caused
harm, only the drunk driver bore responsibility. But as the carnage caused by
drunk drivers became better documented, the law slowly changed, case by case
and through legislation, so that those who sold alcohol to already-intoxicated
people would also bear responsibility. Those who gave the drunk driver the
weapon of harm could no longer throw up their hands and say “not my problem.”</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;"></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">Similarly, I believe the law will eventually become more
uniform in recognizing the relational responsibility that Baptist
denominational entities should bear based on how they promote and facilitate
the employment of Baptist ministers. This is, after all, a cooperatively functioning
denomination that takes in over $500 million a year into centralized coffers. Abusive
Baptist ministers are not lone-wolf rogues, but rather, they are affiliated
with a denomination of enormous influence, and that affiliation aids in the
public perception of ministers’ authority.</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;"></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">To a very large degree, it is the denomination itself that places
the mantle of trust onto the shoulders of Baptist ministers, and so the
denomination should be held accountable when it irresponsibly allows that
mantle of trust to become a weapon for child sex abuse.</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;"></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">For far too long, Southern Baptist officials have been
distorting their “local church autonomy” doctrine to serve as what is, in
reality, a legal strategy for trying to shield the denominational structures
from the risk of liability. The doctrine has been functioning as a tactical
construct and not a religious construct. Ultimately, however, the law must look
to how Baptist denominational entities operate in the real world and not merely
to the abstraction of what denominational officials say.</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;"></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">Thankfully, that is exactly what the jurors in this case
did. They looked at reality.</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;"></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">Slow
or fast, change is coming to Baptistland. It is inevitable. I rest my faith in
the justice-making work of American trial lawyers and in the ordinary good
sense of American people who serve on juries.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;">___________________</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;"><em> </em></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;"><em>Thanks to <a href="http://www.abpnews.com/opinion/commentaries/item/28272-change-is-coming-to-baptistland" target="_blank">ABP News</a> for publishing this column!</em></span><br />
<em><span style="font-family: Arial;">See also:</span></em><br />
<em><span style="font-family: Arial;"><a href="http://www.abpnews.com/ministry/organizations/item/28269-snap-leader-terms-12-5-million-abuse-award-against-florida-baptist-convention-historic" target="_blank">SNAP leader terms $12.5 million verdict against Florida Baptist Convention historic</a>, ABP, 1/23/14</span></em><br />
<em><span style="font-family: Arial;"><a href="http://www.abpnews.com/ministry/organizations/item/28352-snap-asks-baptists-not-to-appeal-abuse-verdict" target="_blank">SNAP asks Baptists not to appeal abuse verdict</a>, ABP, 2/12/14</span></em></div>
Christa Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04560409585720043015noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3874123597623259718.post-43776686058033728342013-12-31T03:19:00.000-06:002014-01-17T08:04:22.994-06:00Be gentle with yourself<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-CkgTYOdSIa4/UsKJrSDjI5I/AAAAAAAAB_0/NYG-D_cTEFc/s1600/be+gentle+with+yourself.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-CkgTYOdSIa4/UsKJrSDjI5I/AAAAAAAAB_0/NYG-D_cTEFc/s200/be+gentle+with+yourself.jpg" height="190" width="200" /></a></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">“When the truth is
spoken and it don’t make no difference, something in your heart
goes cold.”</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">--
Bruce Springsteen</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"></span><br />
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Trauma experts confirm the
critical importance of social context in determining how people process
traumatic events. If traumatized people are supported by a caring community,
they may often do quite well even after terrible events. But when traumas are
inflicted on a child by someone who is supposed to take care of the child, and
when the child experiences those traumas repeatedly, and when the child’s
community colludes to deny the reality, and when the child is not allowed to
feel what he feels or give voice to what he knows, then the child’s mind cannot
process what has happened and the trauma embeds itself more deeply.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">This truth about the importance
of context manifests itself in the stories of clergy sex abuse survivors. These
are people who, in childhood, experienced a terrible crime, but for whom the
traumatic impact is typically derived from much more than the predatory acts of
a single person. Rather, when the offender is a much-trusted minister, the
degradation of childhood rape and molestation is often exponentially magnified
by the community’s long-continuing efforts to minimize, deny, and cover up –
i.e., by the context. We have seen this pattern over and over again.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Thus, the context that surrounds
clergy sex abuse makes it a classic context for giving rise to long-term
trauma-related issues. For those who experience such traumas during the vulnerable
developmental periods of childhood and adolescence, the impact is often more
profound than is encompassed within the usual parameters of a
post-traumatic-stress-disorder diagnosis. Generally, the diagnosis of PTSD was
developed in connection with adults and does not take into account the ways in
which chronic, repeated traumas affect a child’s development.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">So, researchers have
coined the term “complex trauma” to refer to the more disruptive and
all-pervasive constellation of problems – problems of mind, body and spirit –
that derive from such traumas. They include such symptoms as hypervigilance,
dissociation, chronic sleep disturbances, nightmares, persistent feelings of
worthlessness, emotional numbing, feelings of shame and self-blame that
generalize to daily life, an impaired ability to sustain close relationships,
disconnection from others, and a rupture of one’s most basic systems of
meaning. These symptoms may persist long after the traumatic events. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Experts recognize that complex
traumas can often be highly intractable and very difficult to treat. Complex
trauma imprints itself in ways that are not connected to cognitive processes,
and so we cannot reason ourselves free. The problem is not all “in our heads,”
but rather, complex trauma lodges itself in the body’s physiological processes.
The <a href="http://stopbaptistpredators.blogspot.com/2013/07/ace-study-shows-correlation-between.html" target="_blank">ACE study</a> brought us staggering proof of this physiological
correlation when serious traumas, such as sexual abuse, are experienced before
the age of eighteen. Like some sort of mutant virus, complex trauma takes up
residency within our bodies, always waiting for some moment of weakness when it
can unleash its destructive force yet again.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">The contextual impact
often compounds itself in subsequent decades when a clergy abuse survivor
attempts to speak out about what was done to them. The truth of our stories is
deeply uncomfortable for many people, including not only religious leaders but
often friends, family and community. Perhaps it is because they cannot bear to
see their own complicity or perhaps it is simply because they prefer the
familiar terrain of their self-told soft lies rather than the seismically-shifted
terrain shaped by the hard truths of clergy sex abuse. Whatever the reason, the
result, once again, is that the context complicates the traumatic impact. The
devastation of clergy sex abuse continues to reverberate through the decades as
church, community, and even family persist in sending messages of “what was
done to you doesn’t matter.” It is a cruel message that gets communicated in a
myriad of ways.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Often, the message is
made even harsher by the suggestion that we should not only heal ourselves but
should also take on the obligation to make everyone else feel better. We are
essentially chastised for making others uncomfortable. And we are expected to
shape our stories of clergy molestations and rapes into less ugly versions that
will not upset the equanimity of the community. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">When so many turn a
blind eye, shame the victim further, and collude in cover-ups, it is easy to
see why clergy abuse survivors often lose the most basic of trust in the shared
bonds of a caring humanity. In the long litany of harm caused by clergy sex
abuse, I often think this is perhaps the most pernicious damage of all. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">In so many ways and with
so many voices, we hear these sorts of messages so often – “Why don’t you just
get over it?” – that we ourselves sometimes wonder all the more about what is
wrong with us. And when we find ourselves dealing yet again with the nightmare
that we thought we had already dealt with, it is easy to get discouraged.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">But for those of you who
have experienced the trauma of clergy sex abuse, know this: What you feel is
normal. And your long, circuitous path of healing is normal. Those who suggest
otherwise are ignorant.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">So when you feel
yourself discouraged, my earnest plea is simply this: <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Be gentle with yourself.</b></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">What you are dealing
with is incredibly difficult. Experts know this. Believe <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">them</i></b>, and ignore the
ignorant.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">My wish for you in 2014 is
that you may feel many moments of respite from what you know of human evil.
