Alabama Baptist churches are among churches facing the silent epidemic of sexual abuse, which has the potential to infect and cripple congregations.
“If I were Satan and wanted to destroy a church I would simply let loose one pedophile in the congregation,” said Bob Dewhurst, director of development with the Alabama Baptist Children’s Homes & Family Ministries.
Dewhurst has seen pastors, chaplains and church volunteers accused and convicted of child sexual abuse during his career.
Part of this career includes 20 years of being a criminal investigator with the U.S. Army.
“A very senior chaplain in the military was involved in child sex abuse. We arrested and court martialed him,” Dewhurst said.
Dewhurst also developed a child sexual abuse training program for the U.S. Department of Defense.
In his current position with the Children’s Homes he implemented workshops to educate pastors, church staff and members on how to protect the children and the churches of Alabama.
Since he began the workshops nearly 10 years ago, he and his team have trained more than 5,000 people.
Dewhurst said statistics show that in an average week there are 20 reports of sexual abuse in churches of various denominations in the United States.
“Yes, sex abuse is rampant in churches, Baptist included,” he said. “Churches are second only to public schools in the numbers of children they serve in a given week,” he said.
In the wake of sexual abuse scandals, most notably in the Roman Catholic Church, pastor search committees and personnel committees in Alabama Baptist churches have drafted stronger policies regarding background checks, said Dale Huff, director of the LeaderCare and church administration office of the Alabama Baptist State Board of Missions.
“I tell the search committees to do their homework,” Huff said. “No one can expect them to be private investigators, but they must ask the difficult questions and go far beyond references on the resumé.”
In east Alabama a few years ago a church apparently didn’t go far enough in checking the background of the man it would call as its next pastor.
Later, the pastor resigned because his wife threatened to expose his behavior of sexually abusing children.
Dewhurst said he learned of sexual abuse charges in late May against a physician who is a member of a Baptist church in Alabama.
“It’s a real problem. It’s pervasive and in our churches,” Dewhurst said.
Chriss Doss, a Birmingham attorney who heads the Center for the Study of Law and Church in the Cumberland School of Law at Samford University, said most problems come from churches not taking enough precautions.
Choose leaders wisely
Pulpit or personnel committees should conduct lengthy, multiple and frank discussions with potential ministers and ask questions that go beyond questions with predictable answers, he said.
“I just think there ought to be a tremendous amount of dialogue between any potential pastor and the pulpit committee,” Doss said.
“Church people are inclined to sanitize things and not be as forthright as they should in these matters,” Doss said.
Those types of inquiries can be troubling for committee members, said Eileen Lindner, deputy general secretary of research and planning for the National Council of Churches. “I think it is true that in every denomination, pastor search committees are much wiser to — shall we say — the worldly aspects of pastor candidates than they were in a previous era,” Lindner said.
“The problem is the church is a voluntary organization, and the emotional aspect of this really takes its toll,” she added. “It’s a tough situation.”
Dewhurst said the public hears more from the media about sexual abuse in the Catholic church because people who sue the church for sexual abuse can usually gain more money because the entire Catholic church is at risk.
In Baptist churches, each church is autonomous so sexual abuse lawsuits place at risk the resources of the local church, not the entire denomination.
There is no requirement for a Baptist church to report cases of sexual abuse to the full convention.
However, under a new Alabama law passed in 2003 all clergy, regardless of denomination, are required to report any suspected child abuse to the Alabama Department of Human Resources or local law enforcement, Dewhurst said.
“Pedophiles are not the dregs of society; rather, they are well-educated and articulate,” Dewhurst said.
“They can be the guys that take your kids out for ice cream after church or who coach the Little League team. This is why when pedophiles are caught, most people say they can’t believe it.”
Anyone can be an abuser
Dewhurst said his research has discovered that in 30 separate cases of people involved with sexual abuse, each individual was found within 30 days.
Among these were a Sunday School teacher, a chairman of deacons, a youth minister, a minister of music, a court house employee, a deputy chief of police, a fireman, a city councilman, a pediatrician and an elementary school principal.
He said the biggest reason people engage in pedophile behavior is exposure to pornography, but other issues contribute.
Among those Dewhurst cited were children with poor male role models, single parent homes where the parent is a poor role model, adult children of parents who were molesters and homosexual environments.
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