They did not call the cops...and have been arrested.

"They" would be five employees of Tulsa megachurch, Victory Christian Center, who were informed of a rape of a 13 year old girl on church property but who waited two weeks to report the crime to authorities.
 

Tulsa megachurch officials suspected of waiting 2 weeks to report rape of 13-year-old girl by church worker

Prosecutors this week also charged five church employees — including [Pastor Sharon] Daugherty’s son and daughter-in-law, who are both youth pastors — with failing to report the alleged assault between Aug. 15 and Aug. 30. John Daugherty, Charica Daugherty, Paul Willemstein, Anna George and Harold “Frank” Sullivan each face one misdemeanor count of failing to report child abuse and are due to be arraigned Wednesday in Tulsa County District Court.

The accused is, or was, a 20-year-old employee of the church. When church leaders, apparently not including the pastor, were informed of the crime, they took a week to do an internal investigation before reporting it to their Human Resources Department. The HR department took another week to call the cops.

The church has issued a statement saying that "its employees failed to follow a written policy requiring any allegation of abuse to be reported by employees to the state’s Department of Human Services, and internally within one hour to their department head and the director of human resources."

A few observations:

1. Churches should have written child protection policies but should also have annual mandatory training on those policies. How could a thirteen year old claim to be raped and a volunteer worker or even the lowest paid employee NOT think, "We have to call the police"?

2. A tight church leadership circle, family in this case or just ministerial staff in most SBC churches, is an additional risk factor. There is always a temptation to keep bad news in-house.

3. Although this is a megachurch, average-sized churches are no less susceptible to such things. The typical single staff SBC church is less likely to have any written child protection policies at all. Let's be honest, churches sometimes have a default mode of, "Let's handle this in-house."

4. In my state, anyone who works with children is a mandatory reporter. This would include all church volunteer workers, even the worker who spends just an occasional Sunday morning in the church nursery or preschool department.

5. Fail to pick up the phone and call the cops and you will be arrested.

The changing landsape of clergy sex abuse in the SBC

We are autonomous; always have been and always will be.

Every church that identifies with the SBC, with any state Baptist convention, with any local association of Baptist churches hires and fires their own clergy and any crime committed by the pastor or staff is a local church matter, Responsibility and liability fall to the individual and perhaps the church.

Right?

Yes, maybe, sort-of. But not always.

Last month a jury in Florida held the Florida Baptist Convention and the Lake County Baptist Association partially liable for a pastor of two FBC church plants who was convicted of abusing a boy. (My blog on this case is here.) The FBC and association provided funding and training and were found to have been negligent in checking the perpetrator's former churches.

Damages were to be assessed and the case is continuing in that phase.

But just last week a pastor of a cowboy church in Alabama, affiliated with the Alabama Baptist Convention and the Marshall Baptist Association, was arrested on sex abuse charges for alleged crimes in Texas.

The pastor was a former convict with a long record. Evidently, someone in Alabama didn't do their homework.

No accusations have been made of crimes by the pastor while at the Alabama church but the Alabama cowboy church that he pastored has fired him.

The association's Director of Missions released a statement that refused comment due to "legal issues." No comment was reported from the Alabama Baptist Convention.

While further details weren't given, these cowboy churches almost always are congregations promoted, supported, and touted by state conventions and local associations. Were I with the Alabama Baptist Convention or the Marshall Baptist Association, I would be just a bit nervous. Who knows what the man might have done while in this church in Alabama.

Another month, another SBC clergy sex abuse report.

A few observations:

• The landscape for liability of SBC clergy has changed. State conventions, associations, along with the North American Mission Board and any other SBC entity have to be deliberate, meticulous, and thorough when finding, training, supporting, and placing clergy into churches or they may be liable for the actions of the clergy. Local church autonomy may no longer be a bulletproof defense.

• State conventions have to take the lead here, since most laypeople in churches and many associational missionaries are not sufficiently current on the legal issues in clergy sex abuse.

• NAMB has the resources to put internal controls in place immediately for their church planting program. If they have not already addressed this I would be surprised.

• It is not a bad development that Southern Baptists at every level have a strong incentive to be more careful in calling ministers. It has always been a scandal that SBC clergy who act unethically and sometimes criminally, have been able to move to new places of service with tacit approval of former churches, DOM's, and others who have knowledge but kept quiet because they didn't want to ruin a brother's ministry.

It is somewhat surprising to me that we loyal, dedicated, and supporting Southern Baptists have yet to hear from our denominational leadership on this matter.

Business as usual, where SBC clergy who behave badly easily move among our churches because of the silence of those who know, has to end. Would some denominational leader please take the lead in this? We are all harmed.

I have yet to read a syllable from the Executive Committee, Baptist Press, the Florida Baptist Witness, the Florida Baptist Convention, or other SBC entity on the issue.

We do have lawyers on the payroll, right?

Let's hear from them.

Nepotism, church, church schools, and sex abuse

Teacher Fired For Reporting Sexual Allegations At Hilltop Baptist

Sexual abuse of children in churches and by church staff is old news. Lately, only a prominent name (Joe Paterno, Penn State, Jerry Sandusky) connected to child sex abuse puts an incident on the front page but I would ask folks to read this case above which is about a teacher in a church school in Colorado.

Actually, the story is about two teachers – one who was having sex with her 15-year old student and another who reported the crime. The first teacher was indicted for sexual assault on a child, while the latter was fired a month after she reported the matter.

No one has said it but is the thinking, “If she (the fired teacher) had just kept her mouth shut we could have handled this in house and not had to go through all this turmoil”?

The fired teacher did the right thing and did what was required by law (teachers are mandatory reporters in Colorado). God bless her. She is suing the independent fundamental Baptist church. The school closed down.

So, what about nepotism, church, church schools, and sex abuse. My views here are anecdotal and involve some degree of conjecture, but I think these things are worth some reflection.

A good many church sponsored schools I have been around are heavily nepotistic. The uncle of the teacher indicted for sexual assault was, and still is, the pastor of the church that ran the school. You can do your own analysis here by looking at a church school near you. I'd bet you will get some hits.

Nothing wrong with that in a sense. It’s their church and school. If staff is loaded up with family and the congregation and/or school trustees approve, so be it. But this makes it more likely in my view, that sex abuse will be covered up. In the case above not only was the teacher arrested and charged but her father, her uncle the pastor, and the school principal were as well.

Pick up the phone. Call the cops, even if the offender is related to the big boss.