In a troubling trend, police in several states have arrested a number of church leaders in separate cases for failing to report alleged child abuse.
The wave of cases, which have arisen in the last month, raises questions about church and ministry accountability and their legal and moral obligations to protect children in their care, specifically by alerting civil authorities when leaders suspect abuse.
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This basic duty has been a fixture of American law for well over half a century. Since 1967, every state has enacted some form of mandatory child-abuse reporting law.
Rising stakes
But in nearly 60 years, there have been changes, and what has changed most is not whether the laws exist, but the scope of those laws: who must report, what they must report, the penalties for failing to do so, and understanding exemptions.
Because of these factors (which have changed across states and denominations as much as over time), many church leaders are unaware or uncertain about their own reporting responsibilities within these laws.
Failing to report properly can lead to criminal or civil penalties, expose the church to lawsuits, and inflict lasting reputational damage, as recent high-profile abuse scandals have shown. Most importantly, choosing not to report abuse to the proper authorities harms the vulnerable and sends the message that the Church is more invested in protecting itself than in defending the innocent (even if this is far from true).
All of this raises the stakes for church leaders to understand, in concrete terms, how mandatory reporting laws operate — and what those laws actually demand of them.
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EDITOR’S NOTE — This story was written by Jessica Eturralde and originally published Ministry Watch. Used by permission.
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