UNITED STATES
Associated Baptist Press
By Bob Allen
A Southern Baptist ethicist has endorsed an online petition urging greater transparency about sexual abuse occurring in evangelical churches.
Ben Mitchell, Graves Professor of Moral Philosophy at Union University in Jackson, Tenn., added his signature to “A Public Statement Concerning Sexual Abuse in the Church of Jesus Christ” posted July 17 by Godly Response to Abuse in the Christian Environment (GRACE), an advocacy group led by Billy Graham grandson and Liberty University law professor Basyle “Boz” Tchividjian.
“I can’t imagine why anyone wouldn’t want to go on the record as opposing sexual abuse in the church,” Mitchell said in an e-mail exchange Aug. 1. “Everyone should know it’s a problem. If they don’t, they need to scan the morning news. It’s simply abhorrent that anyone, children or adult, is abused sexually in a church or by church members.”
Nearly 1,500 people had added their names to those of an original 72 signers as of Aug. 2. A goal of 2,000 signatures is sought for an initiative that has been reported by news outlets including ABPnews and Religion News Service. It was the lead story in the July 28 issue of World Magazine, a conservative Christian publication that carries news, cultural analysis, editorials and commentary based in Asheville, N.C.
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