Posted on 06/15/2007 5:33:53 AM PDT by Between the Lines
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — The three companies that insure the majority of Protestant churches in America say they typically receive upward of 260 reports each year of young people under 18 being sexually abused by clergy, church staff, volunteers or congregation members.
The figures released to The Associated Press offer a glimpse into what has long been an extremely difficult phenomenon to pin down — the frequency of sex abuse in Protestant congregations.
Religious groups and victims' supporters have been keenly interested in the figure ever since the Roman Catholic sex abuse crisis hit five years ago. The church has revealed that there have been 13,000 credible accusations against Catholic clerics since 1950.
Protestant numbers have been harder to come by and are sketchier because the denominations are less centralized than the Catholic church; indeed, many congregations are independent, which makes reporting even more difficult.
Some of the only numbers come from three insurance companies — Church Mutual Insurance Co., GuideOne Insurance Co. and Brotherhood Mutual Insurance Co.
Together, they insure 165,495 churches and worship centers for liability against child sex abuse and other sexual misconduct, mostly Protestant congregations but a few other faiths as well. They also insure more than 5,500 religious schools, camps and other organizations.
The companies represent a large chunk of all U.S. Protestant churches. There are about 224,000 in the U.S., according to the Association of Statisticians of American Religious Bodies, although that number excludes most historically black denominations and some other groups, which account for several thousand congregations.
Church Mutual, GuideOne and Brotherhood Mutual each provided statistics on sex abuse claims to The Associated Press, although they did not produce supporting documentation or a way to determine whether the reports were credible.
The largest company, Church Mutual, reported an average of about 100 sex abuse cases a year involving minors over the past decade. GuideOne, which has about half the clients of Church Mutual, said it has received an average of 160 reports of sex abuse against minors every year for the past two decades.
Brotherhood Mutual said it has received an average of 73 reports of child sex abuse and other sexual misconduct every year for the past 15 years. However, Brotherhood does not specify which victims are younger than 18 so it is impossible to accurately add that to the total cases.
Abuse reports don't always mean the accused was guilty, and they don't necessarily result in financial awards or settlements, the companies said. The reports include accusations against clergy, church staff and volunteers.
Even with hundreds of cases a year "that's a very small number. That probably doesn't even constitute half," said Gary Schoener, director of the Walk-In Counseling Center in Minneapolis, a consultant on hundreds of Protestant and Catholic clergy misconduct cases. "Sex abuse in any domain, including the church, is reported seldom. We know a small amount actually come forward."
Tom Farr, general counsel and senior vice president of claims for GuideOne, based in West Des Moines, Iowa, said most abuse cases are resolved privately in court-ordered mediation. Awards can range from millions of dollars down to paying for counseling for victims, he said.
One of the largest settlements to date in Protestant churches involved the case of former Lutheran minister Gerald Patrick Thomas Jr. in Texas, where a jury several years ago awarded the minister's victims nearly $37 million. Separate earlier settlements involving Thomas cost an additional $32 million.
When insurance companies first started getting reports of abuse from churches nearly two decades ago, the cases usually involved abuse that happened many years earlier. But over the past several years, the alleged abuse is more recent — which could reflect a greater awareness about reporting abuse, insurance companies said.
Insurance officials said the number of sex abuse cases has remained steady over the past two decades, but they also said churches are working harder to prevent child sex abuse by conducting background checks, installing windows in nurseries and play areas and requiring at least two adults in a room with a child.
Patrick Moreland, vice president of marketing for Church Mutual, said churches are particularly susceptible to abusers.
"By their nature, congregations are the most trusting of organizations, so that makes them attractive targets for predators," he said. "If you're a predator, where do you go? You go to a congregation that will welcome you."
A victims' advocacy group has said the Southern Baptists, the nation's largest Protestant denomination, could do more to prevent abuse by creating a list of accused clergy the public and churches could access.
"I think they should have a list of credibly reported clergy child abuse," said Christa Brown, a member of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, a group initially created to hold the Catholic church accountable for sex abuse by its clergy.
"These are things people are entitled to know," said Brown, who says she was sexually abused as a child by a Southern Baptist minister. "The only way to prevent this crime is to break the code of silence and to have absolute transparency when allegations are raised."
At the Southern Baptist Convention's annual meeting in San Antonio this week, the Rev. Wade Burleson of Enid, Okla., proposed a feasibility study into developing a national database of Southern Baptist ministers who have been "credibly accused of, personally confessed to, or legally been convicted of sexual harassment or abuse."
A convention committee referred Burleson's motion to the SBC executive committee, which will report back with findings and a recommendation at next year's meeting in Indianapolis.
Southern Baptist President Frank Page said leaders are considering several options to help churches protect children against abuse.
"We believe that the Scripture teaches that the church should be an autonomous, independent organization," Page said. "We encourage churches to hold accountable at the local level those who may have misused the trust of precious children and youth."
Several years ago, the Baptist General Convention of Texas, which represents moderates who have increasingly distanced themselves from the conservative-led Southern Baptists, started a list of accused clergy for churches, but not the public. Under pressure from victim advocates, the Texas group just released the names of some convicted sex offenders who may have been ministers in local congregations.
Joe Trull, editor of Christian Ethics Today and retired ethics professor at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary, helped the Texas convention create its registry and says there are now about 11 cases involving clergy abuse with minors.
But he believes these are just the "tip of the iceberg" because churches don't have to report abuse cases to the registry and aren't likely to.
