Another year of Baptist do-nothingness on clergy sex abuse

On June 12 at their annual convention in Houston, Southern Baptists passed a resolution reminding church members to report child sex abuse to legal authorities.

Here’s what it says: “RESOLVED, that we remind all Southern Baptists of their legal and moral responsibility to report any child abuse to authorities . . . .”

Thus, Southern Baptists “RESOLVED” to “remind” people to obey the law . . . i.e., to do what they should be doing anyway.

But for Southern Baptists, a reminder to obey the law took a convention with 5000 delegates and heaps of hoopla. And of course, it’s still just talk. It doesn’t actually do anything at all. It sure as heck doesn’t impose any consequences on pastors who choose not to obey reporting laws and who instead keep quiet about sex abuse allegations against their clergy-cronies.

Southern Baptists also “RESOLVED, that we strongly urge Southern Baptist churches to utilize background checks” to screen prospective employees and volunteers. So, again, it took the vote of 5000 delegates to “urge” churches to use this bare-bones minimum of safeguard measures? And it’s still just talk, nothing more.

Furthermore, even if all Southern Baptist churches were to suddenly start doing background checks, what are Southern Baptists going to do to track the reports on clergy-predators who have not been criminally convicted? Nothing. Yet, almost all experts recognize that the vast majority of child molesters won’t show up in any sex offender database. Thus, while background checks are essential, they aren’t nearly enough.

Other major faith groups have implemented denominational accountability systems that provide review panels to receive and assess clergy abuse reports. Such systems allow for the possibility that, even when clergy abuse reports are too late for criminal prosecution (as they so often are), denominational authorities may at least be able to warn people or to remove the mantle of ministerial trust.

But not so with Southern Baptists. They’re light-years behind on dealing with clergy sex abuse. If a Southern Baptist pastor isn’t literally sitting in prison, he can probably find a pulpit to stand in. There is no denominational system that will even attempt to stop him or to warn parents in the pews.

Finally, the 5000 Southern Baptist delegates voted that it be “RESOLVED, that we urge all Southern Baptists to pray for children who are victims of abuse.”

Southern Baptists have no denominational office for even hearing the reports of those who are trying to tell about Southern Baptist clergy child molesters -- no system for providing professional counseling to people abused by Southern Baptist clergy – and no denominational system for protecting against predatory pastors who church-hop.

But oh gee whiz. . . . they’ll pray for us.

Count me among the unimpressed. It’s another status-quo year of Southern Baptist do-nothingness on clergy sex abuse.

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You can read more of the resolution here, with a link to the full text.

For a concise response to the standard Southern Baptist excuse for do-nothingness  -- "local church autonomy" -- consider NapaMan's comment: "The suggestion that a reform ... would undermine the independence of congregations to hire and fire is at best a straw man and perhaps intentional deceit. Maintaining a list of church staff with a history of abuse would only shed light on who is being hired . . . ." (Read the rest of NapaMan's comment here.)
 

Related posts:

SNAP responds to Southern Baptist abuse resolution, 6/13/2013

How long until Southern Baptists take action against clergy sex abuse? 6/10/2013
Multi-accused pastor remains in pulpit; Baptist officials claim they're powerless, 11/18/12
Accused Missouri pastor faces new charges, 6/14/2013

SNAP responds to Southern Baptist abuse resolution

"The Southern Baptist Convention has passed a resolution urging people to report child sex crimes to law enforcement. Big deal.

This is a virtually worthless 'feel good' public relations move that basically protects no one. Brave action, not vague resolutions, stops crimes against kids."

That's the statement released by SNAP officials about the abuse resolution passed yesterday at the Southern Baptist Convention's annual meeting in Houston.

SNAP's statement is spot-on in my opinion.

I plan to write more about the resolution later, but for now, imagine this. Your spouse asks you to clean up the basement, and in response, you say, "I'm gonna pass a resolution for cleaner basements!" First of all, I don't imagine your spouse will be much impressed. And more importantly, that ugly, stinky basement is just going to keep getting stinkier and stinkier.

How long until Southern Baptists take action against clergy sex abuse?

The Southern Baptist Convention is convening its annual ballyhoo in Houston this week, but it doesn’t look as though they will make any progress on protecting kids against clergy sex abuse.

