tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3874123597623259718.post907721354048755221..comments2024-03-17T16:21:14.907-05:00Comments on Stop Baptist Predators: Among Baptists, who will give a hoot?Christa Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04560409585720043015noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3874123597623259718.post-27611395163706282832010-05-21T13:50:17.052-05:002010-05-21T13:50:17.052-05:00Elana, Because most child molesters have more than...Elana, Because most child molesters have more than one victim, and because so many victims are unable to speak of it until many years later, 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 and to keep records on abuse reports. This is what Baptists are nowhere close to doing, and individual churches cannot effectively do this on their own. Thanks for your interest and efforts, Elana. I hope you will also write to your state and national denominational leaders and urge effective action for the creation of a denominational office to which clergy abuse survivors may safely report abuse with some reasonable expectation that their reports will be responsibly and objectively assessed.<br /><br />From my perspective, so long as Baptists have no system for doing anything about abuse they are actually told about, I think there is little reason to believe that they will be able to prevent abuse they don't yet know about.Christa Brownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04560409585720043015noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3874123597623259718.post-7133707522690187452010-05-21T13:32:49.427-05:002010-05-21T13:32:49.427-05:00I accidentally stumbled onto this blog a few weeks...I accidentally stumbled onto this blog a few weeks ago and left a comment about how shocked I was to be a member of a Baptist church and to have never heard a word about any of this.<br />Nevertheless, though, I am a Baptist and I DO give a hoot!<br />I looked around for a class in recogizing signs of sexual abuse in children and how to spot child sexual predators...in a Baptist church in my area and couldn't find anything. So I contacted a local Catholic church and signed up for a two hour seminar entitled "Protecting God's Children." <br />It was wonderfully helpful and informative. It taught me early warning signs of child sex abuse, and how to control access to the children in my church. It gave me tools for spotting potential sexual offenders and the importance of monitoring all programs that include children/adults. I learned that child abusers are attracted to wherever they can get the most unlimited access to children: churches/places with lax standards regarding children! There were also two videos we watched (both very disturbing) containing confessions from both children that had been abused and two abusers. I was flabbergasted...one predator admitting to molesting more than 500 children!<br />I plan to take this information back to my church and demand changes in our policy. Now I feel like I can implement changes in my church to make a difference in the lives our most vulnerable members and my own two children.<br />Thanks, Christa, for such a great site, I feel completely energized and vigilant...why couldn't Baptist churches offer something like "Protecting God's Children" in their churches? Does anybody know why not?Elana D.noreply@blogger.com