Pastor pleads guilty to two counts of rape of a child under the age of 13

Dayton Daily News - June 5, 2008

Ex-pastor pleads to sex crimes against female parishoners

by Lou Grieco | Staff Writer

DAYTON, OHIO — A Riverside pastor accused multiple sex crimes against at least eight female members of his congregation pleaded guilty Thursday to 15 felonies, including two counts of rape of a child under the age of 13.

Dennis Bowling, 47, who had been pastor of Kingdom Harvest Church, 2360 Valley Pike, was to go to trial Monday. Under the plea agreement reached between Assistant Montgomery County Prosecutors Erin Claypoole and Elizabeth Scott and defense attorney Dennis Lieberman, Bowling will be sentenced to between 10 and 20 years in prison without any chance for early release.

"The defendant will serve that entire sentence," said Montgomery County Common Pleas Judge Dennis Langer, who will sentence Bowling on July 25.

On Thursday, June 5, Langer ordered a pre-sentencing investigation, including a psychological evaluation requested by Lieberman.

Bowling will also be designated a Tier 3 sex offender, requiring both community notification when he moves to a new residence, plus registration with the sheriff's office every 90 days for the rest of his life, Langer said.

Bowling had been indicted on 90 felony charges. All but 15 were dropped under the agreement. Bowling pleaded to the two rape counts, both first-degree felonies punishable by up to 10 years in prison.

The other 13 charges were third-degree felonies, punishable by up to five years in prison. They include:

• Eight counts of sexual battery.

• Three counts of unlawful sexual conduct with a minor.

• Two counts of gross sexual imposition, one of them of a minor under 13.

The charges cover a 10-year period, between 1996 and 2006, and involve eight victims, all who were between the ages of 12 and 17 at the time the offenses occurred, according to Montgomery County prosecutors. Langer said the counts Bowling pleaded to also covered all eight victims.

Two of those victims were present in court, along with their supporters, but they declined to comment.

Investigators did interview other victims, but did not have enough evidence to charge Bowling in those cases, prosecutors said.

"This defendant is the very definition of a sexual predator," said Montgomery County Prosecutor Mathias H. Heck, Jr. "He was entrusted with juveniles, and then used his position as their pastor to victimize these children."

Bowling has been in Montgomery County Jail since his Nov. 21, 2006 arrest.

Bowling was arrested after a group of women from the congregation told police he had sexually assaulted several female members of the church.

A Stebbins High School dropout, Bowling served at the nondenominational church and the adjoining Christian Training Center as pastor, youth minister and community leader for 19 years. In May 2006, Bowling received an "Unsung Heroes Award for Appalachians" from Sinclair Community College.

A group of church women tipped off police about Bowling's alleged crimes on Nov. 20, 2006 the night of Bowling's annual Thanksgiving dinner for the neighboring community. Bowling reportedly did not attend the dinner.

The following day, Miami County sheriff's deputies arrested Bowling from a family member's Miami County home and delivered the preacher to Riverside police. Nine days later, his wife filed for divorce. The couple had been married 21 years and had five children.

This article was found at:

http://www.daytondailynews.com/n/content/
oh/story/news/local/2008/06/05/
ddn060508bowlingweb.html

Pastor gets 4 years for sex assault on woman

The Toronto Star

March 27, 2008

by Peter Small

A Toronto pastor who sexually assaulted and deliberately impregnated a parishioner, threatening her with evil spirits unless she yielded to his demands, has been sentenced to four years in prison.

Rev. Frank Seeko Lawrence "grossly abused his position as pastor and spiritual healer by threatening a vulnerable and trusting young woman," Superior Court Justice Edward Belobaba said yesterday.

On Jan. 10, a jury convicted the 59-year-old man of sexually assaulting the victim, while acquitting him of assaulting and threatening to kill her. Jurors also acquitted the father of 11 of sexually assaulting another woman by whom he also fathered a child.

Belobaba ruled that the jury's verdict means the pastor of Toronto Mount Zion Revival Church is guilty of fondling and touching, as well as five to 10 instances of forced sexual intercourse, between April and December 2003, when the victim was 24. The Toronto-born woman, who cannot be named, gave birth to a girl as a result.

"He fully intended to make her pregnant and he succeeded in doing so," the judge said. Belobaba quoted Lawrence as once asking the woman, "What is taking you so long to get pregnant?" and warning her, "If you're using any birth control, the spirits will know."

The victim's mother brought her to Lawrence for spiritual healing when she was 17. He gave her "spiritual baths," for which he charged $150, to get rid of evil spirits.