Since 2006, clergy abuse survivors, and others, have been asking the Southern Baptist Convention to implement denominational safeguards against clergy child molesters. Southern Baptists have refused.

The requests are nothing radical. We asked for the sorts of safeguards that already exist in other major faith groups in this country. We asked that the denomination provide (1) a safe place where people may report abusive ministers, (2) a denominational panel for responsibly assessing abuse reports (particularly those that cannot be criminally prosecuted), and (3) an effective means, such as a database, of assuring that assessment information reaches people in the pews.

In 2008, TIME magazine ranked Southern Baptists' rejection of a sex-offender database as one of the top 10 underreported stories of the year.

Now here we are in 2013, and Southern Baptists are still sitting on the sidelines.

A faith group that so devalues its children must change. So we know where this is going. Change is inevitable.

Sooner or later, Southern Baptists will learn the lesson that pious preaching won't protect kids against clergy predators. What we don't know is how long the lesson will take . . . or how many more kids will needlessly suffer grievous harm.

Maybe it will take 10, 20 or 50 years. But we know how this ends. Southern Baptists will eventually come up to speed with what other faith groups are doing to assure that predators cannot easily hide among their clergy ranks.

It is inevitable. A future is coming when children in Baptist churches will be a great deal safer than they are now. A future is coming when those who report clergy abuse will be met with ministry and outreach rather than minimization and denial. A future is coming when people in the pews will be able to find out about credibly accused clergy so that predators cannot so easily church-hop.

When that future arrives, we will all look back with a vague sense of wonder at why it took Southern Baptists so long.

But there is always someone who fights a rear-guard action to preserve the status quo. And it doesn't matter how irrational or dysfunctional that status quo may be.

When it comes to dealing with clergy sex abuse, it looks as though the rear guard status quo will be Southern Baptists.

While other major faith groups have recognized the need for clergy accountability mechanisms, Southern Baptists persist in denominational do-nothingness. Worst of all, they claim religious principle as the reason. Confronted with people trying to report predatory clergy, Baptist leaders retreat behind the Pharisee-like legalism of their autonomous polity as an excuse for why they are powerless.

It might be comical if it weren't so dangerous.

But someday, even this most recalcitrant of faith groups will see the light and take action. It is inevitable.

Meanwhile, the rear guard is convening in Houston this week. How many more conventions will it take before Southern Baptists provide their kids with the same sorts of safeguards as kids in Presbyterian, Lutheran, Methodist and Episcopal churches?

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This is a revised version of a column that was originally posted on the eve of the Southern Baptist Convention’s June 2010 annual meeting, and that was previously published by Ethics Daily and the Associated Baptist Press.

Southern Baptist Leadership Is Lacking

Jack Graham

Jack Graham will be a featured speaker at the Southern Baptist Convention’s annual Pastors’ Conference on June 9 in Houston. His topic? Leadership.

So . . . let’s talk a little about the kind of leadership that Jack Graham has shown.

Graham is the senior pastor at the 32,000-member Prestonwood Baptist megachurch in Plano, Texas.  It’s a church that has been mired in a clergy child molestation cover-up scandal that just won’t go away – mainly because the church leadership just keeps digging itself deeper.

For example, last March, Prestonwood officials called the cops on a church member who dared to ask questions about the widely-reported cover-up – an act that only made church leadership look like bullies.  And Graham himself refused to comment back in 2011 when WFAA-News first reported the scandal – a refusal that only served to raise more questions. Two years later, with the cover-up scandal still in the news, Graham tried to use Jesus to justify his continued silence on the alleged cover-up – a justification that looked like nothing more than an evasive “cop-out.”

So this is the kind of leadership that Jack Graham has shown. It’s the kind of leadership that declines any transparency and that acts as though it’s above accountability. More importantly, it’s the kind of leadership that raises disturbing questions about whether church image and crony protection were given priority over kids’ safety – and about whether church leadership violated the law in failing to report to the police information about suspected child sex abuse.     

Graham’s style of leadership on this goes all the way back to the summer of 1989 when Prestonwood church officials received an allegation that the church’s youth music minister, John Langworthy, had “acted inappropriately with a teenage student.” Amy Smith, a former Prestonwood staff intern who was there at the time, has said that Langworthy “confessed to molesting boys in the church.” With Jack Graham at the helm, Prestonwood church officials responded by quietly dismissing Langworthy. They got Langworthy off their own turf, but Langworthy was able to go to work at another Southern Baptist church in Mississippi.

