Posted on 02/10/2019 7:14:29 PM PST by NYer
” Church music director”
Wink, wink, nudge, nudge
Not only that, the SBC has a very loose hierarchy. Central leadership doesn’t really exist. Churches can come in and out of the convention.
It’s pretty easy to spot the groomers if you really want to spot them.
The SBC website also has a page for Resources for Sexual Abuse Prevention, including links to the national database of sex offenders, information on conducting background checks, help in guarding against child abuse, and 4 resolutions by the SBC aimed at preventing and responding to sexual abuse. Not exactly the “out of sigjt, out of mind” approach presented in the article.
I’ve noted it’s been said before, but the churches are totally independent of SBC control. It’s a voluntary association on both sides. The SBC could kick the churches out, and have done so in some cases.
That said, I don’t see how creating a database of convicted sex offenders would hurt.
Going back 70 years.
The pope counter attacks
Moral equivalence never fails to muddy the waters and clear queer priests
Imagine if the paper did a similar investigation on the Democrat Party.
The CC has a long history of abuse: indulgences, Spanish inquisition, supportive of slavery, supportive of the holocaust, saying who would be able to receive communion at the alter, what’s a little sexual misconduct?
Really? You obviously are not familiar with the case of cardinal Mahoney of LA.
“The Baptist’s turn their criminals in for prosecution.”
That’s what I’ve observed. If this happens in a Baptist church the minute it’s been confirmed, that preacher is out in a skinny minute and turned over to law enforcement. A violater never is shuffled off to another church.
The reason, in part, could be that there’s no organization to do the “shuffling”. Baptist churches are independent in that a pastorate is decided between a pastor and a local church. No organization assigns preachers to their ministries.
Even though SBC is an organization, it doesn’t assign pastorates. (I am not SBC, but have attended SBC churches in the past. Never joined.)
As of Dec, 31, 2013, the latest year for which I could find statistics. Source, CNS
Total number of Baptist clergy worldwide = 168,000.
As of Dec. 31, 2017, the latest year for which I could find statistics, Source, Baptist World Alliance
The ratio of Baptist clergy Catholic clergy is less than 1/2.
This is in no way exact, for many reasons; but it's roughly accurate, a good ballpark estimate -- not "orders of magnitude" wrong --- considering the Catholic Church has (roughly) 1.2 billion members, and is the largest church worldwide, whereas the Baptist Churches, the fifth-largest church grouping, have roughly 47 million members, world total.
Ballpark estimate, as I say.
My point here, is that abuse numbers are not directly comparable. The Catholic Church is much bigger, and has correspondingly bigger abuse numbers. It is not a given that there are more abusers in the Catholic Church as a percentage.
The Catholic Church has a hierarchical structure, which means at worst, when individual clergy offend, the whole structure can be implicated in supervisory malpractice and collusion.
OTOH, the Baptist churches have no defined oversight or canonical reporting requirements from the git-go, so when individual clergy offend, most have no boss or any higher-ups to whom they're officially answerable.
Could most Baptist churches tell you if there were any "credible allegations" against their assistant pastor in 1949? Probably not. They don't even attempt to keep 100 yers' worth of phone logs, correspondence, medical records, psych evaluations, a complete employment record from seminary to cemetery, or anything of the sort.
The bottom line is: the numbers, while not directly comparable, are not orders-of-magnitude different. ANY abuse is hideous. Sin-checking? Check yourself first.
Might want to check http://www.stopbaptistpredators.org/index.htm
And why? Precisely because people who have a strong, persistent attraction toward "youth" for obsessive/compulsive self-gratifying reasons, persistently seek out this type of job.
And like most sociopaths, they present as warm, caring, and charming, and they are fully capable of living double lives.
You're right! According to the article, the pastor was not moved .. he's still there.
Years later, in 2006, she sued the pastor, Dale "Dickie" Amyx, and the church. Amyx reportedly admitted in a deposition he had sex with her when she was a teenager and was the father of her child, but claimed their sex was consensual. He was not charged with a crime. As of 2016, he is still listed as the pastor of that church.
In 2008, Vasquez went to Indianapolis to share her story and plead with officials at the Southern Baptist Convention to implement changes at their estimated 47,000 churches to help prevent future sexual assaults. Days later, they reportedly rejected almost every proposed reform, and the alleged abuse continued.
Yes, if they so choose. In the case cited in this article, that did not happen.
Years later, in 2006, she sued the pastor, Dale "Dickie" Amyx, and the church. Amyx reportedly admitted in a deposition he had sex with her when she was a teenager and was the father of her child, but claimed their sex was consensual. He was not charged with a crime. As of 2016, he is still listed as the pastor of that church.
Wow! That’s terrible. I know of no Baptist church that would allow that to happen. As a preacher’s kid, and niece, cousin, and friend to many Baptist preachers, I can’t even imagine this guy still in the church.
(There were reasons we never joined an SBC church.)
Outrageous. Why wasn’t this dirtbag prosecuted? This guy belongs in prison and the church should be sued for multi millions for allowing and keeping this pervert in this “church”.
“I refuse to equate a male pastor seducing a post-pubescent girl with a male priest seducing a pre-pubescent boy.”
You seem to assume that pedophilia was the biggest part of the problem. Far and away the majority of the crimes were committed against post-pubescent boys.
“Why wasn’t this dirtbag prosecuted?”
What state was it? In some states, the age of consent is sixteen.
While the media focuses on churches (and if Christians we are more accountable), the incidence is far greater among public school teachers. But the degree of homosexual abuse seems to chiefly be a RC issue.
It may be I am one of those listed among 1.2 billion Catholic members. But maybe your pope is not according to some.
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