And may you have many days of peace, wonder and joy.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">_____________________________</span><br />
<br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><i>Related post: "<a href="http://stopbaptistpredators.blogspot.com/2010/02/so-much-hate.html" target="_blank">So much hate</a>," 2/24/2010.</i></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><i>Great article about the ACE study: "Can childhood trauma shorten your life?" <a href="http://www.alternet.org/personal-health/can-childhood-trauma-shorten-your-life" target="_blank">Alternet.org</a>, 12/24/2013.</i> </span></li>
</ul>
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<![endif]--><br />Christa Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04560409585720043015noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3874123597623259718.post-68414746193522286062013-12-10T19:10:00.000-06:002013-12-12T23:42:37.780-06:00Truth and Reconciliation Needed in Baptistland<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">In the wake of Nelson
Mandela’s death, <a href="http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/12/09/nelson-mandela-demanded-justice-before-forgiving-white-south-africans.html" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">journalist Peter Beinart</span></a> posed this piercing question: </span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">“Why, in
recent days, has the American media focused so much more on Mandela’s capacity
for reconciliation than his demand for truth?”<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Beinart, who
is also an associate professor at City University of New York, presented a
possible answer: </span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">“Perhaps,”
he said, “it’s because, all too often, America wants reconciliation without
truth itself.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">I think
Beinart may be on to something.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">“Truth
itself” can be terribly hard. It’s way easier to skip straight to the
reconciliation part.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Certainly, we
have seen this pattern in Baptistland, where religious leaders are fast to
preach on forgiveness but disinterested in the truth about clergy sex abuse and
cover-ups. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Indeed, in
America’s largest Protestant faith group – the Southern Baptist Convention – religious
leaders are so disinterested in – or afraid of – the truth about the extent of
clergy sex abuse and cover-ups that there doesn’t even exist the possibility of
a denominational process for assessing clergy abuse reports. Nor does there
exist any denominational process for keeping records on how many abuse reports
a minister may have, for informing congregations about multi-accused ministers,
or for disciplining those clergy who cover-up for the unspeakable crimes of
their colleagues.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">One of the
best ways to protect children in the future is to hear the voices of those who
are attempting to tell about abuse in the past. Those voices almost always carry
ugly, hard truths – truths about not only the preacher-predators but also about
the many others who turned a blind eye or who were complicit in covering up for
clergy child molestations.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Baptists
need their own sort of Truth and Reconciliation Commission to bring the truth
of these voices into an arena where they can be heard.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Those who
have been victimized by clergy sex abuse are in desperate need of a safe place
where they can tell their stories and be heard with respect and compassion.
Those who have known about abusive clergy or who had reason to suspect, those
who have been complicit in cover-ups, those who have engaged in intimidation
tactics for the silencing of victims, and those who have followed the direction
of senior pastors to keep such things within the church family – all of these
people – are in need of a safe place where they may now tell what they know,
express their remorse, and do what is still possible for making kids safer in
the future.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Those
parents who sit in pews and wonder about how many of their leaders may have
been complicit in covering up for clergy child molestations – those parents
also are in need. They need a credible outside resource to illuminate the truth
for them – or at least as much of the truth as can possibly be ascertained. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">So long as
Baptists persist in trying to deal with clergy sex abuse “without truth,” kids
in Baptist churches will not be made safer. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">They will
not be made safer by Baptists’ all-talk-no-action resolutions, and they will
not be made safer by hollow pronouncements on the preciousness of children. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Rather, if
kids in Baptist churches are to be made safer against clergy sex abuse, then
Baptists everywhere must engage a sacred commitment to shared truth.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">A faith so
feeble that it fears the truth is no faith at all.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">___________________________</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"></span> </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><em>Some
of my remarks in this posting were previously quoted by journalist Peter Smith
of the Louisville Courier-Journal in
an article called </em><a href="http://blogs.courier-journal.com/faith/2013/08/15/a-call-for-evangelicals-to-confront-sexual-abuse/" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;"><em>“Evangelicals urged to
confront sexual abuse.”</em></span></a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;"><em>Thanks to Frederick Clarkson for quoting extensively from this posting in his 12/10/2013 article titled "<a href="http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/12/11/1261835/-Sex-Abuse-Crisis-of-the-Religious-Right-Grows" target="_blank">Child Sex Abuse Crisis of the Religious Right Grows</a>."</em></span></div>
Christa Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04560409585720043015noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3874123597623259718.post-76392801793627224862013-11-18T20:43:00.000-06:002013-12-12T23:43:51.999-06:00Baylor president writes letter of support for child molester<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-dZaPuaC51OE/UorMCWXkTZI/AAAAAAAAB-0/8P-5nMMvm4A/s1600/Ken+Starr+Wiki.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-dZaPuaC51OE/UorMCWXkTZI/AAAAAAAAB-0/8P-5nMMvm4A/s1600/Ken+Starr+Wiki.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Kenneth Starr</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">Tucked away in a <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/crime/former-potomac-school-teacher-to-be-sentenced-in-decades-old-molestations/2013/10/17/b41ba620-3743-11e3-80c6-7e6dd8d22d8f_story_1.html" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">Washington Post</span></a></i> article last month was the news that
Baylor University’s president Ken Starr wrote a letter of support on behalf of
a child molesting school teacher.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">Baylor is the largest Baptist
university in the world, and Ken Starr is the man at the top. Formerly, Starr served
as a federal judge, as the United States Solicitor General, and as a special
prosecutor during the presidency of Bill Clinton. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">The child molester who
inspired Starr’s letter is Christopher Kloman. For nearly 30 years, Kloman taught
at the elite Potomac School in Virginia, which Starr’s own <a href="http://gawker.com/charlie-gibson-ken-starr-wrote-letters-in-support-of-a-1448317981" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">daughter attended</span></a>.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">Faced with multiple
accusations of having molested female students, Kloman pled guilty last summer to
four counts of indecent liberties with a child younger than 14 and one count of
abduction with intent to defile.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">At Kloman’s sentencing
hearing in October, five victims provided what was described as <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/crime/former-potomac-school-teacher-to-be-sentenced-in-decades-old-molestations/2013/10/17/b41ba620-3743-11e3-80c6-7e6dd8d22d8f_story.html" target="_blank">“harrowing”accounts</a> of the sexual abuse they suffered as kids and of the long-lasting impact it had on
their lives. One woman testified that school officials had been
informed about Kloman’s conduct, but that they merely sent him for counseling.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">“My sense of self-esteem had
been crushed,” she said. “No one thought what he did was bad enough to help me.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">As reported by the <em>Post</em>, “some of the women testified
that they had been through years of therapy after the abuse. For decades, most
never revealed what had happened.”</span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">Despite the enormous harm
that Kloman caused in so many lives, and despite Kloman’s guilty plea, over 90
people wrote letters on Kloman’s behalf in anticipation of his sentencing
hearing.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">Among those letters was one
from Ken Starr, the president of Baylor University. According to the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ken_Starr" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">Wikipedia account</span></a>,
Ken Starr urged leniency for Kloman, and asked that the judge sentence Kloman
to community service rather than jail time.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">Thank goodness the judge on
this case had a good deal more sense and sensibility than Ken Starr. Kloman was
sentenced to 43 years.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">Meanwhile, I’m wondering why
anyone should believe that Baylor University officials learned any lesson at
all from the horrific saga of <a href="http://stopbaptistpredators.blogspot.com/2010/01/it-shouldnt-take-murder.html" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">murdering minister Matt Baker</span></a> – a minister who got his
start at Baylor where officials simply filed away a sexual assault report –
when even today we see that Baylor’s current president will write a letter in support of a child
