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发帖数: 766 | 1 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.
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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 do not always mean the accused was guilty, and they do not
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 (
euro28 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.
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.
“These are things people are entitled to know,” said Christa Brown, a
member of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, 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 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.”
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On the Net:
Southern Baptist Convention: http://www.sbc.net/
Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests:
http://www.snapnetwork.org/
Voice to Stop Baptist Predators:
http://www.stopbaptistpredators.org/ |
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