Protestant Clergy Abuse

[slushpuppy]

I found this article interesting.


[quote][/quote]Sex abuse spans spectrum of churches
The Christian Science Monitor ^ | April 05, 2002 | Mark Clayton


Posted on 10/01/2005 8:23:16 AM PDT by narses


Despite headlines focusing on the priest pedophile problem in the Roman Catholic Church, most American churches being hit with child sexual-abuse allegations are Protestant, and most of the alleged abusers are not clergy or staff, but church volunteers.

These are findings from national surveys by Christian Ministry Resources (CMR), a tax and legal-advice publisher serving more than 75,000 congregations and 1,000 denominational agencies nationwide.

CMR's annual surveys of about 1,000 churches nationwide have asked about sexual abuse since 1993. They're a remarkable window on a problem that lurked largely in the shadows of public awareness until the Catholic scandals arose.

The surveys suggest that over the past decade, the pace of child-abuse allegations against American churches has averaged 70 a week. The surveys registered a slight downward trend in reported abuse starting in 1997, possibly a result of the introduction of preventive measures by churches.

"I think the CMR numbers are striking, yet quite reasonable," says Anson Shupe, anIndiana University professor who's written books about church abuse. "To me it says Protestants are less reluctant to come forward because they don't put their clergy on as high a pedestal as Catholics do with their priests." At least 70 incidents a week

Dr. Shupe suggests the 70 allegations-per-week figure actually could be higher, because underreporting is common. He discovered this in 1998 while going door to door in Dallas-Ft. Worth communities where he asked 1,607 families if they'd experienced abuse from those within their church. Nearly 4 percent said they had been victims of sexual abuse by clergy. Child sexual abuse was part of that, but not broken out, he says.

James Cobble, executive director of CMR, who oversees the survey, says the data show that child sex-abuse happens broadly across all denominations– and that clergy aren't the major offenders.

"The Catholics have gotten all the attention from the media, but this problem is even greater with the Protestant churches simply because of their far larger numbers," he says.

Of the 350,000 churches in the US, 19,500 – 5 percent – are Roman Catholic. Catholic churches represent a slightly smaller minority of churches in the CMR surveys which aren't scientifically random, but "representative" demographic samples of churches, Dr. Cobble explains.

Since 1993, on average about 1 percent of the surveyed churches reported abuse allegations annually. That means on average, about 3,500 allegations annually, or nearly 70 per among the predominantly Protestant group, Cobble says.

The CMR findings also reveal:

• Most church child-sexual-abuse cases involve a single victim.

• Law suits or out-of-court settlements were a result in 21 percent of the allegations reported in the 2000 survey.

• Volunteers are more likely than clergy or paid staff to be abusers. Perhaps more startling, children at churches are accused of sexual abuse as often as are clergy and staff. In 1999, for example, 42 percent of alleged child abusers were volunteers – about 25 percent were paid staff members (including clergy) and 25 percent were other children.

Still, it is the reduction of reported allegations over nine years that seems to indicate that some churches are learning how to slow abuse allegations with tough new prevention measures, say insurance company officials and church officials themselves.

The peak year for allegations was 1994, with 3 percent of churches reporting an allegation of sexual misconduct compared with just 0.1 percent in 2000. But 2001 data, indicates a swing back to the 1 percent level, still significantly less than the 1993 figures, Cobble says.

Child sexual-abuse insurance claims have slowed, too, industry sources say.

Hugh White, vice president of marketing for Brotherhood Mutual Insurance, in Ft. Wayne, Ind., suggests that the amount of abuse reported in the CMR 2001 data is reasonable though "at the higher end" of the scale.

Mr. White's company insures 30,000 churches – about 0.2 percent to 0.3 percent of which annually report an "incident" of child sexual abuse. But he says that his churches are more highly educated on child abuse prevention procedures than most, which may account for a lower rate of reported abuse than the CMR surveys.

What all the data show is a settling that followed "a large spike" in the frequency and severity of church sexual misconduct claims from the mid-1980s, White says.

"Church insurance carriers implemented educational programs and policies that have helped decrease and then stabilize the trend," agrees Jan Beckstrom, chief operating officer for the church insurer GuideOne Insurance in West Des Moines, Iowa.

CMR surveys also show many smaller churches have lagged in starting such programs, while larger churches with more resources and management controls have led the way. And for good reason: They have more to lose, and a larger abuse problem.

"I don't know of a church that isn't doing this," says Simeon May, of the Richardson, Tex.-based National Association of Church Business Administration, which gives training for large churches with administrators.