molester.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;"></span> </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">Why should parents of high-school students feel any trust in sending their kids off to a university whose president writes a letter urging leniency for a man who molested teens?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;">__________________________</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;"><em>Thanks to Frederick Clarkson for quoting this posting in his 12/10/2013 article in the </em><a href="http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/12/11/1261835/-Sex-Abuse-Crisis-of-the-Religious-Right-Grows" target="_blank"><em>Daily Kos.</em></a></span></div>
Christa Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04560409585720043015noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3874123597623259718.post-70837583958260812582013-11-07T21:51:00.001-06:002013-11-07T21:55:51.249-06:00Kudos to Boulder law enforcement!<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-dQH4xAJEUC8/UnxcMd0osfI/AAAAAAAAB9U/9J35uvQlM6w/s1600/Robert+Phillip+Young.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-dQH4xAJEUC8/UnxcMd0osfI/AAAAAAAAB9U/9J35uvQlM6w/s1600/Robert+Phillip+Young.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Robert Phillip "Bob" Young</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">This week in Boulder, Colorado, <a href="http://www.9news.com/news/article/363148/339/PD-Church-officials-delayed-reporting-sex-assault" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">police served summons</span></a> on two pastors and two elders at an <a href="http://www.vinelife.com/who-we-are/our-beliefs/" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">independent
evangelical</span></a> church after an “investigation revealed the officials failed to
report a youth pastor” who allegedly sexually assaulted a child. “A fifth
church official, who is currently out of the country, will be served a summons
when he returns to Colorado.”<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-OunMSn5W068/UnxctG13iWI/AAAAAAAAB9c/P9dgEvHQOGM/s1600/Luke+Michael+Humbrecht.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-OunMSn5W068/UnxctG13iWI/AAAAAAAAB9c/P9dgEvHQOGM/s1600/Luke+Michael+Humbrecht.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Luke Michael Humbrecht</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Five grown men -- all of them leaders at the <a href="http://www.vinelife.com/" target="_blank">Vinelife Church</a> -- and
according to police, not one of them chose to do the right thing when one of
their clergy colleagues was accused of child sex abuse. In fact, police point
to evidence that the youth pastor had “<a href="http://www.dailycamera.com/longmont-news/ci_24466021/boulder-police-ticket-vinelife-church-officials-failing-report?source=email" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">repeatedly confessed</span></a>” to the church officials, and investigators
believe the five church officials “<a href="http://www.9news.com/news/article/363148/339/PD-Church-officials-delayed-reporting-sex-assault" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">knew about the crime</span></a>.” Yet, they failed to report it. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Those <a href="http://www.dailycamera.com/longmont-news/ci_24466021/boulder-police-ticket-vinelife-church-officials-failing-report?source=email" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">church officials</span></a> who now face charges are:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-eDw-_bFe6Dg/UnxczZRjYEI/AAAAAAAAB9k/_Pooci2x25U/s1600/Edward+Charles+Bennell.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-eDw-_bFe6Dg/UnxczZRjYEI/AAAAAAAAB9k/_Pooci2x25U/s1600/Edward+Charles+Bennell.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Edward Charles Bennell</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="color: #2c2c2c; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">• Robert Phillip
("Bob") Young, executive pastor<br />
• Luke Michael Humbrecht, pastor<br />
• Edward Charles Bennell, elder<br />
• Warren Lloyd Williams, elder<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Dx8q4HtnQHU/Unxc546aW5I/AAAAAAAAB9s/y1Y5qUoEwtk/s1600/Warren+Williams.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Dx8q4HtnQHU/Unxc546aW5I/AAAAAAAAB9s/y1Y5qUoEwtk/s1600/Warren+Williams.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Warren Lloyd Williams</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="color: #2c2c2c; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Police say they will
release the identity of the fifth church official at the time he receives the
summons. However, </span><span style="color: #2c2c2c; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><a href="http://www.9news.com/news/article/363148/339/PD-Church-officials-delayed-reporting-sex-assault" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">9-News</span></a> reported that the accused youth pastor, who now faces
six felony charges, is the son of one of the church’s senior pastors. The accused
youth pastor is named Jason Allen Roberson, and the church's website shows that its senior pastor is named Walt Roberson. A photo gallery of senior pastor Walt Roberson along with the
rest of Vinelife’s staff is <a href="http://www.vinelife.com/who-we-are/staff-leaders/" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">here</span></a>.</span></div>
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-3EeaRyfYW3U/UnxdFSiawuI/AAAAAAAAB90/JJRx1EhVWso/s1600/Jason+Allen+Roberson.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-3EeaRyfYW3U/UnxdFSiawuI/AAAAAAAAB90/JJRx1EhVWso/s1600/Jason+Allen+Roberson.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Jason Allen Roberson<br />
(Boulder County Sheriff's Office)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="color: #2c2c2c; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">According to news
reports, the abuse began when the girl was fifteen. She is now 23. As reported
by <a href="http://www.9news.com/news/article/363148/339/PD-Church-officials-delayed-reporting-sex-assault" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">9-News</span></a>, when she reported the abuse to church officials, “the
church launched their own investigation and made Roberson go through counseling
<strong><em>before returning him to his position as youth pastor</em></strong>.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="color: #2c2c2c; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">In other words, it’s
still another case of a church that tried to handle clergy abuse allegations
internally without involving outsiders. It's a recipe for disaster that leaves kids at risk of terrible harm. As we’ve seen far too often, “<a href="http://www.abpnews.com/opinion/commentaries/item/8966-why-paige-patterson-s-anti-outsider-stance-is-wrong" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">without outsiders, you get cover-ups and cronyism</span></a>.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="color: #2c2c2c; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Because it was
apparent that the church was going to continue to allow Roberson to have access
to kids, and because <a href="http://www.dailycamera.com/longmont-news/ci_24475669/victim-sex-abuse-case-feared-vinelife-church-leaders?source=pkg" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">she feared</span></a> the church was not taking the matter seriously,
the victim finally went to police. </span><span style="color: #2c2c2c; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Thank goodness she
did.</span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="color: #2c2c2c; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">And thank goodness for
Boulder law enforcement. “Duty to report” laws are on the books all over the
country, but they seldom get enforced. Kudos to Boulder police for going after,
not only the accused perpetrator, but also the many other church officials who
knew and kept quiet. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
Christa Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04560409585720043015noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3874123597623259718.post-46222929903358758312013-10-27T19:40:00.000-05:002013-11-07T14:42:40.328-06:00Why Paige Patterson's anti-outsider stance is wrong<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-VffO_7fKVG4/Um2tRwOUpcI/AAAAAAAAB7U/0RLlR68DDuo/s1600/Paige+Patterson+fwstartelegram2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-VffO_7fKVG4/Um2tRwOUpcI/AAAAAAAAB7U/0RLlR68DDuo/s1600/Paige+Patterson+fwstartelegram2.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Paige Patterson <br />
<em>(Fort Worth Star-Telegram)</em></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">Southwestern Baptist
Theological Seminary president Paige Patterson </span><a href="http://www.abpnews.com/faith/theology/item/8941-patterson-don-t-take-church-matters-to-press" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;"><span style="color: blue;">preaches</span></span></a><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;"> that churches should resolve their conflicts
internally and should not take them to “the world of unbelief.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">This means, he explains, that
when a person has been “offended…misused and abused” within the church, he
should take his complaint to church elders and the congregation, and should <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">not</i> go to the courts or talk to the
press. In the </span><a href="http://swbts.edu/index.cfm/resources/?action=public:library.details&ID=867#.Um01Xb7nbIV" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;"><span style="color: blue;">final prayer of his sermon</span></span></a><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">, Patterson included even “the government”
among those to whom church members should <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">not</i>
take their troubles. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">This insular sort of anti-outsider
stance is dreadfully dangerous. Yet, for decades, it has been a common Baptist
teaching, and tragically, it is now being inculcated into still another
generation of Baptist pastors.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">Outsiders are essential to
any organizational system of accountability. They bring objectivity and
detachment, and these ingredients are critical for the effectiveness and credibility
of an accountability system. Without outsiders, you get cover-ups and cronyism.
