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Posted on 03/31/2007 3:57:00 PM PDT by narses
The clergy sexual abuse statistics were staggering.
Local reports from angry, hurt and humiliated laypeople were too horrifying to ignore.
So the assembled church leaders decided that they had to say something, they had to call for some kind of action because they were facing a nasty moral crisis.
"We encourage those religious bodies dealing with the tragedy of clergy abuse in their efforts to rid their ranks of predatory ministers," said their June 12 resolution. "We call on civil authorities to punish to the fullest extent of the law sexual abuse among clergy and counselors. ...
"We call on our churches to discipline those guilty of any sexual abuse ... as well as to cooperate with civil authorities in the prosecution of those cases."
Thus, the "messengers" to the annual meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention acknowledged that America's largest non-Catholic flock has been hit by waves of clergy sexual abuse affecting untold numbers of women, men, teen-agers and children. The resolution, which passed with little opposition, called for "ministers of the gospel -- whether they are pastors, counselors, educators, missionaries, chaplains or others -- to be above reproach morally, both within the body of Christ and in the larger community."
The intent of is clear. Yet this statement also demonstrates why it will be hard for freewheeling and autonomous Protestant congregations to attack clergy sexual abuse.
While news media have repeatedly focused on abuse among Catholics, Protestant insiders have also long known that many of their own clergy -- especially youth workers and pastors who do counseling -- were breaking the laws of God and man.
"The incidence of sexual abuse by clergy has reached 'horrific proportions,' " according to a 2000 report to the Baptist General Convention of Texas. It noted that studies conducted in the 1980s found that about 12 percent of ministers had "engaged in sexual intercourse with members" and nearly 40 percent had "acknowledged sexually inappropriate behavior."
Sadly, this report added: "Recent surveys by religious journals and research institutes support these figures. The disturbing aspect of all research is that the rate of incidence for clergy exceeds the client-professional rate for both physicians and psychologists."
Where does the buck stop, when sexual abuse hits Protestant pulpits? The Southern Baptist resolution calls on local churches to discipline sex offenders. Yet the most powerful person in modern Protestantism is a successful pastor whose preaching and people skills keep packing people into the pews. Can his own church board truly investigate and discipline that pastor?
Once that question is asked, others quickly follow.
If the board of deacons in a Southern Baptist congregation faced an in-house sex scandal and wanted help, where could it turn? It could seek help from its competition, the circle of churches in its local association. Or it could appeal to its state convention. In some states, "conservative" and "moderate" churches would need to choose between competing conventions linked to these rival Baptist camps. Or could a church appeal for help from the boards and agencies of the 16-million-member national convention?
Everything depends on that local church and everything is voluntary. One more question: What Baptist leader would dare face the liability issues involved in guiding such a process?
"Just think of all the places where this process could go off the rails," said historian Timothy Weber, dean of Northern Baptist Theological Seminary near Chicago. "One church would have to take the initiative to voluntarily report the information on a bad pastor. Then another church would have to voluntarily go through the process of asking for information so that they can screen a pastor that it is thinking about hiring."
Some state conventions might have the staff and know how to create a data bank of information of clergy sexual abuse. But for Baptist leaders to do so, they would risk clashing with their tradition's total commitment to the freedom and the autonomy of the local congregation.
"The fact is," said Weber, "there is no Baptist clearing house for this information -- anywhere. There is no one keeper of the files, nobody out there who has the power to intervene when something goes wrong and people start pointing fingers. There is no there, out there."
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Pray for our Brothers in the Baptist confession as they deal with this issue.
Ping.
Northern Baptist Theological Seminary is not a Southern Baptist Seminary. I question many of the so called facts as not being ture.
As a Catholic, it's not for me to say. But frankly, the hierarchical structure of the Catholic Church didn't help very much, because the bishops did not handle the crisis very well.
What perhaps did the most good was simply getting the problem out in the open and airing it. That was destructive, especially since it was largely done by the Church's enemies in the press. But it did certainly force people to recognize the problem for what it was, and for the most part bishops could no longer play cover up.
