UNITED STATES
The Courier-Journal
Written by
Peter Smith
The Courier-Journal
Evangelical churches need to confront sexual abuse and cover-ups within their own ranks, according to a statement signed by more than 1,500 people worldwide and promoted by a former sex-crimes prosecutor.
The “Public Statement Concerning Sexual Abuse in the Church of Jesus Christ” was prompted in part by a Maryland lawsuit filed by 11 people against Sovereign Grace Ministries, a denomination now based in Louisville, alleging a cover-up of abuse within its churches.
But Boz Tchividjian — a former Florida prosecutor and founder of GRACE, an organization that consults with Christian groups on preventing abuse and investigating past cases — said the lawsuit underscores larger issues. “We make public statements about so many issues in the American evangelical world, whether it’s Obamacare, gays in the Boy Scouts,” said Tchividjian, now a law professor at Liberty University in Virginia and a grandson of evangelist Billy Graham. “But here’s a huge issue that’s facing the church, and there’s nothing but silence.”
The statement alludes to the Sovereign Grace cases as well as to those who have defended the denomination and its former longtime president, C.J. Mahaney, including Southern Baptist Theological Seminary President Albert Mohler.
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