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."
For His flock, His sacrifice is Good News indeed.
Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;) And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus: That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus." -- Ephesians 2:4-7 "But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us,
"Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins." -- 1 John 4:10
Why doesn't your church tell you this good news?
You, in one post, plea for a stop to the volleys.
Then, in your next, you lob yet another s*** bomb.
You do not know what my church teaches. You continually, ever since I can remember, have misrepresented what my church teaches.
Dr. Eckleburg, please stick to posting what you do know rather than what you don't know. Catholic doctrine. Catholic practice. Catholic Teaching. All of those things fall into the latter category. If you'd truly like to stop the volleys back and forth, I'd suggest that you avoid posting about things you do not know.
Oh, and for the record, the only way one can truly understand Hebrews is reading it in light of the Church. The One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church.
Thank you for the scriptures but I don’t understand what they have to do with what I wrote to Markomalley.
“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.”
Hmmm....tip of the iceberg. How many preachers are given the boot by the congregations rather than air the accusations for all to see. Must be lots more out there.
It is amazing at how members of the RCC delude themselves into believing that anyone outside their church cannot correctly understand their teachings. This delusion is even more baffling considering how many of us are ex-RCCers. We fully understand your church’s teachings, and we’ve chosen the authority of God as revealed through Scripture over the authority of sinful man through a flawed institution.
Perhaps you should consider that the issue is one of authority. The RCC teaches that there are multiple authorities (magisterium, tradition, scripture), and a group of men declaring which of them is valid and superior. Christians believe there is a sole authority, the Word of God, and that no man arbitrates on behalf of God.
Choose this day who you will serve. As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord!
Then why in God's name do they insist on calling them "priests" and not "presbyters"???
Thus be confident that with the Scriptures as your guide, the Holy Spirit will lead you in righteous living and correct worship of Him alone.
"These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God." -- 1 John 5:13"Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved)" -- Ephesians 2:5
Do you not read assurance and certainty in these verses? Read the Bible more. It's all there.
And it's important to ask yourself why a religious institution would not tell you of this. What's to be gained by keeping the accomplished salvation of Christ uncertain, impermanent? The answer may be that the institution then controls you by being the one who doles out God's grace as it sees fit.
As if that were even possible.
Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh. "For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together... Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?" -- Romans 8:11-17;34-35 "But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you.
Excellent question. And the answer may be what we were told yesterday by the RC priest in the RC publication -- that Jesus is a priest and those who are later designated as priests are "another Jesus."
No one says "presbyters" are "another Jesus."
Pity some ignore Hebrews. Hebrews is clear, but it has to be read before it's understood.
And why do they call them bishops vice episcopois?
And why do they call Easter 'easter' vice 'pascha'?
Don't expect me, or the Catholic Church, to be responsible for the English language.
But the specific answer to your question is that I have no idea.
The "only way?"
Do you have any Scripture to support that? Because there's plenty of Scripture that speaks against that opinion.
And please refrain from scatological remarks. It only demeans your position, and by association, this entire religious forum.
Choose this day who you will serve. As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord!
AMEN!
even more baffling considering how many of us are ex-RCCers. We fully understand your church's teachings, and we've chosen the authority of God as revealed through Scripture over the authority of sinful man through a flawed institution.
Post Tenebras Lux.
"I the LORD have called thee in righteousness, and will hold thine hand, and will keep thee" -- Isaiah 42:6
Knock off the personal attacks. I’m not the Religion Moderator so I don’t know all the details about this feud but I will suspend one or both of you if you don’t cool it.
But of course I have faith in Jesus as my Lord and I know my sins are forgiven upon repentance. I study the scriptures and they do guide me. Did you think otherwise? Who else do you believe I worship, other than "Him alone"?
Do you not read assurance and certainty in these verses? Read the Bible more. It's all there.
Why are you telling me this? What have I said that makes you feel the need to ask?
And it's important to ask yourself why a religious institution would not tell you of this. What's to be gained by keeping the accomplished salvation of Christ uncertain, impermanent? The answer may be that the institution then controls you by being the one who doles out God's grace as it sees fit.