In early 2003, she argued with her mother, left home and began renting a room in Lawrence's house.

A month later the sexual assaults began. "He took advantage of her belief in curses ... and he threatened her with evil spirits if she didn't acquiesce to his sexual advances," the judge said.

Outside court, defence lawyer Anthony Robbins said he would be seeking bail today pending appeal. "My client is innocent. I cannot comment on the reasonableness of the sentence," he said.

By way of mitigation, the judge noted that Lawrence has no criminal record and is much loved and admired by his parishioners, to whom he is "generous and compassionate." Nine female and two male supporters were in court yesterday.


This story was found at:

http://www.thestar.com/News/
GTA/article/356967

Former Clinton pastor sentenced to three years in prison for inappropriately touching a 7-year-old girl

Utica Observer-Dispatch

February 29, 2008

By ROCCO LaDUCA


UTICA —

When the Rev. William Procanick put his hand on the Bible during his sex-abuse trial in Oneida County Court earlier this year, he swore to tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth.

But as the former Clinton pastor was sentenced Friday to three years in prison for inappropriately touching a 7-year-old girl at his home last March, Judge Michael L. Dwyer said Procanick sacrificed his honesty the day he testified.

“As a minister of God, you got on the stand and you lied,” Dwyer told Procanick, the 54-year-old former pastor of Resurrection Assembly of God church on Kirkland Avenue.

A jury found Procanick guilty Jan. 22 of first-degree sexual abuse and endangering the welfare of a child.

Dwyer said he believes Procanick was being honest when he told the girl's mother in a recorded phone call that he was wrong to caress the girl's body while she was trying to fall asleep.

However, Procanick instead testified in court that he did nothing wrong other than spend time alone with the girl, who was a friend of the family, Dwyer noted.

If Procanick had accepted responsibility from the beginning instead of straying from the truth, Dwyer said, Procanick would likely have faced a lesser punishment and possibly avoided jail time.

“The truth would have set you free,” Dwyer said. “You had a chance to be a man and say, 'I made a mistake.' But as always, the cover-up is much worse than the original crime.”

Procanick's defense attorney, George Aney, noted that Procanick still received a sentence less than the maximum, which was up to seven years in prison.

“It's considerably less than the maximum, but considerably more than he deserved,” Aney said.

Aney also took issue with how Dwyer and the victim's mother used harsh language to attack Procanick's Christian values.

“You are just an evil man,” the victim's mother said Friday in court. “You lied, and you had your wife lie. And all these people who showed up in court to support you, did you lie to them, too?”

The Observer-Dispatch does not identify sex-abuse victims and their families.
The victim's mother said her daughter is still waking up scared at night because of what happened, and she continues to see a therapist. The young girl also feels that everybody is mad at her, the mother said.

Assistant District Attorney Doug DeMarche Jr. then read a note written by the girl, who did not appear in court Friday.

“Bill made me sad and scared,” DeMarche read. “I thought I did something wrong, because I trusted him.”

Dwyer gave Procanick an opportunity to speak in court, but Procanick had nothing to say to the victim and her family.

Aney did not plan to speak in court, he told Dwyer, but he felt obligated to respond to what the victim's mother said about Procanick and his wife.

“I believe she shows her own lack of Christianity by referring to people as liars,” Aney said.

After the sentencing, Aney further commented about what was said in court.

“I respect Judge Dwyer for what he said this morning, but I have to say I disagreed with him,” Aney said. “I have every right to express my feelings, and my feelings are that we are not permitted to call anybody a liar. That's a judgment someone higher than I makes.”

DeMarche, however, said he can understand why the girl's mother spoke of Procanick in such harsh terms.

“She had a lot of faith and trust in Mr. Procanick, and he violated that trust,” DeMarche said. “I think she's justified in being angry.”


This story was found at:

http://www.uticaod.com/
homepage/x1637676857

Missouri Sex Abuse Charges Dropped

NPR - All Things Considered

November 7, 2007


State prosecutors in Missouri have dropped child sexual abuse charges against the leaders of a small church, one week before their trial was due to begin. A defense lawyer said the charges were dropped after two of the accusers stopped cooperating with authorities.


NPR - All Things Considered

December 14, 2006

Child Sex-Abuse Cases Rock Ozarks Religious Group

In southwest Missouri, police are investigating allegations of child sexual abuse involving church leaders and church members. Prosecutors in two counties say there are multiple victims and similar patterns of abuse.

Some of the alleged sexual contact may have been committed as part of a ritual or ceremony, crimes that are rare in the United States. NPR has reviewed extensive legal documents in these cases over several months and also talked to most of the accusers, as well as some of the accused.

