UNITED STATES
Watch Keep
Pennsylvania state representative Thomas P. Murt serves the 152nd Legislative District. He is the secretary of the Child and Youth Committee and chairs the Health and Human Services Subcommittee on Mental Health. As a proud Penn State alumnus who still teaches at the PSU Abington campus, he writes a powerful article on the dire need to shine the light of truth on child sexual abuse. Here are some notable excerpts:
I serve on the Child and Youth Committee and have listened to and read many hours of excruciatingly painful testimony from victims and their families describing the most heinous sexual abuse imaginable. The institutional cover-ups and subsequent ill-treatment of victims have made these terrible situations even worse.
It’s a sad day, indeed, when concern for institutional risk management trumps uncovering the truth.
Rather than allow myself to become protective of the alleged and convicted criminals in these institutions that I hold most dear, I am compelled by my conscience and by my office to act on behalf of the victims until the perpetrators have been punished and justice has been served. …
Will leaders in prominent Baptist mega-churches like Jack Graham and others at Prestonwood Baptist Church also be compelled by their conscience, at the very least, to act on behalf of the victims until the perpetrators have been punished and justice has been served?
There has still be no admission to the congregation by Prestonwood staff, no outreach to the victims to encourage them to come forward to the police, get help and start healing, nor any remorse for failing to obey TX mandatory reporting laws in 1989 when Prestonwood fired John Langworthy for the sexual abuse of several boys, minors under the age of 17.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.