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">Contrary to Patterson’s instruction,
whether the outsiders are “believers” or “unbelievers” is irrelevant so long as
they are outsiders to the system in which the alleged wrongdoing occurred. In
any event, since I don’t credit Patterson or anyone else with mind-reading
ability, I doubt that his believer/unbeliever distinction can be readily
discerned. There are unbelievers in churches just as surely as there are believers
who are not in churches.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">As human beings, we are creatures
with a natural tendency toward bias. When we already feel as though we know and
trust someone, our minds naturally move toward wanting to confirm that trust
rather than toward giving equal weight to a person whose dissonant story clashes
with our pre-existing belief. Most organizational accountability structures now
recognize this reality of human nature and incorporate safeguards against it. For
example, nowadays, when a police officer is accused of abuse, his conduct is
reviewed by an independent panel, not by his buddies in the same department. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">In the context of clergy sex abuse,
the human tendency toward bias means that, typically, when churches try to
handle abuse reports internally, they accept the accused pastor’s word and
minimize the word of the person who brings such challenging information to the
forefront. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">When churches are confronted
with clergy abuse allegations, not only <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">should</i>
they go to outsiders, but they <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">must </i>go
to outsiders. State laws <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">require</i>
that information about allegations of child sex abuse – or even about suspicions
of abuse – be reported to government officials such as the police or child
protective services. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">This does not mean that going
to the cops is enough. While reporting abuse allegations to law enforcement is
essential, the majority of child sex abuse cases cannot actually be criminally
prosecuted. Typically, the reasons are procedural and have nothing to do with
the merits of the allegations. In these cases in which criminal prosecution is
impossible, alternative accountability systems are needed if kids are to be
protected. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">Alternative systems of
accountability are nothing unusual; most other professions use such systems.
For example, an attorney need not be convicted of a crime in order to have his
conduct reviewed through a professional disciplinary process. That process
carries the power to take away the attorney’s mantle of trust and to make known
the attorney’s misdeeds. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">Southern Baptist ministers
need a similar accountability system – one that carries the power to assess a
minister’s conduct and to warn congregants about safety concerns. When it comes
to protecting kids, the criminal justice system cannot do it all, and the
Southern Baptist Convention abandons moral responsibility in declining any
denominational system of accountability. Merely because a man cannot be put in
prison does not mean that he should be allowed to continue in a position of
high trust as a minister.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">Most other major faith groups
now have clergy accountability systems. With such systems, those who have been abused
may at least have the possibility of reporting the clergy-perpetrator to a
panel of people who are outside the minister’s immediate circle of trust –
i.e., who are outside the local church – and of seeking some process of review.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">These denominational systems are
far from perfect and often fail in actual practice. But for Southern Baptists,
lacking even the bare existence of a denominational accountability system, failure
of accountability is virtually assured. If a Southern Baptist pastor isn’t literally
sitting in prison, he can probably find a pulpit to stand in. The denomination
has no alternative system for stopping him.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">You might think the </span><a href="http://www.abpnews.com/archives/item/4096-former-rising-star-preacher-pleads-guilty-to-molestation" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;"><span style="color: blue;">Darrell Gilyard saga</span></span></a><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;"> would have taught Patterson the danger of what
he preaches. An insular approach to multiple claims of abuse and assault is
precisely what allowed pastor Gilyard to persist in predatory conduct for two
decades. According to the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><a href="http://stopbaptistpredators.org/article/darrell_gilyard2.html" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">Dallas Morning News</span></a></i>, many of those claims were reported
directly to Paige Patterson . . . but to no avail. By the time Gilyard was
finally convicted on child sex charges in Florida, over forty young women and
underage teens had made allegations against him – and that’s just the ones we
know about. Thank God a young Florida teen finally went outside Baptists’
insular system and took her report to government officials.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">And what about Patterson’s insistence
that his anti-outsider stance is somehow biblical? If Patterson needs a biblical basis
for doing what's right, then he should look to the first
thing listed by the prophet Micah. “And what does God require of you? To act
justly . . . .” (Micah 6:8) <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">If churches are to “act
justly” in dealing with clergy sex abuse reports, outsiders are essential.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
_______________________<br />
<br />
<em><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Thanks to ABP News for publishing this posting as a </span></em><a href="http://www.abpnews.com/opinion/commentaries/item/8966-why-paige-patterson-s-anti-outsider-stance-is-wrong" target="_blank"><em><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">guest column</span></em></a><em><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> and for linking to it in <a href="http://www.abpnews.com/culture/social-issues/item/8974-pastor-resigns-amid-abuse-allegations" target="_blank">still another</a> Baptist clergy abuse story the very next day, demonstrating yet again why Baptists so desperately need to adopt effective accountability systems.</span></em><br />
<em><span style="font-family: Arial;"></span></em><br />
<em><span style="font-family: Arial;">Thanks also to <a href="http://www.nonprofitquarterly.org/management/23208-the-dangers-of-keeping-organizational-secrets.html" target="_blank">Nonprofit Quarterly</a> for quoting extensively from this published column in an 11/7/2013 article by Rick Cohen on "The Dangers of Keeping Organizational Secrets."</span></em><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;"></span><br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;"><em>Related post: </em></span><em><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;"><a href="http://stopbaptistpredators.blogspot.com/2011/11/penn-state-lesson-for-baptists.html" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">Penn State lesson for Baptists: Outsiders needed for oversight</span></a></span></em></div>
Christa Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04560409585720043015noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3874123597623259718.post-60882859529525386482013-09-27T20:16:00.000-05:002013-09-28T12:37:09.963-05:00Evangelicals "worse" than Catholics on sexual abuse<div style="text-align: right;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-qWJB2Mt05qw/Ukb0anJJqhI/AAAAAAAAB5M/y2omL0hbY7k/s1600/Boz+Tchividjian+speaking.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="247" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-qWJB2Mt05qw/Ukb0anJJqhI/AAAAAAAAB5M/y2omL0hbY7k/s320/Boz+Tchividjian+speaking.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">Speaking to a room full of
journalists yesterday in Austin, Texas, Liberty University law professor Boz
Tchividjian said <a href="http://www.religionnews.com/2013/09/26/billy-grahams-grandson-evangelicals-worse-catholic-church-sex-abuse/" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">evangelicals are “worse”</span></a> than Catholics when it comes to
responding to clergy sex abuse. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">Frowning on transparency and
accountability, too many evangelicals have <a href="http://www.religionnews.com/2013/09/26/billy-grahams-grandson-evangelicals-worse-catholic-church-sex-abuse/" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">“sacrificed the souls”</span></a> of young victims, said Tchividjian,
who is the grandson of evangelist Billy Graham.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">Now before some of you Southern
Baptist readers start mentally dismissing this guy because he’s currently a
university professor – as in “aren’t they all a bunch of liberals?” – let me
just point out that Liberty University was founded by Jerry Falwell and has
been ranked as one of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberty_University" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">top ten
most conservative</span></a> colleges in the country. With over 100,000 residential
and online students, it is the largest private evangelical university in the
world.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">Moreover, Tchividjian previously
worked as a sex crimes prosecutor in Florida, and he is the founder of a firm