Thanks to Amy Smith’s extraordinary efforts – and no thanks to Jack Graham – this “cover-up” finally came to light some two decades later. With more victims coming forward, Langworthy pled guilty last January to multiple counts of child molestation. However, because his crimes were concealed for so long, he will serve no prison time.

The Southern Baptist Convention has over 100,000 ministers. Yet, this man, Jack Graham, is the minister who gets presented as a model of “leadership” for others to follow – a man who, from reported accounts, kept quiet about a child predator, allowing him easy access to more kids for more than two decades.

I have no doubt but that Graham’s style of leadership provides good-sounding sermons to the masses – because the masses certainly show up at his church. And with 32,000 members in his church, I expect that Graham’s style of leadership also provides hefty contributions to the Southern Baptist Convention’s cooperative program.

But what style of leadership is more important? Leadership that provides impressive preaching and big dollars, or leadership that prioritizes the protection of kids?

Apparently, Southern Baptist officials think it’s the former and so they present Jack Graham as a “leadership” model. In doing so, the Southern Baptist Convention sends this message: “Clergy sex abuse cover-up? No big deal."
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Update: In a Jun 7, 2013 press release, the national director of SNAP, David Clohessy, says, "These men should be chastised and disciplined, not held up as models."

Will changing of the guard bring any change on clergy sex abuse?

Russell Moore

"In a generational changing of the guard, Southern Baptists are gaining a new advocate for their values in Washington and around the country as Russell Moore, a media-savvy theologian, takes the helm of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission.” This news, reported last week by the Religion News Service, means that the ERLC will no longer be headed by Richard Land, who had been at the commission’s helm for nearly twenty-five years.

As the ERLC’s new leader, Russell Moore claims that he will use “convictional kindness” to defend Southern Baptist ideals.

“Convictional kindness.” What do you think that means with respect to the denomination’s do-nothingness on clergy sex abuse? Will there be any change?

Kindness starts with listening. But Southern Baptists lack any system for even hearing the voices of clergy abuse survivors, much less for listening to them. There is no denominational office to which people might report abusive clergymen – no safe place where they might hope to have their abuse reports compassionately heard – no trained panels for responsibly assessing abuse reports – no one in denominational authority who will take any responsibility for doing anything at all, regardless of how many abuse reports a minister may have against him.

Baptists’ do-nothingness is an aberration from what other major faith groups are now doing. Realizing that most child molestation cases cannot be criminally prosecuted, other denominations have developed clergy accountability systems to try to provide at least the possibility that a minister may be held accountable to the faith community even if he can no longer be held accountable under the law. Such systems also provide the possibility that clergy abuse survivors may at least be heard within the faith community, even if their claims can no longer be heard within the legal system.

Most clergy child molesters have more than one victim, and due to the nature of the trauma, most victims are unable to speak out about their abuse until many years later. These two realities mean that the best way to prevent clergy sex abuse in the future is to institutionally listen to those who are trying to tell about abuse in the past.

Thus, listening is an essential component of kindness -- kindness not only toward those who were abused by clergy in the past, but also kindness toward kids in the future who are better protected when credibly-accused clergy predators are disallowed from positions of such high trust.

Will Russell Moore bring this kind of kindness to the ERLC?

It’s not such a far-fetched thought to imagine that the ERLC could provide such a forum – i.e., a forum through which the denomination might responsibly and compassionately hear the voices of those wounded by Southern Baptist clergy.

Back in 2008, when the Southern Baptist Convention’s Executive Committee rejected the idea that the denomination should create a review panel for receiving clergy abuse reports, and rejected the idea that the denomination should keep a database of records on credibly-accused ministers, the Executive Committee claimed that these steps were unnecessary “in view of the existence of an SBC entity already assigned the task of assisting Southern Baptist churches through ‘communication and advocacy of moral and ethical concerns’….”

“That entity,” wrote the Executive Committee, “is the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission (ERLC) of the Southern Baptist Convention, which is fully capable of determining the proper construction, prioritization, and provision of ministry called for by sexual abuse victimization.”

