Woodway: Pastors Hear Some Frank Talk about Sexual Assault, Abuse
By Ke'Sha Lopez
WOODWAY, Texas (KWTX) Pastors from different denominations across the state were at First Woodway Baptist Church Tuesday, learning about sexual assault, sexual abuse, and how to prevent such crimes at church functions. Taylor Post, Pastor of Child and Families at University Baptist Church in Waco, was one of dozens of pastors who watched a PowerPoint presentation that mentioned several pastors and teachers who have been charged or convicted of sex crimes against children. Several were young adults, men and women, attractive, and what many would perceive as pillars in their communities. "When you see pictures of people up on screen that look like people I would be friends with or people that would have been my mentor or something like that that really sort of drives at home,” Post said. Attorney Greg Love, who runs the Ministry Safe program said the traditional parental “stranger danger” admonition isn’t enough to keep children safe. He said 94 percent of child predators are known to their victims in some way. Instead, he said, pastors should understand the behaviors of predators and how they operate. So for example, if someone wanted to groom or molest a teenage boy commonly I'm going to see the use of alcohol, tobacco, porn, and weed,” he said “If someone is going to victimize a middle school teenage girl often times I'm going to see social media, Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram. If someone wants to victimize a 4-year-old generally I'm not going to see the alcohol or weed, Facebook and Instagram. I'm going to see a lot of playful touching,” he said. “I'm going to see a lot of pushing barriers or moving into what is comfortable and uncomfortable for that child in terms of touch." Those behaviors must be understood in order to create better systems to keep children safe.
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