called G.R.A.C.E. (Godly Response to Abuse in the Christian Environment), which
conducts independent investigations of clergy abuse allegations.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">So Tchividjian is someone who
has credentials and credibility out the wazoo. He’s telling a hard truth, and on this
occasion, he was telling it to the annual conference for the Religion
Newswriters Association. (You might note, for example, that the nameplate immediately to the Tchividjian's right in the RNS photo above is the nameplate for Laurie Goodstein, religion newswriter for the <em>New York Times.)</em> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">I can pretty much guarantee
you that many of those journalists are going to remember Tchividjian’s words
and, in the future, some of them are going to start looking a lot more closely at
evangelical abuse stories.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;"></span> </div>
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">So I say <a href="http://www.abpnews.com/ministry/organizations/item/8889-evangelicals-worse-than-catholics-on-abuse" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">“thank you” to Boz Tchividjian</span></a> for continuing to publicly speak
out about the extent of clergy abuse and cover-ups among evangelicals. For
those of us – and we are many – who were abused by the sexual predation of
evangelical ministers and re-abused by the bullying of other evangelical
leaders who wanted to keep things quiet, Tchividjian’s words of truth are a
balm for the heart.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;">___________________</span><span style="font-family: Arial;"></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;"><em>Related posts:</em></span><em>
</em><br />
<em><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;"><a href="http://stopbaptistpredators.blogspot.com/2010/09/grace-report-vindicates-mks.html" target="_blank">GRACE report vindicatesmissionary kids</a>, 9/4/2010<o:p></o:p></span></em><em>
</em><br />
<em><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;"><a href="http://stopbaptistpredators.blogspot.com/2013/02/baptists-terminate-investigation-of.html" target="_blank">Baptists terminateinvestigator of child sex abuse claims</a>, 2/17/2013<o:p></o:p></span></em><em>
</em><br />
<em><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><a href="http://stopbaptistpredators.blogspot.com/2013/08/evangelicals-need-to-confront-reality.html" target="_blank">Evangelicals need toconfront the reality of sexual abuse in their ranks</a>, 8/16/2013</span></em><br />
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;"></span><br />Christa Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04560409585720043015noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3874123597623259718.post-28690429903577576572013-09-06T23:16:00.001-05:002013-09-06T23:16:53.167-05:00SNAP goes to Little Rock<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-dvongMurqUs/UiqngzllCgI/AAAAAAAAB4c/fKPoPZUFHe8/s1600/SNAP+logo2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-dvongMurqUs/UiqngzllCgI/AAAAAAAAB4c/fKPoPZUFHe8/s1600/SNAP+logo2.jpg" /></a></div>
<div class="yiv254626548msonormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="color: black;"></span> </div>
<div class="yiv254626548msonormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="color: black;">A self-help organization for people who were sexually abused
by clergy will hold a confidential support meeting in Little Rock, Arkansas, on
Wednesday, September 11.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="yiv254626548msonormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<o:p> </o:p></div>
<div class="yiv254626548msonormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="color: black;">The organization is SNAP, the Survivors Network of those
Abused by Priests. Based in Chicago, it’s an organization that has been
around since 1988. So, it has a lot of experience in helping people who have
been sexually abused by clergy. And despite the word “priests” in its name,
SNAP now has members who were molested by religious figures of all
denominations, including by Baptist clergy.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="yiv254626548msonormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="color: black;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<div class="yiv254626548msonormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="color: black;">Little Rock is strong <a href="http://stopbaptistpredators.blogspot.com/2009/08/baptist-land-mapping-terrain-part-1_11.html" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">Baptist territory</span></a>. In several of the counties just south of
Little Rock, Baptists comprise more than 50 percent of the population, and throughout
Arkansas in general, Baptists comprise 25 to 50 percent of the population.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="yiv254626548msonormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="color: black;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<div class="yiv254626548msonormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="color: black;">I hope some of the people who have been abused by Baptist
clergy in this predominantly Baptist state will make their way to this SNAP
meeting.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="yiv254626548msonormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="color: black;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<div class="yiv254626548msonormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="color: black;">In particular, I’m hoping some of the <a href="http://stopbaptistpredators.blogspot.com/2009/09/remember-boys-of-benton.html" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">boys of Benton</span></a> will go. God knows they need and deserve
some support.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="yiv254626548msonormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="color: black;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<div class="yiv254626548msonormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="color: black;">That Benton scandal is the one that always springs to my
mind first whenever I think about Baptist clergy abuse cases in Arkansas. For
over two decades, Southern Baptist minister David Pierce was able “to sexually
victimize <a href="http://stopbaptistpredators.blogspot.com/2009/10/polanski-and-pierce-parallels.html" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">scores of boys</span></a> at the First Baptist Church of Benton.” And
though reports indicated that, even before Pierce was finally arrested, church
leaders had known about <a href="http://stopbaptistpredators.blogspot.com/2009/08/questions-need-answers-in-benton.html" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">other allegations</span></a> against Pierce, church leaders have not
been held accountable.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="yiv254626548msonormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="yiv254626548msonormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="color: black;">Any ordinary person would imagine that FBC-Benton’s senior pastor
Rick Grant should have some serious explaining to do – explaining about why he <a href="http://stopbaptistpredators.blogspot.com/2009/10/polanski-and-pierce-parallels.html" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">did so little </span></a>for so long – but there in Benton, people didn’t
seem concerned. Accountability for clergy seems to be an alien concept. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="yiv254626548msonormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="color: black;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<div class="yiv254626548msonormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="color: black;">In fact, some of Benton’s most <a href="http://stopbaptistpredators.blogspot.com/2009/10/polanski-and-pierce-parallels.html" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">powerful citizens</span></a> showed themselves to be a great deal more
concerned about minister Pierce than about the many boys who were wounded. Even
after Pierce had been booked on 54 counts of sexual indecency with a child, and
even after it became apparent that dozens of kids had likely been hurt, people still
wrote letters of support for Pierce, urging the prosecutors to be lenient. The
former president of the Arkansas Baptist State Convention, Greg Kirksey, was
just one of many who wrote such letters.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="yiv254626548msonormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="yiv254626548msonormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="color: black;">There are so many <a href="http://stopbaptistpredators.blogspot.com/2009/08/questions-need-answers-in-benton.html" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">questions that still need answers</span></a> in Benton – questions about
who knew what and when did they know it and why they were so willing to leave
so many kids at risk for such terrible harm. And why has there been so little
outreach or care for the men who were wounded – wounded not only by the sexual
abuse of minister Pierce, but also by the betrayal of so many others?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="yiv254626548msonormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="color: black;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<div class="yiv254626548msonormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="color: black;">For the boys of Benton – boys who are now mostly grown men –
and for anyone else who was abused by clergy of any kind – I urge you to make
your way to this SNAP meeting in Little Rock if at all possible. It can help to
get together in a private setting with others who have had similar experiences.