The other factor, not much discussed, was the fact that the worse abuses took place during the 1970s, when the whole country was running amok and the Church was filled with activist dissidents. There have been far fewer cases of abuse in recent times.
That's about all I can say. Sexual abuse by pastors is clearly contrary to their Christian mission. Bring it out in the open and I believe the problem will solve itself, no doubt sometimes in messy and unpleasant ways. But it will be solved, and it needs to be solved for the good of souls.
It will not be solved completely, of course. Human institutions are human institutions, and will always have some bad apples. But I think they can usually be recognized for what they are, once they are exposed to publicity.
From the figures and statistics I've studied, any given Catholic priest (historically) is four times more likely to molest an underage child (either sex) than any given "non-hierarchical" pastor. That number IIRC increases by a factor of (at least) 8 if the comparison is made between a Catholic priest and a "mainline Protestant" pastor. If you've got something that shows otherwise, I'd love to see how it stacks up against the other study data that I've read.Give me a day to dig out my notes & show how I arrived at that conclusion, and I'll let everyone here take it apart to their hearts' content.
Wow. Instead of addressing the problem, attack the Catholics.
I guess that's a good a way as any to deflect and ignore the problem in one's own living room.
On another thread, a Catholic poster stated that "the amount of molesting by Catholic Priests appears to be substantially less frequent than that of non-hierarchical religions. Again, this is not intended to be a slam at anyone, just a compare and contrast."
My response (reproduced in post 7, above) was an attempt to debate that conclusion. Rather than continue to hijack that thread further, I suggested that someone start a new one to continue the discussion. Narses was also on that thread, and he must have ran with the idea.
My comments aren't intended as a slam, either - just a "compare and contrast" using some statistical analysis I'd done off-line since the last time "sexual abuse among Protestants" was brought up.
One could also (wrongly) see my posting this article as attacking the Baptist confession and their members. Rather, it was posted to respect the thread Alex refers to and explore the actual issues of abuse among clergy. An ugly, sinful issue, but certainly one worthy of open debate.
This happens everywhere, and it is WRONG no matter where it happens! This is not a Catholic or a Protestant problem it is a sin problem. It should never be condoned or covered up by anyone as I am sure you would agree. How sad.
He wasn't the FReeper who posted the article, then gave it a pro-catholic ping.
Yes, how could posting an article that is five years old with no updates on what has been or not been done by the Southern Baptists regarding this issue since passing this resolution in 2002 ever be construed as an attack?
It seems everyone here has such thin skin these days.
The idea for this thread was ours. If there's any "attacks" on Baptists, Protestants, or Catholics, they'll have to contend with us first and foremost. ladyinred said it best - it's a sin problem.
Well, perhaps instead of a fear-reaction, posters spoke to the issues raised, that would suffice?
This thread is pathetic. Baptists and Catholics squabbling over who has less pedo ministers? What a wonderful testimony to the Christian faith.
The cultural Marxism strategy developed by Gramsci is equal-opportunity against all governmental and mainstream institutions, for the sake of destroying trust in those institutions to abet the advancement of Communism.
Roman Catholicism is a bigger target for this than most Protestant churches because of its fabulously deep pockets and the fact that it is more hierarchical, as stated upthread, which makes it immensely more difficult for a local congregation to remove corruption.
You have mistaken a cynical reply for a fear reaction. But what the hey today is the first day of National Child Abuse Prevention Month and there are literally hundreds of articles out there that could be posted for this discussion, but I guess this five year old one will have to do.
The biggest reason (next to pride or shame) that most churches do not report child abuse is that of liability.
In most states, the law requires that when child sexual abuse is discovered that abuse must be reported.
In states where reporting abuse is required, the state seldom pursues those who do not, especially in churches.
We need to change the laws where liabilities are capped for those who report abuse promptly and anyone withholding information about child abuse is prosecuted. This would give incentives for churches to be proactive in preventing child abuse and serve as a deterrent for those wishing to covering up abuse activities.
In a perfect world and in a perfect church laws would be unnecessary to prevent abuse in the church. But this is not a perfect world and no church is perfect so we must not leave churches to police themselves, expecting only positive results.
Millstones and prison sentences await those who abuse children, why is it not the same for those who hide this abuse?
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