Have I kept the "accomplished salvation of Christ uncertain"?
Again, thank you for the scripture but I don't understand how it is applicable to what I have said.
This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success.
Ps 1:2 But his delight is in the law of the LORD; and in his law doth he meditate day and night.
Ps 63:6 When I remember thee upon my bed, and meditate on thee in the night watches.
Ps 77:12 I will meditate also of all thy work, and talk of thy doings.
Ps 119:15 I will meditate in thy precepts, and have respect unto thy ways.
Ps 119:23 Princes also did sit and speak against me: but thy servant did meditate in thy statutes.
Ps 119:48 My hands also will I lift up unto thy commandments, which I have loved; and I will meditate in thy statutes.
Ps 119:78 Let the proud be ashamed; for they dealt perversely with me without a cause: but I will meditate in thy precepts.
Ps 119:148 Mine eyes prevent the night watches, that I might meditate in thy word.
Ps 143:5 I remember the days of old; I meditate on all thy works; I muse on the work of thy hands.
"And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever." -- 1 John 2:17
THANK YOU!!!
I will suspend any and all communication with the other poster in question...permanently.
However, respectfully request you continue to monitor. In addition, respectfully request you define whether or not a 'personal attack' include attacks against a poster's heartfelt beliefs.
I find this post interesting for the following reason:
Every day all over the world, there are many thousands of Catholics who pray the Divine Office, which is a daily prayer-reading of the Psalms, and which cover all 150 Psalms in a 4-week period. On any given day, we are all “on the same page”, reading the same Psalms of the day in spiritual union in all corners of the world. We pray/read Psalms in the morning, in the evening and another set that can be prayed at any time of day or night. Those of us who pray the Psalms are always encouraged in lectio divina-—which is more than just reading, but better described as absorbing or assimilating or digesting the words of God.
We know the praise Psalms, the temple Psalms, the penitentinal Psalms.
We who are committed to this prayerful practice are usually so familiar with the Psalms that we can often pray them from memory or call to mind a strophe at any time of day that, for us, will fit the happenings of the moment in time.
I am a member of a lay order. In my order alone there are 45,000 of us who daily pray the same Psalms together in spirit though we are in locations all over the world. That’s just the one lay order of which I am a member. There are many other lay orders just like mine. That doesn’t even count those who are in the religious life who are also praying the Divine Office.
There are more Catholics than you can imagine who are steeped in the Psalms, as well as the rest of Scripture, which is offered to them 365 days a year at every daily Mass (as is noted in the Catholic Mass Readings Caucus that is offered each day on this forum by Salvation.)
It’s a mistake—and an unfortunate one at that—to assume that Catholics do not read, meditate, and pray the Sacred Scriptures.
Albeit that we are unknown to you, we are most certainly there and alive to Scripture.
Maybe we don’t post long offerings of it on the internet, maybe we don’t offer Scripture in the same manner that non-Catholics may, but we are most assuredly there, most assuredly praying and absorbing the Sacred words.
ROE
Atheists, for instance, also post here. Posters are free to ridicule, rebut, challenge the atheist's beliefs (or non-beliefs in this case) providing they are not "making it personal."
The operative word in this snippet of your post is "heartfelt". It would seem that, as with many cults, the RCC appeals to the senses rather than to reason. It takes no more than conditioning to develop one's senses. Reason requires one to build a logical argument from a valid premise. And with the many flawed positions of the RCC, either the logic fails or the premise is flawed, or both.
One more thing. The purpose of a forum such as this is to discuss, debate, defend, and even attack each other's "heartfelt beliefs". Hopefully we ferret out the Truth in the process, and identify and accept It when It appears.
OK.
Just to make sure I understand, I can say whatever I want without fear of zotting, as long as I say "FReeper Joe Blow, your beliefs are....." and not "FReeper Joe Blow, you are..."
Is that right? Is that the ONLY guideline here?
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