Family members and supporters are also welcome and encouraged to attend.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="yiv254626548msonormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="color: black;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<div class="yiv254626548msonormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="color: black;">SNAP’s basic mission is to “heal the wounded and protect
the vulnerable."</span></div>
<div class="yiv254626548msonormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="color: black;"></span> </div>
<div class="yiv254626548msonormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="color: black;">The meeting will be held at Little Rock's downtown public library at 100 Rock Street in the Lee Room on the 5th floor from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. on September 11. If you have any questions or concerns, please contact Barb Dorris, 314-862-7688, <a href="mailto:SNAPdorris@gmail.com">SNAPdorris@gmail.com</a>.</span></div>
Christa Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04560409585720043015noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3874123597623259718.post-84929585485933834702013-09-02T15:05:00.000-05:002013-09-02T17:35:13.409-05:00Don't mess with Texas Baptists<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-FSvzVGvBUPM/UiTsE0MT2mI/AAAAAAAAB4M/3VmYBI12FuM/s1600/Texas+Monthly+1986.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-FSvzVGvBUPM/UiTsE0MT2mI/AAAAAAAAB4M/3VmYBI12FuM/s200/Texas+Monthly+1986.JPG" width="144" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">I was cleaning out some boxes
recently and ran across the January 1986 sesquicentennial edition of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Texas Monthly </i>magazine. In it was a
fascinating article called “Bane of the Baptists” by Gary Cleve Wilson, which
I’ve excerpted below. (This, of course, is why my cleaning process invariably
stalls out – I stop to read things.)</span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">The article that distracted
me was about William Cowper Brann, who was described as “the most controversial
and widely read Texan of his day.” After serving as chief editorial writer on
the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Houston Post</i>, he moved to Austin
where he founded the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Iconoclast</i>, a
journal that by the end of 1894, its first year of publication, had a
circulation of 100,000. In effect, Brann was something like a pre-blogging
version of a blogger. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">Brann took on Texas Baptists in
his writings, and Texas Baptists didn’t like it. Not one bit. Brann paid a high
price. The lesson: Don’t mess with Texas Baptists. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">Nowadays, I see so much of
Texas Baptists’ complicity in clergy sex abuse and cover-ups, and so much of
Texas Baptists’ bullying and intimidation tactics against those who speak out
about abuse that, sometimes, I think some Texas Baptists couldn’t possibly get
any badder if they tried. But then I ponder the long history of connections
between Texas Baptists and the Texas Klan. And then I run across an article
like this one about Brann. And then I remember just how deeply entrenched
violence actually is in the institutionalized heart of Texas Baptists.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">From “Bane of the Baptists:”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;"><span style="color: #990000;"><em>“What readers relished most
was the Iconoclast’s running war with
Waco, Baylor, and the Baptists. To Brann, that countrified Trinity exemplified
Victorian hypocrisy in its most splendid combination. When local preachers
thundered against prizefighting, Brann wrote, ‘If Corbett and Fitzsimmons were
to fight in Dallas today – without admission fee – Waco, the religious hub of
the world, would be depopulated. Half the preachers of Texas would go early to
secure front seats.’” <o:p></o:p></em></span></span></div>
<span style="color: #990000;"><em>
</em></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;"><span style="color: #990000;"><em>A prominent religious leader
of the day “christened Brann ‘Apostle of the Devil.’ The name stuck, and
Baptists began to pray for deliverance from that journalistic scourge. . . .”<o:p></o:p></em></span></span></div>
<span style="color: #990000;"><em>
</em></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;"><span style="color: #990000;"><em>“Then Antonia Teixeira came
along…. . A Brazilian missionary student at Baylor, Antonia boarded with
Baylor’s president, the Reverend Dr. Rufus C. Burleson. While there, she became
pregnant. In the summer of 1895 H. Steen Morris, a relative of Burleson’s, was
arrested and charged with her rape. Brann put two and two together, and it came
up ‘Baptists and a despoiled innocent.” He could ask for no better cause.<o:p></o:p></em></span></span></div>
<span style="color: #990000;"><em>
</em></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;"><span style="color: #990000;"><em>“’Baylor,’ Brann wrote, would
‘stink forever in the nostrils of Christendom – it is damned to everlasting
fame.’ It was as if the university itself had committed the rape. Baptists and
Baylor tried to defend their honor while Brann exploited the issue for two
years. . . .<o:p></o:p></em></span></span></div>
<span style="color: #990000;"><em>
</em></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;"><span style="color: #990000;"><em>“It was only a matter of time
before Baylor sympathizers would act. When Brann proposed the erection of a
monument commemorating Baylor’s taking ‘an ignorant little Catholic as raw
material’ and getting ‘two Baptists as the finished product,’ Baylor loyalists
figured they had had enough.<o:p></o:p></em></span></span></div>
<span style="color: #990000;"><em>
</em></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;"><span style="color: #990000;"><em>“On a Saturday afternoon in
October 1897, Brann was abducted at gunpoint and driven to the Baylor campus
for a lesson in humility. Beaten and threatened with worse, he was chased off
campus. A week later he was caned and horsewhipped by a father-and-son team of
Baylor partisans. Brann began to carry a gun and took shooting lessons. Six
months later he got his chance.<o:p></o:p></em></span></span></div>
<span style="color: #990000;"><em>
</em></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;"><span style="color: #990000;"><em>“Brann was to take a
well-earned vacation in the spring of 1898. He and his business manager were downtown
buying railroad tickets when from behind them stepped Tom Davis, a local real
estate investor and vocal detractor of Brann. Davis drew his pistol and shot at
the lanky editor. Brann whirled, returning fire. The two emptied their
six-shooters into each other as the late afternoon crowd stampeded. Moments
later Davis was lying in a pool of blood, and Brann – shot in the groin, foot,
and back – slid to the ground. He died early the next morning. Davis, hit six
times, died soon after Brann.<o:p></o:p></em></span></span></div>
<span style="color: #990000;"><em>
</em></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;"><span style="color: #990000;"><em>“No one has given Texas
Baptists much trouble since.”<o:p></o:p></em></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">Some things have changed
since Brann’s time, but a lot of things haven’t. To this day, people don’t tend
to give Texas Baptists much trouble, which helps to explain why stories like
the </span><a href="http://stopbaptistpredators.blogspot.com/2013/07/prestonwood-scandal-makes-news-in.html" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;"><span style="color: blue;">mega-scandal at the Prestonwood
Baptist mega-church</span></span></a><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;"> can so easily get swept
under the rug with no accountability for the cover-uppers.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
______________________________<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<em><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">This 1986 article also brings to
mind the extraordinary job that </span><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><a href="http://stopbaptistpredators.blogspot.com/2008/02/why-didnt-baptists-bust-him.html" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;"><span style="color: blue;">Texas Monthly magazine</span></span></a></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"> did with its early-on
reporting of the much more recent case of Texas Baptist minister Matt Baker,
who got his start at Baylor University, where a vicious sexual assault report was kept
quiet, and who moved on through a dozen more Texas Baptist churches, leaving
behind a trail of sexual abuse and assault allegations, all of which came to
light only because he was ultimately prosecuted for murder. (And truth be told,