"The problem we're having is that churches just weren't sending the names," Trull said. "In the normal scenario, they just try to keep it secret. We're going to have to be more proactive and let them know if they don't come forward, they're helping to perpetuate this problem."
Ping for reference
No kidding! And the New York Times was ... silent. And the Washington Post was ... silent. CNN was ... silent. ABCCBSNBC was ... silent.
"We believe that the Scripture teaches that the church should be an autonomous, independent organization," Page said. "We encourage churches to hold accountable at the local level those who may have misused the trust of precious children and youth."
Fascinating.
*The term 'proddie', as used in this post, is intended as an abbreviation for those ecclesiastic communities that were founded in Western/ Central Europe or Western-European influenced areas following the 'reformation.' It is not indicative of the communities' creeds (or lack thereof), progeny, or doctrine. It also is not intended as a perjorative, as used here, in any fashion. Copyright © 2007. All rights reserved.
I would suspect that a lot of the abuse cases involve young, single, male youth pastors violating a commandment or two with 15 - 17 year old girls that they are chrged with “shepherding”. I have been to two churches where that was rumored to have occured or at least be strongly suspected.
A smart church will have their youth pastors be 25-40, married and with a kid or two of their own. This won’t weed out the flat out pedo-pervs, but it would cut down on the 22 year old youth pastor fresh out of bible college being tempted into “intense fellowship” with the 16 year old girls he is assigned to work with.
We recently were required to attend an “ethics training” that the insurers told us would reduce our insurance costs. (I’m a United Methodist.)
The statement is simply that there are trained lawyers who specialize in bringing suits against churches. That was obvious.
What the insurer basically wanted was to be able to go into court with every pastor and church worker on record as having been officially trained not to violate sexual ethics codes. It seems obvious that they would know better, but having their signature saying they were trained not to do such things greatly reduces the church’s liability.
I would not assume it is just the young. I know for a fact that in our denomination that it is not. It crosses all age ranges, even up to retirees.
**Religious groups and victims’ supporters have been keenly interested in the figure ever since the Roman Catholic sex abuse crisis hit five years ago. The church has revealed that there have been 13,000 credible accusations against Catholic clerics since 1950.
Protestant numbers have been harder to come by and are sketchier because the denominations are less centralized than the Catholic church; indeed, many congregations are independent, which makes reporting even more difficult.**
Does anyone have the magic answer telling us why the Protestant churches do NOT report these sexual abuse cases? Or why the media does not pick up those stories when they do come out??
Inquiring minds would like to know.
Where does the liability fall? The pastor, personally? That would be more just, of course, but less lucrative. With a few notorious exceptions, I haven't generally noticed priests and pastors having a great deal of personal wealth.
While they were not entirely silent, they were far from alarmist on the subject.
Abuse by Clergy Is Not Just a Catholic Problem - New York Times
Lutheran minister asked to quit sexuality task force - CNN
Also note that this is an AP article.
Our church has adopted new rules which prohibit any clergy or volunteer to be alone with a youth or someone of the opposite sex. It was hard to adapt to at first but works well now.
Which means every friggin' news outlet from NBC Nightly News down to KPDK in Podunk had it on the wires. I guess a $32 million judgement against a major Protestant church just ain't newsworthy. If I were Protestant, I'd be insulted.
There was a study of Protestant abuses posted here a few months back, which IIRC documented that 75% of the reported cases were committed by laypersons/volunteers, and only 25% committed by the pastorate/clergy. IMO your "young single male" youth pastor resembles the former category rather than the latter, because he is uncommitted and unaccountable in his personal life, and is probably the lowest-paid (assuming he's paid at all) and lowest-ranking member of the church leadership team. In my own church, we've gone through at least three "youth pastors" in six years. Not exactly the same picture of stability and commitment that we get from our Senior Pastor.
A smart church will have their youth pastors be 25-40, married and with a kid or two of their own. This won’t weed out the flat out pedo-pervs, but it would cut down on the 22 year old youth pastor fresh out of bible college being tempted into “intense fellowship” with the 16 year old girls he is assigned to work with.
That's a good recommendation, and I would go even farther if possible. I don't see why the 1 Timothy 3 standards for leadership shouldn't be applied at all levels, all the way down to the youth pastor.
Who do you propose that they should report them to? The Catholic Church?
Or why the media does not pick up those stories when they do come out??
Does the name "Ted Haggard" mean anything to you?
Obviously, the pastor is liable before God.
Lawyers, looking for a big payoff, would want to bring the church into the liability. That would be possible if they can demonstrate some type of negligence on the church’s part.
A lawyers group Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) that formed in response to the Catholic abuse cases are the reason we are seeing more and more articles like this today.
It seems there are not enough Catholic abuses anymore and they smell money in expanding their activities to Protestant areas.
They are correct to suspect cases in the protestant churches and the evangelical church and other religious bodies.
One thing about lawyers that’s very biblical: they COUNT ON the depraved sinfulness of human nature. They can rest assured that some in any group will commit sexual indiscretions.
I seem to recall various Protestants suggesting that the Catholic Church should (have) report(ed) them to the police. I actually consider that a good suggestion. Statutory Rape and Forcible Rape are felonies in all 50 States and the District of Columbia.
I can only speak for myself, but at a certain point I started to notice that young ladies were looking too much like my daughter for me to think of as “attractive”.
That is beginning to include ladies in their early 20’s at my job.
I guess my journey into fogey-ism continues unhindered...
Absolute agreement.
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