At Grace Community Church in Tempe, Ariz., the executive pastor, Gary Maitha, says his church has adopted a tougher sort of love since 2000. That's when criminal background checks, finger printing, detailed questionnaires, and careful policies – such as never having children and adults "one-on-one" – kicked into gear. It's a necessity with 700 to 800 children showing up for Sunday School and many more for other church activities during the week, he says.

"We have fingerprinting and a criminal background check for anyone over age 18 that works with children," says the Rev. Maitha. "If it comes back with a blemish, they're not working with kids. That's all there is to it."

Debby DeBernardi, director of Grace Community's children's ministry, says church policies require, for instance, that adults go in pairs when supervising bathroom breaks for children and that they check to ensure no adults are in the bathrooms, before children enter. Fingerprints for Sunday school

Men who've been screened and fingerprinted may work in the nursery. But only female staff members – not volunteers – may change diapers. Only adults wearing an identity badge that indicates they've been cleared may work with children – and photo IDs are coming soon. Some long-time volunteers, offended by all the new policies, have bowed out of children's activities.

But the new procedures have already proven their worth, Ms. DeBernardi says. "We did have someone already apply who had a police file and had been accused of child molestation. Because of our new procedures, we caught it.... Sometimes you have to bring people in and say, 'Look, you're welcome to come to the church, we love you. But you may not minister in the children's area.' "

That sort of toughness is swiftly becoming a prerequisite for insurance coverage, and to protect against lawsuits and false allegations, which can be nearly as demoralizing to a church organization.

The problem, Cobble says, is that churches are the perfect environment for sexual predators, because they have large numbers of children's' programs, a shortage of workers to lead them, and a culture of trust that is the essence of the organization.

Churches have been active since the early 1990s in addressing the problem, Cobble reports. More than 100,000 copies of a book he co-authored, "Reducing the risk of Child Sexual Abuse in Your Church" were sold.

Since January, when Roman Catholic dioceses nationwide began drawing headlines over pedophile priests, some church organizations have focused anew on revamping sexual abuse policies.

The Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America, for instance, is reportedly drafting a new sexual- abuse policy.

Ralph Colas, of the American Council of Christian Churches, a Bethlehem, Penn. organization representing fundamentalist denominations, reports fresh activity. "I've helped several churches this last week draw up some guideline policies," he says. "I've encouraged churches to secure legal advice, to make sure they are meeting the legal mandatory reporting requirements." Fear of lawsuits sparked new rules

But the shift to "trust but verify" – impelled to a degree by current headlines – has been ongoing since a conference in Chicago in November 1992 when more than 100 denominational leaders met for the first time to discuss how to deal with child sex abuse. About that time, insurance companies were dropping coverage of churches without screening policies.

"What drove leaders to begin to respond to this issue was not the welfare of children," Cobble says. "It was fear of large, costly lawsuits." [quote][/quote]

[CatherineM]

This isn't just in churches that these kind of procedures are being instituted. You can't imagine what I went through just to be able to attend Boy Scout camp outs with my foster sons, or be a team mom at the little league. I never allowed myself to ever be alone with someone else's child. I remember at an out of town baseball tournament, one of the boys, I think they were 10 years old at the time, had a zipper malfunction. He wanted me to fix it right then in the dugout so he wouldn't have to come out of the game. Yeah, I was definitely going to be doing that. One of the male coaches ended up putting his jacket around him, and they handed me the pants, and thankfully we were up to bat a long time that inning, and they got him back in his pants before he had to go back out to the field.

[homeschoolmom]

And the funny thing is, the poor ten-year old kid was probably wonder what all the fuss was about... he just needed help with a zipper....

[Anomaly]

And the 10 year old was probably even more embarassed over the huge deal that was made because innocence has been ripped away.

[cmotherofpirl]

Innappropriate sexual behavior has been running rampant in public schools for years, but only recently has it caught the attention of the media. Teachers have been routinely been transferred for years to other schools and other districts without a word spoken for fear of the teachers unions.

[Anomaly]

[quote name='cmotherofpirl' post='1385403' date='Sep 14 2007, 11:56 AM']Innappropriate sexual behavior has been running rampant in public schools for years, but only recently has it caught the attention of the media. Teachers have been routinely been transferred for years to other schools and other districts without a word spoken for fear of the teachers unions.[/quote]I thought that only happened in Florida, where we have special rules for female sexual predators so they don't have to stay in jail too long.

[thessalonian]

The Catholic Church makes the news first of all because of it's being "a light on the hill for all to see" and secondly because of money (law suits). Another thing that does not hit the radar screen is that in the 90's the Southern Baptists convention did a study and found that 11% of their pastors had committed adultery. Not pointing this out to point fingers. I am sure there are preists with inappropriate behavior of the adult variety as well. It just shows that ALL men are sinners in need of a savior.

