Baptist Church Sexual Abuse – Time to Speak Out
Pastors and church leaders in the Baptist Church enjoy the highest degree of respect by the members of the congregation. The children of these members are no exception. Some pastors have exploited exactly this and sexually exploited some of the children. Like the Roman Catholic Church, the Baptist Church is also riddled with instances of childhood sexual abuse. Despite these facts, the Baptist Church has in place no procedures which could help them keep track of abusive clergy members or a process which banishes them from the church. History is replete with incidences wherein the Baptist clergy has been tried criminally for sexual abuse of children. As no apex body, known leadership, exists within the Baptist Church, sexual offenders usually just move out of one location and join another and continue their crimes against children.
Church leaders for a long time have been using measures like shame, threats, coercion, to silence clergy abuse victims. The teachings of the Baptist Church are immorally used by the church leaders to silence the victims of clergy sexual abuse. For instance, it is pressed upon the minds of the sexual abuse victims that one should forgive the perpetrator of the crime against them and refrain from reporting any sexual abuse incidences to law enforcement, or anyone for that matter. This indirectly has fostered the feeling among abusive clergy members that their crimes against the children will always be blanketed.
There however is some hope for sexually abused children in the Baptist community. The pastor and the church leader head a deacon board or a committee who take decisions pertaining to retaining pastors and other church staff. The committee thus is responsible to scrutinize each candidate and ensure the safety of children and all its members. In case they fail to do so, a civil lawsuit can be brought against them.
Rogatinsky & Matthews is dedicated to sexual abuse survivors and we are ready to help you with your clergy or minister sexual abuse problem and complaint. If you have been sexually abused by a Baptist Church minister, contact clergy abuse attorney Samuel Rogatinsky. He can be the help you have been searching for.
If someone you know has been a victim of sexual abuse by a member of the clergy, contact our law firm at (954) 995.3805 or send an email to sexual abuse lawyer Samuel Rogatinsky at samr@clergyabuse.org