Thus, the SBC’s Executive Committee pointed to the existence of the ERLC as one of its primary reasons for refusing to create any new denominational safeguards to protect against clergy sex abuse.



Richard Land

Yet, despite being “fully capable” as the Executive Committee stated, the ERLC under Land’s leadership did not choose to prioritize any provision of ministry for those victimized by the sexual abuse of Baptist clergy.

Will the ERLC under Moore’s leadership choose differently? Will it choose kindness toward Baptist clergy abuse survivors by showing a willingness to responsibly hear their stories? Will it choose kindness toward Baptist church kids in the future by providing people in the pews with a reliable source of information so they might better protect against church-hopping clergy-predators?

In that 2008 report, the SBC Executive Committee said still more about the powers of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission with respect to clergy sex abuse: “Continued ministry to assist churches in addressing this vital topic seems to fall naturally within the assignment of the ERLC. 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 and make appropriate recommendations in that regard.”    

Thus, the SBC Executive Committee suggested that the ERLC had the power to decide for itself whether it wanted “to serve as the office of receipt” for reports of clergy sex abuse, and that the ERLC could, on its own, make such a recommendation to the Southern Baptist Convention so as to better assist churches in addressing this problem.

Under Richard Land’s leadership, the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission did essentially nothing with respect to assisting churches in ferreting out church-hopping clergy-predators and essentially nothing with respect to any provision of ministry for those wounded by Baptist clergy predators.

Will Russell Moore bring about any change? He has talked about “kindness.” But will he demonstrate that “kindness” by leading Southern Baptists toward responsibly dealing with the problem of clergy sex abuse?

The Southern Baptist Convention convenes its annual meeting next week in Houston. If Moore holds the conviction of his words, then now is the time for him to take action by recommending to the Convention that the ERLC “serve as the office of receipt” for reports of clergy sex abuse.
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Update: Thanks to a reader for reminding me that Russell Moore publicly sang the praises of Philip Gunn, even after Gunn advised officials at Morrison Heights Baptist Church in Mississippi NOT to divulge to police investigators information about what an accused minister-molester had said to church officials. Despite the church's recalcitrance, the minister was ultimately convicted. Obviously, this doesn't give reason for optimism that Moore will assume any leadership in furthering the protection of kids from clergy sex abuse.

Update 1/10/2014: Now we have yet another indication of how unlikely it is that Moore's leadership will bring any positive change in the SBC's denominational do-nothingness on clergy sex abuse. The ERLC has announced the formation of a "Leadership Network" to join with the ERLC in applying "the gospel of the kingdom to the major cultural issues of our day." Named to the "Leadership Council" for this new network is pastor Greg Belser of Morrison Heights Baptist Church -- a pastor who has been implicated in one of the SBC's biggest clergy sex abuse cover-up scandals to date, the Prestonwood/Morrison Heights scandal. In Belser's short bio on the ERLC's "Leadership Council" site, he talks about how the ERLC helps him in "resourcing our church for speaking courageously in the culture." In my opinion, Belser could show himself to be a great deal more courageous if he would submit his own conduct to the review of an independent organization such as GRACE and let that organization speak to the truth of what happened in the Prestonwood/Morrison Heights scandal. In any event, Belser's appointment to the ERLC's "Leadership Council" doesn't bode well for anticipating any improvement in the SBC's blind-eyed nonresponsiveness on clergy sex abuse.

Baptists ignore the standard

Ken Herman

In his Austin American-Statesman column of June 1, 2013, Ken Herman quotes from the invocation in the Texas Senate that was delivered last Sunday by pastor Don Garner:

“Father, I pray especially that each member of the Senate here, each member of their family, Father, would come to a lively faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.”

I expect many evangelicals would hear that and say “what’s the problem?” Herman answers that question in a subsequent comment.

When people are invited to offer invocations in the Texas Senate, they typically receive the following instruction: The invocation “should be of a general nature, nonsectarian and nonpolitical. Due to the religious diversity of the Senate and of the general population of Texas, please be mindful of your terminology and respectful of other faiths.”

“I don’t believe that an invocation praying for people ‘to come to a lively faith in the Lord Jesus Christ’ meets that standard,” writes Herman.