[thessalonian]

Actually the numbers are a bit higher than I said above. Not much is being said about this and I don't recall anything being done about it. They certainly aren't stepping down at a 14% rate and it sounds like others usually know about it.

[url="http://www.probe.org/content/view/13/72/"]http://www.probe.org/content/view/13/72/[/url]

The Journal of Pastoral Care in 1993 rPerhaps you are thinking, "This is just a problem with non-Christians in society. It can't be a problem in the church. Certainly the moral standards of Christians are higher." Well, there is growing evidence that adultery is also a problem in Christian circles. An article in a 1997 issue of Newsweek magazine noted that various surveys suggest that as many as 30 percent of male Protestant ministers have had sexual relationships with women other than their wives.{5}eported a survey of Southern Baptist pastors in which 14 percent acknowledged they had engaged in "sexual behavior inappropriate to a minister." It also reported that 70 percent had counseled at least one woman who had had intercourse with another minister.
A 1988 survey of nearly 1000 Protestant clergy by Leadership magazine found that 12 percent admitted to sexual intercourse outside of marriage, and that 23 percent had done something sexually inappropriate with someone other than their spouse. The researchers also interviewed nearly 1000 subscribers to Christianity Today who were not pastors. They found the numbers were nearly double: 45 percent indicated having done something sexually inappropriate, and 23 percent having extramarital intercourse.{6}

Edited September 14, 2007 by thessalonian

[prose]

I think this borders on pointing out the speck in someone else's eyes before taking the log out of our own.

I don't mean to be rude, but I think sexual abuse is SOOOOO serious. I think sometimes (maybe here, maybe not) when people say "we have done it but it isn't as bad as them", that it gives the impression that we don't take our own indiscretions seriously.

"We are bad, but not THAT bad" is not good enough.

I am so proud of how the Church is handling this situation, and I sincerely hope and pray that even more is done to avoid these scandals in the future. Maybe we can be an example f what faith filled Christians SHOULD be and not so much what is being lived right now.

Okay, I will get off my soap box now...

**steps down and leaves***

Edited September 14, 2007 by prose

[thessalonian]

As I said the point of my posts were not for finger pointing. Nor do I say "we're bad but not that bad". I never use these statics in and offensive (offense vs. defense) but only when the Church is attacked by non-catholics who use it in this manner. There certainly has been alot of cleaning up needed in the preist scandal and likely more in the future. We both (protestants and Catholics) actually have had logs in our eyes regarding sexual issues and the ministry.

Edited September 14, 2007 by thessalonian

[CatherineM]

I think so much of this does hurt the kids. I was the only stay at home mom in a medium sized apartment building. I spent my afternoons fixing boo-boos, and helping with homework. The latch keys kids all knew that I was home if something happened. One little boy ate microwaved stuff for dinner every night, and once he pulled the plastic wrap off too quickly, and burned a finger. I never knew what was going to be next when I heard little knocks at the door. I fixed him up. It was really minor, and mostly needed a mom to kiss it and make it better, and his mom was going to be at work for several more hours. He wrapped his arms around my neck, and just about strangled the life out of me. I was scared that he'd tell someone that I had hugged him.

Teachers are afraid, or even forbidden, to touch a student in any way, even a consoling hand on the shoulder. That's the real shame here, is that kids are growing up without enough touch, and with the belief if someone touches them that it is wrong. The same boy that I had to fix his uniform zipper was one of the ones who ran wild at the hotel in just his underwear, so everyone had seen him that way numerous times. After that he did seem much more reserved. I guess it was kind of like the knowledge that Adam and Eve got after eating the forbidden fruit.

[prose]

I know how you feel. Being a youth minister I have to be soooooooooooo careful.
It makes my job hard when people want to confide in me, but I am too scared to even talk with the door closed.

[Paladin D]

It's sad how a few can ruin society for the majority.

[LouisvilleFan]

[quote name='CatherineM' post='1385475' date='Sep 14 2007, 02:16 PM']Teachers are afraid, or even forbidden, to touch a student in any way, even a consoling hand on the shoulder. That's the real shame here, is that kids are growing up without enough touch, and with the belief if someone touches them that it is wrong.[/quote]

And that only perpetuates the problem, as those kids grow up starving for that touch and that starvation drives them to commit unthinkable crimes. We think lawsuits can bring justice and correct society's ills, but this is just another example of how man-made solutions create more man-made problems.

[Winchester]

Our government has repeatedly refused to protect the children. The judicial system hasn't the guts to do what is needed, and juries are filled with the weak and indecisive because defense attorneys are often not interested in justice, but in victory. These predators are released. The only real answer is for parents of abused children to remove the abusers themselves. Of course, this is still after the abuse, but a dead predator can't do it again, like Couey did after the great (read completely stupid) idea of registering sex offenders.