The area of Missouri where the cases surfaced has been home to extremist and fringe groups in the past. Data show that a high number of cases of child sexual abuse in the same area are reported annually to the Department of Social Services. What makes this story different is that almost all the accusers — five so far — and the accused — five in total — are related by blood or marriage.

Newton County's Assistant Prosecuting Attorney Bill Dobbs says complicated family ties are involved in the cases.

"We have, in McDonald County, Raymond Lambert, who is married to his stepsister," Dobbs says. "We have George Johnston, who is an uncle to Raymond Lambert. It is alleged by some members of that community that the religious leaders may, in fact, be the biological parents of several children who have been born into this group."

Our story focuses mostly on the pastors Raymond Lambert and his uncle George Johnston. Both men are charged with multiple counts of statutory sodomy or child molestation. Pastor Lambert led his flock on a 100-acre farm. Pastor Johnston led his on a 10-acre farm. They ministered in the family's Grand Valley Independent Baptist Church.

A Close-Knit, Isolated Community

Earlier this year in the spring, 10 people secretly moved out of the 100-acre farm. Most of those left behind were shocked, since members of the religious community were unusually close.

A woman who left with this group agreed to be interviewed, but only on condition of anonymity. NPR agreed to this because she fears for her and her family's safety. She is also an alleged victim named in one of the child sexual-abuse cases. The woman, in her late 20s, says she fled because she realized her extended family was behaving like a religious cult.

"They operate in a cult-like fashion," she tells NPR. "Raymond Lambert sets all the rules for the people who live there. He tells you what to go to school for, he tells you who to marry. He basically controls your life."

Former residents of this religious commune say non-church members were kept at arms-length. While children were home schooled, adults did have jobs outside of the farm. Some worked at Wal-Mart's headquarters in nearby northern Arkansas. The anonymous woman says Pastor Raymond Lambert told her to study music in college, so she became a music teacher.

One day last year, while surfing the Internet, she accidentally came across a cult-awareness Web site. The Bible-based cults she read about began to sound as if they were pages out of her own life. Alarmed, she contacted a California rabbi linked to the Web site. She says he counseled her for months, and in April of this year, she finally found the courage to leave everything she once believed in. Pastor Raymond Lambert not only controlled her, she says, but he also used his role as a minister to sexually molest her.

'This Was Her Way to Heaven'

"The first incident started with taking my clothes off when I was 15 years old," she said. "He touched me from head to toe, every part of my body, and told me that this body belongs to God. And the only way that I could subject myself to God is to give my body to Raymond, who is God in the flesh."

She grew up on the farm, passionately believing in God and church, trusting that her sexual relationship with Raymond Lambert would bring her closer to God.

"I believed that it was right, and that it was OK," she said. "I didn't feel like I needed to tell anybody, because I was believing in that at the time."

In June, she filed child sexual-abuse charges against Raymond Lambert. Not long after, Missouri police began to investigate other church leaders in the community, including Pastor George Johnston, an uncle of Raymond Lambert.

Mike Barnett, Newton County's child-abuse investigator, says another alleged victim, a 17-year-old girl, told him that Johnston sexually abused her, beginning when she was 8 years old.

"It became worse at about 12," Barnett says, referring to the 17-year-old's case. "He would tell her that he was ordained by God, that this was her way to heaven, and that she needed to give her body to him."

Barnett says he investigates child abuse all the time, and cases involving religion are rare. In a police statement, he says 63-year-old pastor George Johnston told this alleged victim that even if she had sexual intercourse with him, she would remain a virgin. In neighboring McDonald County, the state alleges that Johnston gave "angel kisses" to this same young girl, where the kiss would involve touching and fondling of her breasts and other inappropriate areas.

Allegations Heard in Court

At a preliminary hearing in October, another alleged victim, 20-year-old Mackenzie Kyle Amey, took the stand in the Newton County courthouse. Assistant Prosecuting Attorney Bill Dobbs asked her what happened in the winter of 1998, when she was 12.

"I was starting to develop or go through puberty," Amey said, "and I had some stretch marks coming, and he told me that he could heal them for me, and he touched my breasts."

On the stand, Amey alleged that Pastor George Johnston, whom she used to call Grandpa, was going to teach her algebra, but instead, "he touched me on my breasts and my vagina."

Months before these allegations, families in the religious community were coping with other disturbing news, says Amey Burkett, who grew up on the 100-acre-farm.

"In April, I learned that my grandfather thought that his daughters needed taking care of spiritually," Burkett tells NPR. "And so in order to do that, in order to keep his daughters, he had sex with them. He then went on to father a child for most all of his daughters, or his daughter-in-laws [sic]."