Neither do I. And this strikes me as just one more example of how Baptist preachers often seem to think they’re exempt from the standards that apply to others.

The Texas Senate has a standard. Pastor Don Garner ignored it.

We see a similar pattern with respect to clergy sex abuse. As Frederick Clarkson recently explained, while “many other traditional religious denominations” have developed denominational policies and procedures for addressing clergy sex abuse, the Southern Baptist Convention still sits on the sidelines.

It’s as though they imagine themselves to be immune to the problem and exempt from the responsibility to protect against it. It’s an aberrant sort of self-delusional recalcitrance, which in its blind recklessness leaves countless kids at greater risk of serious harm.

In other major faith groups, the standard of care has become the provision of denominational review panels, which at least allow for the possibility that outsiders to the pastor’s own church may be able to hear and assess clergy abuse complaints. Since almost all experts recognize that the vast majority of child molestation complaints cannot be criminally prosecuted, other faith groups at least allow for the possibility that, with a credible complaint, a minister could be removed from his position of trust as a clergyman.

But with Southern Baptists, there’s no such thing. There’s not even the pretense of such a thing. Even with multiple complaints of abuse, if a Baptist pastor isn’t literally sitting in prison, he can probably find a pulpit to stand in. There is no denominational structure that will even attempt to stop him.

The Southern Baptist Convention ignores the standard of care that is now recognized in other faith groups, and it shirks the institutional safeguards that other denominations have adopted.

The largest Protestant denomination in the land simply thumbs its nose and leaves kids to suffer.

"Stunningly cruel"

David Clohessy

David Clohessy, the national director of SNAP, took Southern Baptist leaders to task for publicly throwing their support behind pastor C.J. Mahaney, who was accused in a lawsuit of covering up numerous sex crimes against children.

SNAP is the largest international support organization for people who were sexually abused by religious authority figures – i.e., by priests, preachers, ministers, deacons, nuns and others.  Clohessy himself is widely recognized as one of the world’s top experts on the subject of clergy sex abuse. He has appeared on numerous television news programs, including the Oprah Winfrey Show, Sixty Minutes, the Phil Donohue Show, and Good Morning America.  In 2002, People Magazine named Clohessy as one of the “25 Most Intriguing” people of the year. (Also included in that 2002 list were such other prominent names as Jimmy Carter, George Clooney, and Pat Tillman.)

So suffice it to say that Clohessy is the world’s number 1 go-to-guy for reliable information about the dynamics of clergy sex abuse and church cover-ups.

On May 28, 2013, Clohessy issued a statement casting shame on Southern Baptist leaders Al Mohler and Mark Dever, among others, for their public display of support for pastor C.J. Mahaney of Sovereign Grace Ministries. In a Maryland lawsuit, eleven plaintiffs had alleged years of a child sex-abuse cover-up conducted by Mahaney and other Sovereign Grace officials.

Eleven. And that’s just the ones who have come forward.

The allegations of the lawsuit are awful, but they tell a consistent story of a horrific cover-up that was allegedly endorsed and promoted by the highest of Sovereign Grace officials, including Mahaney.

The lawsuit was recently dismissed on the ground that most of the victims had waited too long to pursue their claims. In other words, the dismissal was on a legal technicality and had nothing to do, one way or the other, with the truth of the plaintiffs’ claims. Ironically, as some have observed, this is often the very purpose of a child-sex-abuse cover-up – to avoid accountability under the law by causing the pursuit of claims to be delayed until after the statute of limitations has run. At this point, it appears Sovereign Grace Ministries may have accomplished exactly that. However, the dismissal is being appealed on the ground that the alleged conspiracy to silence victims and shield pedophiles was not discovered until 2011, within the statute of limitations.

C.J. Mahaney

Meanwhile, evangelical leaders have rallied behind Mahaney. Last week, members of a coalition called Together for the Gospel, which includes Southern Baptist leaders Al Mohler and Mark Dever, issued a public statement of support for Mahaney – a statement that has been widely criticized. It was an arrogant display of blatant cronyism, asserting that no “accusation of direct wrongdoing” was ever made against Mahaney, and that Mahaney was instead charged with “teaching doctrines and principles that are held to be true by vast millions of American evangelicals.”