Baker nearly got away with that as well.) <a href="http://stopbaptistpredators.blogspot.com/2010/01/it-shouldnt-take-murder.html" target="_blank">It took a murder</a> to finally bring to light Baker's history of sexual abuse and assault, and true to Texas Baptists' long pattern, there has still been no
accountability for the Baylor university officials and church
officials who covered up for Baker for so many years.</span></em>Christa Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04560409585720043015noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3874123597623259718.post-37281263550162755982013-08-23T10:17:00.000-05:002013-08-23T10:28:02.856-05:00Statutes of limitation lifted in Illinois<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-YSTsEwdT13o/Uhd9mBliFqI/AAAAAAAAB3U/1K_gAUH6ZgE/s1600/SNAP+logo2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-YSTsEwdT13o/Uhd9mBliFqI/AAAAAAAAB3U/1K_gAUH6ZgE/s1600/SNAP+logo2.jpg" /></a></div>
The great State of Illinois has <a href="http://www.snapnetwork.org/il_child_sex_abuse_reform_bill_becomes_law?recruiter_id=21019" target="_blank">lifted the civil statute of limitations</a> for lawsuits alleging child sex abuse!<br />
<br />
This is a huge step forward and will help to protect countless thousands of kids into the future.<br />
<br />
"Kids are safest when predators are jailed. But that can't always happen. So the next best option is to expose predators," said <a href="http://www.snapnetwork.org/" target="_blank">SNAP</a> in its <a href="http://www.snapnetwork.org/il_child_sex_abuse_reform_bill_becomes_law?recruiter_id=21019" target="_blank">public statement</a>. Civil lawsuits are a powerful tool toward that end. <br />
<br />
Civil lawsuits are also a tool that can often bring to light the extensive cover-ups that we see so frequently in religious institutions.<br />
<br />
When allegations are made as part of a civil lawsuit filed at a public courthouse, the media can readily report on them. When the media reports on them, people learn about them. When people learn about them, other victims often come forward, other people may be prompted to tell what they know, and others who colluded in concealing the crimes can be exposed. Most importantly, with the exposure that civil lawsuits bring, people can at least have the opportunity to be warned about credibly-accused predators, and parents can then make their own decisions about who they're willing to trust their kids with.<br />
<br />
A huge thank-you to the many individuals in the Illinois Coalition Against Sexual Assault, whose work helped to make this progress possible!Christa Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04560409585720043015noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3874123597623259718.post-48699249283835978312013-08-16T15:59:00.000-05:002013-08-17T14:13:15.898-05:00Evangelicals need to confront the reality of sexual abuse in their ranks<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-gfnLoC4NcXw/Ug6SKy3lPRI/AAAAAAAAB3E/-mBOBhpTQLc/s1600/Boz+Tchividjian.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-gfnLoC4NcXw/Ug6SKy3lPRI/AAAAAAAAB3E/-mBOBhpTQLc/s1600/Boz+Tchividjian.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Boz Tchividjian</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">In yesterday’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><a href="http://blogs.courier-journal.com/faith/2013/08/15/a-call-for-evangelicals-to-confront-sexual-abuse/" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">Louisville Courier-Journal</span></a></i>, award-winning religion
writer Peter Smith wrote about the need for evangelical churches to confront
sexual abuse and cover-ups within their own ranks. It’s a need that was
recently given voice in a <a href="http://netgrace.org/a-public-statement-concerning-sexual-abuse-in-the-church-of-jesus-christ/" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">public statement</span></a> written by former sex crimes prosecutor
Boz Tchividjian and signed by more than 1,500 people worldwide.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">The statement was prompted in
part by a lawsuit brought by eleven plaintiffs alleging the cover-up of sexual
abuse within churches affiliated with Sovereign Grace Ministries. Tchividjian
said the lawsuit “underscored larger issues,” and his statement alluded, not
only to the case, but also to religious leaders who have publicly defended
Sovereign Grace and its president, including prominent Southern Baptist
leaders.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">The statement says that these
developments show “the troubling reality that, far too often, the Church’s
instincts are no different than those of many other institutions, responding to
such allegations by moving to protect her structures rather than her children.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">Asked to comment about this <a href="http://netgrace.org/a-public-statement-concerning-sexual-abuse-in-the-church-of-jesus-christ/" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">public statement</span></a>, I expressed my gratitude for the work of
Boz Tchividjian, whom I have <a href="http://stopbaptistpredators.blogspot.com/2013/02/baptists-terminate-investigation-of.html" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">written about</span></a> twice <a href="http://stopbaptistpredators.blogspot.com/2010/09/grace-report-vindicates-mks.html" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">before</span></a>. But I also expressed my view that something akin to
a <a href="http://stopbaptistpredators.blogspot.com/2011/01/truth-and-reconciliation-needed.html" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">Truth and Reconciliation</span></a> Commission is what’s really needed,
and my remarks were extensively quoted in <a href="http://blogs.courier-journal.com/faith/2013/08/15/a-call-for-evangelicals-to-confront-sexual-abuse/" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">Smith’s article</span></a>.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">“For many faith groups,
including most Baptist groups, what is actually needed is something akin to a
Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Those who have been victimized by clergy
sex abuse are in desperate need of a safe place where they can tell their
stories and be heard with respect and compassion. Those who have known about
abusive clergy or who had reason to suspect, those who have been complicit in
cover-ups, those who have engaged in intimidation tactics for the silencing of
victims, and those who have followed the direction of senior pastors to keep
things in the church family – all of these people – are in need of a safe place
where they may now tell what they know, express their remorse, and do what is
still possible for making kids safer in the future. Those parents who sit in
the pews and wonder about how many of their leaders may have been complicit in
covering up for clergy child molestations – those people also are in need. They
need a credible outside resource to illuminate the truth for them – or at least
as much of the truth as can possibly be ascertained. And finally, faith itself
needs truth and reconciliation. When it comes to clergy sex abuse, faith needs
no more of religious leaders’ do-nothing words of outrage; instead, what faith
needs is human beings’ sacred commitment to shared truth.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">I’ll conclude by quoting the
words of Desmond Tutu, anti-apartheid activist and former archbishop of Cape
Town: “True reconciliation exposes the awfulness, the abuse, the hurt, the
truth . . . . It is a risky undertaking but in the end it is worthwhile,
because in the end only an honest confrontation with reality can bring real
healing. Superficial reconciliation can bring only superficial healing.”</span><br />
__________________________<br />
<br />
<em>Article republished in <a href="http://www.courier-journal.com/article/20130816/COLUMNISTS22/308160154/Faith-Works-Evangelical-churches-urged-confront-abuse-cover-ups" target="_blank">Louisville Courier-Journal</a>, 8/17/2013</em> </div>
Christa Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04560409585720043015noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3874123597623259718.post-4752832277308691252013-08-07T20:54:00.002-05:002013-08-08T12:48:30.449-05:00Pastor told investigators "he was aware"<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">A reader recently sent me an
article with these comments:<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;"><span style="color: #990000;"><em>“My childhood church had a
young man who volunteered for years with AWANA and the youth group. I had also
heard from adults that he was so wonderful to be a ‘father figure’ to several
boys in the church whose parents were divorced. You can guess the result – he was
eventually found out to be molesting these boys, and one case went to court. <br />
<br />
Several of the boys he was close to seemed to develop some problems and
disappeared from town. I am pretty sure that there must have been many more victims.
