Bill Would Let Churches, Nonprofits Disclose Sex Abuse Allegations

By Robert Downen
Houston Chronicle
March 14, 2019

https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/houston/article/Bill-would-let-churches-nonprofits-disclose-sex-13689811.php

This collection of mug shots includes a portion of the 220 people who, since 1998, worked or volunteered in Southern Baptist churches and were convicted of or pleaded guilty to sex crimes.

Texas nonprofits would be allowed to disclose sexual misconduct allegations against former employees without being sued under a new bill that was filed one month after the Houston Chronicle detailed hundreds of sexual abuses in Southern Baptist churches.

Introduced last week by McKinney Republican Rep. Scott Sanford, House Bill 4345 is the latest in what one expert said is a national wave of similar policies sparked by the #MeToo movement and ongoing religious sexual abuse scandals.

The Texas bill has support from two groups associated with the Southern Baptist Convention, which has been grappling publicly with its own sexual abuse crises since a February investigation by the Houston Chronicle and San Antonio Express-News found hundreds of Southern Baptist church leaders and volunteers have been charged with sex crimes in the last two decades. The newspapers also found dozens of instances in which church leaders apparently failed to disclose concerns about former employees who applied for jobs at other congregations.

Much of that, the newspapers found, was made possible by “local church autonomy,” the idea that each Southern Baptist church is independent and self-governing. In some cases, fear of lawsuits brought by former employers may have contributed to the silence that allowed them to find new jobs — and sometimes victims — at other congregations.

A spokesperson for Sanford, who also is a Southern Baptist minister, said the bill was “brought to us by faith leaders” and that Sanford “saw this as an important step to reporting and preventing sexual abuse.”

Gary Ledbetter, a spokesman for the Southern Baptist of Texas Convention, said he did not know what “directly prompted” the bill, but that “it all came together in the past month.”

Churches, he said, typically are advised by lawyers to “say nothing except that the person did work here” when discussing former employees with potential new bosses.

“Basically, we don’t say anything,” he said. “This bill would encourage churches to tell the truth as best as they know.”

Jim Richards, executive director of the Texas SBC, said churches “must do everything we can to protect the innocents from predators. ... As a convention of churches we will continue to work on ways to provide a safe environment for the vulnerable. We hope HB 4345 will facilitate this goal.”

The Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, which advocates for public policies on behalf of the nation’s roughly 47,000 Southern Baptist churches, also supports the bill.

Advocates for reforms to sexual abuse policies said the bill is a good step toward stopping predators, but that there still needs to be more action to protect victims from legal recourse.

Christa Brown, a longtime advocate who wrote a book about being molested by the pastor of her Southern Baptist church near Dallas, said she was threatened with lawsuits almost immediately after she came forward decades ago.

“(Victims) too should receive immunity for good faith disclosures,” Brown said. “I kept talking, but for many victims, the mere threat of legal recourse is enough to perpetuate their silence.”

Others have faced similar threats. Last year, for example, Jim Cochrun was sued for defamation by a pastor who Cochrun had accused of a decades-old molestation in Oklahoma. The pastor’s lawsuit, which was filed in Texas because that is where Cochrun lives, demanded hundreds of thousands of dollars in damages. It was dismissed last month, but Cochrun said it was tremendously damaging to his ability to heal.

“I carried the shame of (his) sexual abuse for more than 30 years,” Cochrun said, adding that the lawsuit re-victimized him.

“Jim’s willingness to come forward with the truth is the only way to keep perpetrators like this out of positions of influence,” his attorney Brent Webster said in a statement.

Marci Hamilton, a legal scholar and advocate for statute of limitations reform, applauded Sanford’s bill, which she said is the latest to tackle sexual abuse.

“I think its a positive sign that (officials) are thinking seriously about reporting,” she said. “But on the other hand, I'd like to see them stick up for the victims.”