Online predators. They lurk in teen chat rooms, watch for vulnerabilities, gain a teen's trust, and then lure her into a sexual encounter. It's a terrible crime. So parents and politicians insist on safety measures for MySpace.com. We want protection for our kids.
But what happens when the predators are not anonymous?
Long before there were teen chat rooms on the internet, there were teen prayer groups in churches. Predatory ministers could lurk there, listening to kids' vulnerabilities as they spoke their hearts to God, and then lure them into sexual encounters. These predators don't even have to work at gaining a teen's trust. They're men of God.
There's no doubt such dreadful crimes are committed by ministers. I know the truth of this first-hand because I was sexually abused and assaulted by a Southern Baptist minister when I was a church girl in Texas. But you don't have to believe me. In a recent book, two prominent Southern Baptist scholars report that clergy sex abuse is as prevalent among Protestants as among Catholics. (Trull and Carter, Ministerial Ethics, 2004) So believe them. Southern Baptists have a problem with clergy sex abuse.
What are they doing about the problem? Virtually nothing. Again, you don't have to believe me. Believe what Southern Baptists say about themselves: "Southern Baptists...have no national policies....Sexual misconduct is routinely covered up....Church officials largely have not been responsive." (Trull and Carter at p. 162) Given that Southern Baptists have over 100,000 clergy in this country, those are scary statements.
And those statements certainly reflect my experience. Another minister knew about the abuse at the time, but I was told not to speak of it, and the perpetrator was sent on his way to a bigger church. Years later, when I resurrected the memories, I reported the abuse to church and denominational leaders. My report could be readily substantiated because the same minister who knew about the abuse years ago was still at the same church. So, I assumed Baptist leaders would take action to assure other kids' safety.
Here's what they did instead. The church threatened to seek recourse against me if I pursued the matter. That nearly scared me right back into my quiet corner of shame, but I worried about how many others may have also been silenced. And how will kids be protected if those who report the predators are bullied back into silence?
State and national leaders didn't engage in raw bullying, but they didn't help any either. The national Southern Baptist organization wrote that it had no record the man was still a minister in any church. Yet, I found him working in ministry at a megachurch in Florida. Apparently, the denomination cannot even track its own ministers.
The state-wide Baptist organization eventually wrote that it had placed the perpetrator's name into its file of "known offenders." I breathed a sigh of relief. By published policy, a minister's name gets into that file only when a church reports the abuse (the word of a victim isn't enough) and when there is "substantial evidence the abuse took place" or a confession. But my sigh of relief was too soon. The file of "known offenders" is kept secret. So, even with his name in that Texas file, the man still continued in ministry in Florida.
A year later and after 18 Southern Baptist leaders in four different states had been put on notice of my substantiated report, I gave up and filed a lawsuit. Only when a reporter wrote about my lawsuit was the man finally made to resign. Were they more worried about bad publicity than about harm to kids?
In settlement of my lawsuit, the church distributed a written apology. An apology extracted in a lawsuit doesn't seem genuinely remorseful, but it does constitute a public document acknowledging the truth of what the church knew all along - that its prior minister had sexual contact with me as a minor. They knew it, and yet they focused more on silencing me than on stopping him.
When 18 denominational leaders can be informed of a substantiated report involving a minister's sexual abuse of a minor...and the man remains in ministry...parents and politicians should demand change. Insist on safety measures for Southern Baptist churches. How many more kids will be hurt before Southern Baptists begin to make some united and effective effort at ridding their ranks of clergy predators?
Ninety-five percent of kids who are sexually abused know and trust their attackers. (www.againstsexualabuse.org/csa.asp) Few are more trusted than ministers; yet predators are among them. Until Southern Baptists are willing to lift their blinders and see the hellish reality of that evil, church kids will not be safe.
www.stopbaptistpredators.org
Christa Brown is the national outreach director for SNAP-Baptist and maintains the StopBaptistPredators.org website. She is a wife, mother, attorney, jazz-lover, slow-runner, and a Southern Baptist abuse survivor.
The views expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of this website or its editors.
Response to "Clergy Predators Lurk LIke Online Predators"
Christa: Thanks for setting the record straight..... clergy sex abuse didn't occur in just Catholic communities but in many protected and secret religious institutions, who were guarded from public scrutiny by attorneys looking after their own monetary self-gain instead of the protections of children.
Thank you for your courage to speak out and unfortunately, online sexual predators continue to add complexity to an already serious clergy sexual abuse crisis..... At what point will government leaders step in and take corrective action???? Hopefully soon.
Debby Bodkin, Founder
www.catholics4justice.com
by
Debby Bodkin (47 articles, 0 quicklinks, 18 diaries, 47 comments) on Thursday, Jun 29, 2006 at 7:22:26 PM
Christa,
From where I sit, as a psychosocial-nurse author specializing in the problems of collusion with abuse and violence in clergy persons, I have been trying to understand the strange reactions that both clergy members and congregants have to these issues. As the wife of a retired Baptist minister, a wife who understands very well the day-to-day challenges that clergy face, I know that it is very, very scary to get a report. Yet what ministers seem to not understand is that it is far scarier for victims.
In mental health circles, it's universally recognized that anxious persons usually choose one of two modes of response to a stressor--flight or fight. In a sense, any form of assertive behavior stands in between those two. Both fighting and assertive behavior require courage.
After hearing from thousands of victims and their advocates, I am convinced that few victims expect a fight. Neither are their reports given for the purpose of fighting. What is almost always experienced, however, IS a fight because the recipients of reports, in their desire to run, become very aggressive, if not totally passive. Victims (and sometimes their advocates) choose courage, as you and I both have--courage to speak out at the risk of getting shot down again and again. Yet, in denominations like Southern Baptists, where churches are self-governing, the "reasoning" is that the victims still have congregations who will gladly help them if they are "believable." Sadly, few are deemed worthy of the assistance needed. Yet, as you have pointed out, often there ARE funds for clergy perpetrators--this has, sadly, been the story in every denomination until quite recently and remains so in many.
For twenty years, I have been trying to convince the masses in the profession, as well as laity, that collusion is not NORMAL. It is just the AVERAGE response of people who are afraid to be "crucified with Christ" for the sake of the oppressed.
At this point, I'm afraid I still find little hope of this happening, especially in Baptist circles. Yet, I continue to stand with open arms, affirming any person who finds the tremendous courage it takes to speak out and hold accountable those who have betrayed their colleagues and congregations, as well as many victims and advocates. In other words, I want all of the betrayed to stop being victims!!
Dee Ann Miller
www.takecourage.org
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Dee Ann Miller (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 2 comments) on Wednesday, Jul 19, 2006 at 9:45:52 PM
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