Evangelicals Urged to Confront Sexual Abuse
By Peter Smith
Evangelical churches need to confront sexual abuse and coverup within their own ranks, according to a statement signed by more than 1,500 people worldwide and promoted by a former sex-crimes prosecutor. The “Public Statement Concerning Sexual Abuse in the Church of Jesus Christ” was prompted in part by a Maryland lawsuit filed by 11 people against Sovereign Grace Ministries, a denomination now based in Louisville, alleging cover-up of abuse within its churches. But Boz Tchividjian — a former Florida prosecutor and founder of GRACE, an organization that consults with Christian groups on preventing future abuse and investigating past cases — said the lawsuit underscored larger issues. “We make public statements about so many issues in the American evangelical world, whether it’s Obamacare, gays in the Boy Scouts,” said Tchividjian, now a law professor at Liberty University in Virginia and a grandson of evangelist Billy Graham. “But here’s a huge issue that’s facing the church, and there’s nothing but silence.” The statement alludes to the Sovereign Grace cases as well as to those who have defended the denomination and its former longtime president, C.J. Mahaney, issued by longtime ministry colleagues including Southern Baptist Theological Seminary President Albert Mohler. The statement says these developments have “distressed many” people and show “the troubling reality that, far too often, the Church’s instincts are no different than from those of many other institutions, responding to such allegations by moving to protect her structures rather than her children.” The statement cites scandals of sexual abuse that have engulfed other organizations, including churches, mission organizations and Pennsylvania State University. “While many evangelical leaders have eagerly responded with outrage to those public scandals, we must now acknowledge long-silenced victims who are speaking out about sexual abuse in evangelical Christian institutions: schools, mission fields and churches, large and small,” it says. “To be told that wolves are devouring our lambs and fail to protect those lambs is to be a shepherd who sides with the wolves who hinder those same little ones from coming to Jesus,” it says. “To fail to grasp the massive web of deception entangling an abuser and set him or her loose among the sheep is to be naive about the very nature and power of sin. … To know a woman is being raped or battered in hidden places and silence her or send her back is to align with those who live as enemies of our God.” The statement, posted online, has received more than 1,500 signatures, mostly from within the United States. Signers include pastors, seminary professors, anti-domestic-violence activists and other individuals. Plaintiffs in the Sovereign Grace case have a pending request before the judge to reconsider a decision to dismiss much of the lawsuit on the grounds that it was file too many years after the incidents in question, which span decades. The lawsuit accused Mahaney of helping to cover up the abuse of others in the denomination and in the Maryland church he formerly pastored. Sovereign Grace has said in an earlier statement its internal review has found no evidence of cover-up. Sovereign Grace and Mahaney have been major participants in the New Calvinist movement, marked by such things as an emphasis on the sovereignty of God, church discipline and male authority. Mahaney — a co-founder of the biennial Together for the Gospel conferences, which draw thousands to Louisville — announced he wouldn’t be participating in the 2014 conference. While not commenting on the merits of the lawsuit, he said he wanted to avoid the distractions that it would bring. Mohler and the other two conference founders had earlier issued a statement of support on Mahaney’s behalf, saying they believed the lawsuit hadn’t proved its case. A Southern Baptist Convention resolution, approved in June, urged their leaders to use the “highest sense of discernment” in affiliating with anyone with “questionable” practices or policies on sexual abuse. Requests for comment sent through spokespersons to Mohler, Mahaney and Sovereign Grace Ministries were not returned as of Thursday afternoon. Christa Brown of the group Stop Baptist Predators, which has advocated for reforms in responding sexual abuse in Southern Baptist churches, said she was grateful for Tchividjian efforts in circulating the statement . “These are certainly good words; nevertheless, they are nothing more than words,” she said. While many Baptist churches have promoted safe-environment training and background checks of church workers, Brown said such churches also need a way to confront their past. “For many faith groups, including most Baptist groups, what is actually needed is something akin to a Truth and Reconciliation Commission,” she said. “Those who have been victimized by clergy sex abuse are in desperate need of a safe place where they can tell their stories and be heard with respect and compassion.” She added: “Those who have known about abusive clergy or who had reason to suspect, those who have been complicit in cover-ups, those who have engaged in intimidation tactics for the silencing of victims, and those who have followed the direction of senior pastors to keep things in the church family – all of these people – are in need of a safe place where they may now tell what they know, express their remorse, and do what is still possible for making kids safer in the future.”
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