MISSISSIPPI
Clarion-Ledger
Written by
Ruth Ingram
Mississippi church leaders, employees and volunteers need tools to equip them in preventing sexual abuse of children — and to ensure children’s safety by keeping would-be perpetrators from coming through the church doors in the first place.
Organizers of an April 29 conference open to all religious denominations hope that information will change mindsets, raise awareness and empower pastors to operate ministries free from child molestation.
The host site: Morrison Heights Baptist Church in Clinton, which for years employed as music minister now-convicted child sex offender John Langworthy, who admitted during a service at the church in August 2011 that he molested young boys in Texas and the Jackson area more than 20 years ago.
Langworthy last year pleaded guilty to five felony gratification of lust charges involving five boys ages 10-13 between April 1980 and December 1984. He received no jail time.
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