In other words, Mohler and Dever put forward their canard of “the Christians are being persecuted,” and they talked as though Mahaney were the victim instead of the many kids who claim that they were raped, sodomized and sexually abused within Sovereign Grace Ministries. And as for their assertion that Mahaney was not accused of wrongdoing, that strikes me as being flat-out inconsistent with the allegations of the lawsuit. Mahaney was accused of being “a member of the ongoing conspiracy”. . . “to permit sexual deviants to have unfettered access to children for purposes of predation and to obstruct justice by covering up ongoing and past predation.” That sure sounds like accusations of wrongdoing to me.

Clohessy took a look at this sordid saga and wisely drew attention back to where it belongs – to children who have been victimized by sexual abuse. “It’s dreadfully hurtful to child sex-abuse victims when people in authority publicly back accused wrongdoers,” said Clohessy. “Support Rev. Mahaney if you must,” he pleaded, “but do so privately in ways that don’t further harm, depress and scare other child sex-abuse victims into keeping silent and thus helping child predators escape detection and prosecution.”

That’s just one example of why so many people turn to Clohessy when they need information about a clergy sex abuse scandal. Clohessy goes straight to the heart of it.

In prior statements, Clohessy has made clear that he has no illusions about Southern Baptist officials and their unwillingness to ferret out clergy-predators and make kid-protection a top priority.

“I just can’t imagine a more recalcitrant church hierarchy,” said Clohessy in a 2010 interview. “I’ve seen Baptist officials be stunningly cruel. . . .”

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Here’s what I see as a small beacon of light in all this. As reported in a comment on the Wartburg Watch, when those men at Together for the Gospel posted their Mahaney support letter on Facebook, they quickly received well over 100 negative comments. So, they started deleting comments right and left, until finally, they gave up and deleted the whole post. But a guy named Bill Kinnon managed to capture a screen shot before the posting disappeared. Just take a look at how many ordinary decent people saw right through their arrogant charade and called them on the carpet for it. One reader summed up the criticism of the evangelicals’ support letter with this statement: “Shame on you for belittling the victims’ abuse to protect your boys’ club.” Yeah! Thank you to everyone who stood up to these guys! Bravo!

Yoga at the SNAP Conference

I'll be facilitating a yoga session at the annual SNAP Conference in Washington D.C. this summer. If you can, please come join me! 

Who:  Survivors of clergy sex abuse

What:  SNAP conference 2013

When: July 26-28, 2013

Where: Washington D.C.

SNAP, the Survivors’ Network of those Abused by Priests, is the largest international support group for women and men who were sexually abused by religious authority figures – i.e., by priests, preachers, ministers, deacons, nuns and others. It is a nonprofit organization that is independent of any religious group and that carries no connections to any church or denominational entity.

The conference takes place from Friday July 26 to Sunday July 28, and the yoga session will be one of the breakout events at the conference. It will be a come-as-you-are chair yoga session that anyone can participate in even if they’ve never done yoga before. No mat needed. So come one, come all!

Here’s why I’m excited about yoga at the SNAP conference. A regular yoga practice can be an effective tool for dealing with post-traumatic stress disorder, which is something many abuse survivors struggle with. Yoga’s effectiveness has been demonstrated through pilot programs funded by the Pentagon, and based on the clinical results of those programs, the military is now incorporating yoga into many veterans’ centers and veterans’ hospitals. Yoga can lower cortisol, the stress hormone; it can activate the parasympathetic nervous system, which is calming; and it can deactivate the limbic brain, which is often overactive in people with a history of serious trauma.

So, the SNAP conference would be a good place to try an introductory yoga session for yourself. And whether or not you can make it to the SNAP conference, think about giving yoga a try. If it can benefit veterans with PTSD issues, then it can benefit clergy sex abuse survivors as well.

I’ll also be a featured speaker for one of the plenary sessions at the SNAP conference. My topic is “Baptistland: Where we’ve been, where we’re going, and lessons learned.” I’ll also be sharing bits of my own story, including my thoughts on what “cancer times two” has taught me about the trauma of childhood sex abuse.

I’m truly honored to be part of this event. You can find out more about the SNAP conference and register for it here.

