- Are kids safe when Southern Baptist headquarters tells a person reporting a minister for child molestation that there's no record the man is still a minister....even when the man is working in children's ministry at a Baptist church?
- Are kids safe when a man can remain in ministry for a year after 18 Southern Baptist leaders in 4 different states were informed about a substantiated report involving his sexual abuse of a kid?
- Are kids safe when ministers' names can be removed from the online database of ministers even when they're still in ministry, making them much harder to locate?
- Are kids safe when no one in the denomination helps a victim in trying to locate a child molesting minister?
- Are kids safe when the largest statewide Baptist organization in the country, the Baptist General Convention of Texas, provides "crisis guidance" help to churches by referring them to an attorney with a track record for trying to intimidate victims?
- Are kids safe when the long-time attorney for the largest statewide Baptist organization in the country responds to a report of clergy sex abuse by first threatening suit against the victim?
- Are kids safe when the long-time attorney for the largest statewide Baptist organization in the country responds to a clergy abuse report by threatening suit against the victim...even when he already knows that the report is substantiated by another minister?
- Are kids safe when a Southern Baptist minister who has known for 30 years about his colleague's abuse of a kid still calls in "consensual" and rebukes the victim for talking about it?
- Are kids safe when the statewide leaders in Texas and in Missouri, who are charged with responding to clergy abuse reports, send a single short email to the victim, but then don't follow up, don't locate the perpetrator, and don't respond at all to the victim's second email?
- Are kids safe when a denominational leader charged with responding to clergy abuse reports offers no assistance at all to a person who reports a clergy child molester by phone...and never follows up?
- Are kids safe when statewide denominational leaders know for over a year about a substantiated report of a clergy child molester....and yet the man remains in the pulpit in another state?
- Are kids safe when statewide denominational leaders know for six months about a reported clergy child molester and yet the man remains in the pulpit just up the road?
- Are kids safe when the largest statewide Baptist organization in the country keeps a file of ministers about whom there is substantial evidence or a confession of clergy sex abuse...but it keeps the information secret from people in congregations?
- Are kids safe when other Baptist organizations don't keep records on reported clergy molesters, not even secret records?
- Are kids safe when the attorney for the largest statewide Baptist organization in the country has repeatedly sought secrecy contracts from victims reporting clergy sex abuse?
- Are kids safe when a minister for whom there is "substantial evidence" of having sexually abused a kid is nevertheless able to remain in ministry until the victim herself tracks him down, files a lawsuit, and obtains press coverage?
ANSWER TO EVERY QUESTION: NO!
Southern Baptists do not have a denominational system that works to make kids safer! |
