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Hoosier United Methodist News Archives
| Hoosier United Methodist News |
November 2002 |
Protecting our children and youth from sexual predation
By Mary Lou Howey
Ed begins attending First Church.
After a few weeks he volunteers to work with the youth group. Church staff members do not know Ed but they are delighted to have another volunteer and he is put to work immediately. The youth group has an overnight activity a few months later. Following the activity, two minors report they were sexually molested by Ed! The parents of one of the minors contacts an attorney and a $2 million lawsuit is brought against Ed, the church and the church board. The parents claim the church (and the church board) acted negligently by not doing a background investigation before using Ed as a volunteer worker.
Such a thing could never happen in our church! Our workers with children and youth are known to us. But how about Bob?
Bob sat before Pastor Smith, slumped over in a posture of shame. His massive shoulders heaved as he tearfully shared the sad story. Over the last two years he had repeatedly molested his 14-year-old stepdaughter. This might have been kept from public awareness had he not molested another child who was in the church's junior high school class Bob taught. The child's complaints alerted the church staff and led to this painful confrontation. Pastor Smith listened, shocked and dismayed at the situation. He could hardly believe it -- this could never happen here. Bob, a well-respected business figure, church leader, husband and father, had committed child sexual abuse.
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"Never in OUR church!" |
Incidents of child sexual abuse in churches and schools have become shockingly familiar. But long before news of child abuse by priests struck the Roman Catholic Church, the United Methodist Church was taking steps to protect its children and youth, those who work with them and its congregations.
As mandated in the 1996 General Conference, churches are establishing and implementing policies that define what constitutes child abuse and taking steps to avoid incidents that might involve clergy as well as lay people. They are establishing reporting procedures, including guidelines about when to involve law enforcement agencies.
While protection of children, youth and vulnerable adults is obviously the most important focus of such policies, churches have learned that failing to establish protection policies may result in costly lawsuits and devastating effects on the congregation. Even a single incident can disrupt and divide a church and seriously damage its reputation.
What Is Child Sexual Abuse? |
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The National Resource Center on Child Sexual Abuse defines such behavior as a criminal activity that may be violent or non-violent. Types of abuse that include touching are fondling, oral, genital and anal penetration; intercourse and forcible rape. Forms of sexual abuse that do not involve touching include verbal comments, pornographic videos, obscene phone calls, exhibitionism and allowing children to witness sexual activity. |
Where to start: resources and plans
Church Mutual Insurance Company of Merrill, Wis., has cooperated with Christian Ministry Resources of Mathews, N.C., to produce a packet including videotape and guidebook for churches on how to establish risk prevention policies. Authors of the book are Richard R. Hammar, an attorney and CPA; Steven W. Klipowicz, an ordained minister; and James F. Cobble Jr., also an ordained minister and founder of Christian Ministry Resources and publisher of Church Law and Tax Report. The two case scenarios above are from their book, Reducing the Risk of Child Sexual Abuse in Your Church..
A 1996 United Methodist resolution brought about the creation of the manual Safe Sanctuaries: Reducing the Risk of Abuse in the Church. The General Boards of Discipleship and Global Ministries developed the book in cooperation with the risk management area of the General Council on Finance and Administration. The resolution cites Christ's warning to adults of the consequences of causing children to stumble, and quotes from the Social Principles: "Children must be protected from economic, physical, emotional and sexual exploitation and abuse."
At the 2000 General Conference in Cleveland, a statement, "Sexual Ethics Within Ministerial Relationships," was adopted to supplement the original and is included in The United Methodist Book of Resolutions.
Last May, the Council of Bishops issued a statement on church-related sexual abuse, saying, in part, "We are committed to addressing sexual misconduct promptly and forthrightly. Clergy and other persons within our communion who abuse children or who are sexual predators will not be knowingly shielded or protected." (United Methodist News Service).
Both North and South Indiana cabinets jointly adopted guidelines and asked all churches in both conferences to develop their own policies using these guidelines.
While attention is paid to clergy misconduct, other adults and older youth may be predators as well. Whether by an "upstanding" church member like "Bob," or predators like "Ed," churches are often targeted as places where abusers can be immediately accepted and allowed access to children.
Churches are susceptible
According to Church Ministry's booklet, Reducing the Risk, churches are susceptible because they tend to be trusting and unsuspecting. They may do little or no screening of workers with children; they provide opportunity for unsupervised personal contact; they struggle to get adequate help, and turnover of volunteers is high.
Besides defining child abuse, local church policies should provide for training or orientation of all persons who will be involved with children or youth in any way. They should include screening, interviews and reference checks. In some cases, especially with paid staff, police checks are suggested.
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"Churches are often targeted as places where abusers can be immediately accepted and allowed access to children." |
Policies should also include the "two-person and open door rules." One-on-one involvement of any leader with a single child is strongly discouraged, as well as an older youth with one child. Guidelines should be available for reporting incidents of abuse or molestation, including who is to be notified first (usually the pastor) and if the pastor is the accused, who is next in line. Policies should also include how to involve district superintendents, attorneys, insurance companies and law enforcement.
Churches adopting child protection policies are urged to inform the congregation about the policies and reasons for their adoption. An annual review of policies and repeated training of workers is recommended.
By taking such steps to protect its children, a congregation will protect itself as well. The Reducing the Risk booklet gives this warning: "Assume an incident of abuse occurs at your church and that the minister is asked to testify during the trial. The victim's lawyer asks, 'What did you or your staff do to prevent this tragedy? … What procedures did you use to check the abuser's background and supervise his/her work with the children?' If the minister's answer is 'Nothing,' you can imagine the jury's reaction. The only question in the jurors' minds is the size of the verdict."
Mary Lou Howey is a retired journalist and a member of Union Chapel UMC.
Reducing abuse risksWhat one church is doing |
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At Union Chapel UMC -- a mid-size church in the Indianapolis East District, trustee chairman, Larry Wright, spearheaded awareness of the need for risk reduction policies. Using church law, tax report booklets, policy statements and screening forms from the United Methodist Church as guides, a task force from staff-parish and education committees worked for several weeks to draft a policy for Union Chapel. This document was accepted by the administrative council, which also viewed a videotape on the subject. The committee decided that all workers must have training and screening, without exception -- to include the pastor. It also decided that police checks are required for new paid staff persons. Sara Glore and Julie Eggert, professional trainers and mothers of children in the church school, developed and conducted training sessions for all workers with children and youth. Jim McDowell made a videotape of their training sessions to be used for review and when new workers are recruited. At the end of each session, those attending filled out the screening forms. Besides teachers and workers with children, members of the administrative council, trustees and staff-parish and education committees attended the training sessions. Julie Nethercutt, a member of the staff-parish committee and chair of the risk reduction task force, coordinates all screening forms and conducts a review of the risk reduction policy statement as needed. Union Chapel has never had a known incident of child sexual abuse and is united in this effort to assure that it never does. |