Trauma psychologist Peter Levine wrote that “trauma is not what happens to us, but what we hold inside us in the absence of an empathetic witness.” I often think that one of the most powerful healing graces of SNAP is that it provides a forum through which clergy abuse survivors can do for one another what faith communities – and often even our own families – could not bring themselves to do. It provides a forum through which we ourselves can bear witness to one another’s trauma. So, whether or not you can make it to the conference, I hope you’ll consider the possibility of connecting with a SNAP group in your area.

Have some questions? Need more info about the conference? Contact Barbara Dorris at snapdorris@gmail.com / 312-455-1499.

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Want to understand more about the PTSD effects of child sex abuse? Watch this YouTube video, published May 23, 2013. Attorney Eric MacLeish talks about his own PTSD struggles in adulthood resulting from sexual abuse in childhood. He became dysfunctional; his personal life crumbled; his marriage fell apart; his work went by the wayside; and he couldn’t even go to Boston for a while because it triggered too many memories and flashbacks. “I was a tough guy,” says MacLeish, “but I couldn’t deal with this until I was in my mid-50’s.”

Why I do this

Sammy Nuckolls

Last fall, Southern Baptist pastor Sammy Nuckolls was convicted on more than a dozen counts of video voyeurism and sentenced to 10 years in prison. Nuckolls used concealed cameras, including pen cameras, to surreptitiously film women showering and in bathrooms. Nuckolls was convicted in Mississippi, but he was also arrested in two counties in Arkansas, and additional allegations were made against him in Virginia and Texas.

Investigators found numerous videos on Nuckolls’ computer and identified 21 victims on the videos they recovered. However, investigators believe Nuckolls made hundreds of such videos over the past 15 years, and so it is likely that hundreds more women and girls may have been victimized. Between 2003 and 2011, Nuckolls worked as a camp pastor for summer youth camps sponsored by the Southern Baptist Convention’s Lifeway Christian Resources.

Just a couple weeks ago, a Texas woman whom I’ll call Connie wrote to me. She describes some of the evidence that came out at Nuckolls’ sentencing hearing, including his use of a spycam pen in the spine of his bible. But what Connie talks about the most is how she was treated by her church. She describes the church-provided counseling as having “a Cesare Borgia quality” – that’s a way of saying it was cunningly cruel – and she says that she and other victims were “curb-stomped” – another powerful metaphor of brutality.

What is obvious is that Connie’s wounds derive not only from the perverse deeds of Sammy Nuckolls but also – and perhaps even more so – from others whom she believes covered up for Nuckolls, who blamed the victims, and who minimized the harm. I’ve heard these kinds of stories too many times, but it’s people like Connie who remind me of why I keep doing this. Thank you, Connie.

Dear Christa,

As a victim of a Southern Baptist sexual predator, traveling youth pastor Sammy Nuckolls, I cannot begin to tell you how important your blog is to those suffering. . . .  Sammy probably taped hundreds of girls as he was the …camp pastor for Lifeway-Centrifuge Camps all over the South and Southeastern U.S. from 2003-2011. He preached to over 100,000 kids ages 11-17 years old during this 8-9 year span of time.

Police investigating the case said that they were 100% sure that Sammy had sold and/or traded his films although they declined to pursue any investigation or effort to remove the tapes from voyeur websites. So for us victims, the devastation continues as we wait for the day someone we know sees our videos.

 

Although not every single church involved -- and there are plenty -- supported Sammy or helped him out in sentencing, I can say that every single church involved ignored, covered up and/or spurned the victims of his many crimes. Every. Single. One. 

That is why your blog is so bloody important . . . . What you write is one of the few things that helps to set against all of this evil and corporate misconduct. We used to go to [a megachurch in Texas] . . . . I cannot tell you what it feels like to have your entire world yanked out from underneath you like a cheap rug, because almost all of our friends and people we thought of as family all go to [the church]. And all we can do now is sit alone in stunned silence.

That is why your work is so very important. You are the voice for all of the rest of us who won't ever be heard. You are the tiny piece of justice for all the rest of us denied. Texas is filing NO charges whatsoever. Sammy and his accomplices .. . are, therefore, not going to face any justice for the horrors of what they did here . . . .

But [this church’s leaders]… told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram and the Dallas Morning News that Sammy only spoke 3 - 6 times total at [this church] and the pastors decided to not notify anyone because they conducted their own investigation and found no wrong-doing. And yes, they knew fully well the number of confirmed victims. We personally attended every Wednesday night youth group . . . and we can document, independently, over two dozen times Sammy was paid to preach to the kids . . . . 

