Church Responds to Child Rape Lawsuit in Email to Congregation

By Samantha Hearn
Brentwood Home Page
December 2, 2015

http://www.brentwoodhomepage.com/church-responds-to-child-rape-lawsuit-in-email-to-congregation-cms-24093#.VmF4a3bhC01

After a family filed a lawsuit against Fellowship Bible Church on Monday for negligence in the rape of their 3-year-old child, the church has now commented on the issue in an email sent to its congregation.

The family, represented by Kathryn Barnett of Morgan & Morgan, filed the lawsuit after their 3-year-old was sexually assaulted and raped by a teenage volunteer at the church's Brentwood campus last year. The teen has since appeared in court and plead guilty to aggravated sexual battery.

The complaint was filed with the Williamson County Circuit Court on Monday, Nov. 30 stating that Fellowship Bible Church was negligent and reckless in the handling of the incident, even going so far as to try and hide the incident from other church members.

The church is now saying that the allegations presented against them in the lawsuit are false, and that they immediately reported the incident to the Tennessee Department of Children's Services as well as Brentwood Police when they were advised of the incident.

In an email obtained by Brentwood Home Page that pastor Bill Wellons sent to the Fellowship congregation last night, it says that the perpetrator is a young teen and child of a volunteer teacher in the Children's Ministry and that "both parent and child were immediately removed from their volunteer positions in our church pending the police investigation."

The parents of the 3-year-old had dropped their two children off at the Children's Ministry on Aug. 24, 2014 while they attended church services. The lawsuit says the child was taken into the church bathroom and raped while there, but the parents didn't find out until the next weekend after the child expressed reluctance to go back.

The lawsuit says the family tried to talk to the church about the situation and at first, the church denied the incident and urged the family not to pursue criminal charges.

Wellons said in the email that the church has "endeavored to work with the victim's family, offering counseling and any other assistance they might find helpful. They have chosen, instead, to file a lawsuit."

The lawsuit also alleges that the church tried to hide the incident from other parents and the church did not complete adequate background checks or provide any training to volunteers. In a training video given to Church employees, the complaint says that less than 45 seconds were about preventing sexual molestation.

The complaint says that, "This tragedy was caused by the utter failure of the Church to provide a safe place for the children placed in its care."

Wellons said in the email that, "I am distressed that statements in the news media, quoting from the lawsuit, have been so erroneous -- that we denied anything had happened, that we claimed the victim had 'lied' and urged the family not to pursue criminal charges, that we don't take child safety seriously and have no proper policies and procedures, and that we sought to hide the truth from other families. All of these statements are untrue."

The family had been attending the church for more than a decade, according to the complaint. The parents were married there and had premarital counseling there as well, and spent many years volunteering and working at the Church. The family is seeking more than $35 million in emotional and financial damages.

"Fellowship is committed to supporting victims of abuse in our community," the email from Wellons said. "We take any allegation of abuse very seriously. We have no tolerance for anyone who seeks to harm a child in a physical, sexual, or emotional way."

The email also says that, "we are personally sickened by this crime and will strive to do all in our power as leaders to prevent this grotesque behavior from occurring again."

Fellowship Bible Church is located at 1210 Franklin Road in Brentwood. It is a nondenominational church that began in Brentwood in 2003 and has since expanded to Franklin and Nashville. Its website is www.fellowshipnashville.org.

Brentwood Home Page has reached out to both the Brentwood Police Department and the Tennessee Department of Children's Services to confirm whether or not the church notified them of the incident in Aug. 2014. Barnett confirmed that the family did immediately contact the police as well as DCS.

Stay with Brentwood Home Page for more updates.