Posted on 09/27/2013 2:58:08 PM PDT by Brian Kopp DPM
AUSTIN, Texas (RNS) The Christian mission field is a “magnet” for sexual abusers, Boz Tchividjian, a Liberty University law professor who investigates abuse said Thursday (Sept. 26) to a room of journalists.
While comparing evangelicals to Catholics on abuse response, ”I think we are worse,” he said at the Religion Newswriters Association conference, saying too many evangelicals had “sacrificed the souls” of young victims.
“Protestants can be very arrogant when pointing to Catholics,” said Tchividjian, a grandson of evangelist Billy Graham and executive director of Godly Response to Abuse in the Christian Environment (GRACE), which has investigated sex abuse allegations.
Earlier this summer, GRACE spearheaded an online petition decrying the “silence” and “inattention” of evangelical leaders to sexual abuse in their churches.
Mission agencies, “where abuse is most prevalent,” often don’t report abuse because they fear being barred from working in foreign countries, he said. Abusers will get sent home and might join another agency. Of known data from abuse cases, 25 percent are repeat cases, he said.
Still, he says, he sees some positive movements among some Protestants. Bob Jones University has hired GRACE to investigate abuse allegations, a move that encourages Tchividjian, a former Florida prosecutor. ”That’s like the mothership of fundamentalism,” he said. His grandfather split with Bob Jones in a fundamentalist and evangelical division.
“The Protestant culture is defined by independence,” Tchividjian said. Evangelicals often frown upon transparency and accountability, he said, as many Protestants rely on Scripture more than religious leaders, compared to Catholics.
Abusers discourage whistle-blowing by condemning gossip to try to keep people from reporting abuse, he said. Victims are also told to protect the reputation of Jesus.
Too many Protestant institutions have sacrificed souls in order to protect their institutions, he said. ”We’ve got the Gospels backwards,” he said.
Tchividjian said he is speaking with Pepperdine University, a Church of Christ-affiliated school in California, about creating a national GRACE center.
He “thinks we are worse.” Thinks?
I got the popcorn concession on this one. Also the cleanup from exploding heads - if they emerge from the tall grass to engage.
Don’t know about this, but I do know statistics say school teachers are worse.
Let’s hope it serves as an example to the Roman side.
It is always wrong and should never be covered up.
How do the numbers compare between:
1. Catholics
2. Prodestant
3. Evangelicals
4. Greek Orthodox
5. Coptic
6. Other Orthodox
It would be fascinating to see how the numbers settle out...
Actually, it would be more interesting to spit the Prods up as well.
Notice how he said “Mission agencies, “where abuse is most prevalent,”.....
There are quite a few independent mission agencies operation outside of any denominational oversight. Lone Rangers of sort.
Breaking it all down between denominations and these “mission agencies” would be quite telling.
Empirical proof or just wanting to backhandedly put us in our place and ingratiate yourself to Catholics?
Who, BTW are Christians the same as us.
Asinine comment.
Agreed LOTS of data is needed
Maybe he has blind faith that his theory is true.
Read again what you just posted. If the premise of the original post is true, who is more guilty of a wide scale cover up?!?
And the corollary:
“Oh, if only those evangelicals would allow their ministers to marry, none of this would have happened!”
I would wager that the instance of pedophilia and other forms of sexual predation runs at the same percentage across all populations. The church as an institution is guilty of covering this up which only makes things worse for all religious adherents. Case in point, in my church we recently had to kick out a couple who hid the fact that the husband was a twice convicted of child rape and once of sexual assault on an adult. He was defrocked for it by our denomination but no one in the heirarchy told us about it. Thank God it finally came to our attention because this guy was right in the middle of grooming his next victim and his wife who knew all about him never said a word about it to us. She was the treasurer of our church and a deaconess in the organization. And we are a very conservative church, too. The who thing was just shameful, to say the least.
truth is finally coming out.
These daily hateful attack articles are making me like Catholics less and less.
Indeed. Take the example of a lone wolf independent church with two pastors. If one of the pastors commits pedophilia, that organization would have a 50% abuse rate.
Where was your rightful indignation over the last 12 years of daily hateful attack articles against the Catholic Church scandals? Hypocrisy much?
“Read again what you just posted. If the premise of the original post is true, who is more guilty of a wide scale cover up?!?”
I think your post is emblematic of the problem the Roman Church faces...
Instead of cleaning up, the Roman Church shuffled everyone around and covered things up. Eventually, it became public. Even today on FR, posters prefer to point at others to justify their behavior, instead of living up to God’s standards.
EVERY TIME a church of any denomination allows, excuses or covers up abuse, it is wrong.
the question is who is attacking who? Gerry I can show you site after site, story after story of protestants who were abused just as much as catholics. When are protestants going to admit it happens in their church and stop the finger pointing?
In fact start here because I know the lady who runs this.
http://religionscell.com/blog/
Jews are the worse and it’s covered up by the media.
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