[The church’s] message is simple -- if you ever say anything remotely negative, we will shoot you down using a skilled professional . . . . One of their Executive Senior Pastors called and BLAMED US (since we were at the youth services every Wed night) and tried to make us stay silent citing the guilt we ought to feel for not "seeing any red flags" sooner as if it was our fault. They also continued to bully us even after leaving, calling to tell us that we should not testify in person or in writing against Sammy at his Mississippi sentencing hearing. He actually referred to Sammy's 13 felony sex crime CONVICTIONS as a "goofy situation" but would only admit that Sammy "might have crossed a few lines" (there were 7 weeks in between the convictions and his sentencing hearing . . . so the issue of guilt was not in question at this time.)

Hopefully you can see from this that it is people like you who are the only hope for the many people like us, that anyone might ever be held remotely accountable for their bad actions or at least feel like they can't hide as easily with your flashlight of truth shining in their filthy basements of deceit and cover-ups.

Thank you again, from the bottom of my heart, for what you are doing. I sincerely hope that you will continue this mighty work. May God continue to bless you for doing what others cannot or will not do.

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For another view on how churches inflict so much additional harm when their minister is accused of sexual abuse, see this recent story, also out of Texas: "The second-worst church in the world," 5/2/2013 

 

Related post: Contract preachers and accountability avoidance, 11/6/2011

007 "hitman against bad publicity"

Lawrence Swicegood

When I wrote about evangelicals’ “long history of using militaristic metaphors,” readers sent me some more examples. Here’s the one that I just couldn’t resist sharing.

At the Gateway multi-campus megachurch in Texas, their public relations guy is Lawrence Swicegood. To quote my reader, he’s the church’s “hitman against bad publicity.”

With his 007 pose in the church's online staff directory, it looks as though Swicegood might be pointing a gun, but I think it might actually be a journalist’s tape recorder. Whatever it is he’s pointing, presumably that’s his “deadly weapon of choice” in protecting the church against bad publicity. (I imagine the church probably thinks this looks edgy and cool; personally, I think it’s in poor taste – but you can decide for yourself.)

Gateway describes itself as “a Bible-based, evangelistic, Spirit-empowered church.” Much like the Prestonwood Baptist multi-campus megachurch – also in the Dallas/Fort Worth metroplex – Gateway is huge and has enormous financial resources. It’s 2012 financial report shows annual revenues of over $75 million and assets of over $156 million.

People often ask me why there’s not more media coverage of the Prestonwood clergy abuse cover-up scandal. I’ve gotten the same question about many other churches around the country, including many other churches in the Dallas/Fort Worth area.

But look at their resources. A church like Prestonwood has a constant stream of ready revenues from all those tens of thousands of members who think they’re putting their dollars in the offering plate to do God’s work. Meanwhile, a big chunk of those dollars actually get used to hire a paid “hitman against bad publicity” – a guy who’s paid to keep the corporate brand – oops, I mean church brand – clean in the media.

Swicegood used to do media work for the White House. He even played golf with the President (and yes – he makes a point of telling people about it). So, I expect Swicegood is probably one heckuva good spinmeister and I don’t imagine a guy like that gets hired on the cheap.

I think you have to assume that most other megachurches – churches such as Prestonwood -- also have high-powered and highly-paid public relations people. That’s a big part of how churches such as Prestonwood are able to minimize, and sometimes totally squelch, ugly stories like a clergy sex abuse cover-up scandal.

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For still another view on the assault metaphors of many prominent evangelicals, consider these comments by Southern Baptist guru Richard Land. With the recent announcement that he would become the new president of Southern Evangelical Seminary, Land proclaimed that his goal was to produce graduates who would be “the green berets and paratroopers of God’s army, and who will be used by him to win tremendous victories….”

 

Related posts:
Boots, biscuits and Prestonwood Baptist, 3/18/2013
People to remember in the Prestonwood/Morrison Heights scandal, 2/9/2013
Baptists should heed mother’s call for accountability, 1/29/2013
Prestonwood saga shows clergy abuse database is overdue, ABP, 8/19/2011