He was described in the paper as volunteering for ‘several years’ with youth
and children, but I was in that church back in the mid-nineties and he didn't
get prosecuted till 2005, so it was at least 10 years. He was basically a
volunteer youth and children minister, extremely active in the ministries. He
starred in the children's musical I was in . . . .<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Knowing that there must have been more
victims, I think it would be helpful to post this . . . . ”<o:p></o:p></em></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">I agree. So I’m posting this
excerpt from a front-page article that was in the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><a href="http://www.pcnh-d.net/archives/2005/11%20November%202005/2005_Nov_5/a1.pdf" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">Daily News of Northwest Florida</span></a> </i>on November 5, 2005.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: center;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;"><span style="font-size: large;">Church volunteer charged with
molesting boy:<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">Investigators say Rocky Bayou Baptist Church
has been aware of complaints </span></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">for a few years<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">“A Valparaiso man has been
charged with molesting a boy for years whom he had met as a church youth
volunteer, and investigators suspect more victims will surface.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-lt7m6Y9EaFE/UgL5ZcLLX9I/AAAAAAAAB20/5E6Bbys32o8/s1600/Robert+Thomas+Jenkins-Hayes.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-lt7m6Y9EaFE/UgL5ZcLLX9I/AAAAAAAAB20/5E6Bbys32o8/s1600/Robert+Thomas+Jenkins-Hayes.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.offenderegistry.com/reg117830/robert_thomas_jenkins_hayesmugshot.htm" target="_blank">Robert Thomas Jenkins-Hayes</a></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">“Robert “Robbie” Thomas
Jenkins-Hayes, 42, is being held at Okaloosa County Jail on $350,000 bond for
lewd and lascivious molestation, according to a Valparaiso Police Department
arrest report. He’s been a volunteer with the AWANA program for youth at Rocky
Bayou Baptist Church in Niceville for several years . . . . <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">“The Valparaiso Police
launched an investigation after a 15-year-old boy came forward with allegations
against Jenkins-Hayes, who was arrested Wednesday. <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">But investigators say the church has been aware of complaints against
Jenkins-Hayes for a few years.<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">“It has never been officially
reported,” said Valparaiso Capt. Christy Goldsmith.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">“Rocky
Bayou’s senior pastor, Dale Julio, told investigators he was aware of instances
when Jenkins-Hayes kissed boys on the lips and embraced them for too long,
according to the report.”<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
____________________________<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;"><o:p> </o:p></span></b></div>
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">Rocky Bayou Baptist Church
in Niceville, Florida, is shown as being affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention. Why should
anyone be surprised by this keep-it-quiet pattern in the churches when high
Southern Baptist officials have set the example with a stubborn and reckless
entrenchment in denominational do-nothingness on clergy sex abuse?</span>Christa Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04560409585720043015noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3874123597623259718.post-65993835989033999192013-08-01T11:47:00.001-05:002013-08-01T11:52:14.886-05:00Reckless disregard for kids<span style="color: #c0504d; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-themecolor: accent2;"><em>Quoted from a July 29, 2013, article by Kevin Koeninger in the </em></span><a href="http://www.courthousenews.com/2013/07/29/59755.htm" target="_blank"><span style="color: #c0504d; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-themecolor: accent2;"><em>Courthouse
News Service</em></span></a><span style="color: #c0504d; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-themecolor: accent2;"><em> in Clarksville, Tennessee:</em></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;"><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">“After a youth minister was charged with sex offenses, a Baptist
church promised to protect its children, but all it did was offer an optional
first aid course, and a second employee sexually abused another child, the
family claims in court.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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“Parents John and Jane Doe sued Spring Creek Baptist Church on behalf of their
minor daughter Janie, in Montgomery County Court. . . . <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"’In 2009, a youth minister at Spring Creek was criminally charged with
having sexual contact with minors in Spring Creek's youth groups. The youth
minister resigned voluntarily,’ the complaint states.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-D3V98JVMcBQ/UfqPN9oRnxI/AAAAAAAAB2I/lTC0OOR3TR4/s1600/Paul+Bunger+Spring+Creek.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-D3V98JVMcBQ/UfqPN9oRnxI/AAAAAAAAB2I/lTC0OOR3TR4/s1600/Paul+Bunger+Spring+Creek.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Pastor Paul Bunger<br />
<a href="http://springcbc.com/content.cfm?id=149" target="_blank">Spring Creek Baptist Church</a></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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"’Afterwards, at least one member of Spring Creek communicated to Senior
Pastor Paul Bunger that Spring Creek should adopt policies for protecting
children in its care.’<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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"’Spring Creek adopted no policies for protecting children other than
offering a first aid course for Sunday School teachers on a voluntary basis.’"<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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“’That was inadequate,’ the Does say.</span><br />
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span> </div>
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">“The complaint continues: ‘Multiple members warned Senior Pastor
Bunger and other church leaders that a man, Christopher Ryan Crossno
('Crossno'), was behaving inappropriately toward young children in Spring
Creek's Sunday School programs.’<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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"‘One Spring Creek employee observed Crossno in a Sunday School classroom
reaching to put his hand up a young girl's dress. The employee stopped Crossno
before it went further.’<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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"’A concerned parent told Senior Pastor Bunger and other church leaders
that Crossno was making a young girl in a Sunday School classroom uncomfortable
by tickling her.’<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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"’One Spring Creek member communicated to Senior Pastor Bunger that
Crossno's behavior was characteristic of a pedophile and that Spring Creek
should take steps to keep him away from children.’<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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"’Spring Creek did not prevent Crossno from having access to the children
in Spring Creek's Sunday School program.’<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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"’’Instead, for the Fall 2012 - Spring 2013 term, Spring Creek named
Crossno as one of the teachers of its first grade Sunday School class.’<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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"’Janie Doe was a student in Spring Creek's first grade Sunday School
class in fall 2012.’<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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"’During class on November 18, 2012, Crossno sexually abused Janie Doe in
the Sunday School classroom.’"<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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“The family seeks punitive damages for negligence and recklessness.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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"’Spring Creek's knowledge based on the prior charges against its youth
minister regarding sex with minors, and the warnings Spring Creek had received
regarding Crossno, Spring Creek's conduct constitutes recklessness,’ the
complaint states.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #c0504d; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-themecolor: accent2;"><em><span style="color: #990000;">Spring
Creek Baptist Church is shown as being affiliated with the Southern Baptist
Convention. Is it any wonder that so many Southern Baptist churches display such
reckless disregard when Southern Baptists’ highest leaders have set such a
reckless example of denominational do-nothingness on clergy sex abuse?</span></em></span></div>
Christa Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04560409585720043015noreply@blogger.com