Her grandfather was the late Cecil Epling, a minister originally from Ohio. According to Burkett, Epling wanted his seven sons and four daughters to become a tight-knit community, so he helped buy them the Missouri farm. When Epling died, his stepson, Raymond Lambert, took over the ministry. George Johnston later joined the family's church.

Family members say Cecil Epling passed his sexual beliefs to both pastors, teaching them that they needed to fulfill the sexual needs of their daughters and selected girls in the church.

"What's inside of them is God, and they think that they have all the power, all that it takes to take care of a woman," Burkett says.

Taking care of a woman meant having sex with her, in some cases from early childhood on. Burkett said that Pastor Raymond Lambert believes that women should be put in their place to make them humble. Burkett said that this usually required stripping off clothes.

"He would always say, if you're spiritually hindered, it's one of two things: your mind or your flesh," Burkett said of Lambert. "By taking off your clothes, and knowing that you weren't ashamed of your body, it did feel like it set you free. And I know that sounds weird. A lot of things sound weird to me now. But it didn't then."

Pastors Deny All Charges

Lawyers for Raymond Lambert and George Johnston say each of their clients deny every charge made by the alleged victims.

"No one has begun to question, why are you talking now?" says defense attorney Dwayne Cooper, who represents Raymond Lambert and his wife, Patty Lambert. "What are their motives in coming forward at this time, all of them simultaneously?"

Pastor George Johnston's attorney, Andy Wood, said the allegations have hit his clients hard.

"George and his wife are just absolutely devastated," Wood said. "This has come out of nowhere. These kids that they did think of as being their grandchildren — now these kids have made these just horrible, horrendous accusations against him. And obviously, it's ruined their whole life."

I met Pastor Johnston at a preliminary hearing for one of three child sexual-abuse cases against him. He's a balding man, with a moustache and pasty skin. During the hearing, he sat solemn and devoid of expression, rarely looking up at anyone in the courtroom. When I ask him about the charges against him, he declines to speak, referring me to his lawyer.

Lawyers for Pastor Lambert and his wife, Patty, agreed to let me talk to their clients, but with substantial restrictions. I was allowed only to ask about life on the farm, and how the allegations have affected them.

Raymond Lambert is charged with seven counts of statutory sodomy or child molestation in McDonald County. Patty Lambert is charged with child molestation.

In a soft voice, Pastor Lambert describes his life: "You wake up one day and things have all changed. And the whole world now seems to be looking at our lives, and they're accusing us. We've been tried and sentenced in the media already."

Lambert says he loves every person who left the 100-acre farm, including those now accusing him of child sexual abuse. He says the allegations have been tough for his entire congregation.

"God said he was going to try us," Lambert said. "The only problem of it is, we never thought we'd be tried in such a way." While he speaks, his wife Patty holds his hand tightly.

"Everyone that lived there by choice would build, and we would watch each other's children as we went out to work," Raymond Lambert says, recalling life on the farm. "And it was a place of a community — it was not something of a forced thing."

'They're Not Fearing Me'

Raymond and Patty Lambert say families left the farm not because they feared Raymond, but because of rumors that the FBI or other authorities might take children away from families and put them into foster care.

"They're not fearing me. That's not what this is about," Raymond Lambert says.

Patty Lambert adds, "The fear came from the outside. I have no great fear of these charges, because I'm going to trust my God all the way through it."

Raymond Lambert nods his head in agreement.

"If our love and our truth about one another, and about what God has given us — and about our relationship, my wife and I — hadn't been based on something true and strong, this would have tore our life apart," Raymond Lambert says.

"But thanks be to our lord that our love is stronger," he says. "We stand together and we believe as one that our lord is going to make a way, as he's made a way and going to make a way for all those that have left."

The child sexual-abuse allegations have affected more than 30 families. One trial date has been set for Pastor George Johnston in February. No matter what the legal outcome of any of these cases, this community that so many believed in for decades is gone.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=16088928

Former pastor sentenced to five years for molesting boy

Associated Press - November 1, 2007

DALLAS (AP) — A former pastor was sentenced to five years in prison and 10 years of probation for molesting a 10-year-old boy whose family he had known for more than 50 years.

Larry Joe Crocker, who received his sentence Wednesday, ministered to the family in his role as pastor of the now-defunct Lakeview Christian Church. He was convicted on two counts of indecency with a child.

Crocker, 59, received the prison time for one charge and the probation for the other. The probation period won't begin until his prison sentence ends, officials said.

The victim's mother was a church secretary who fell ill and required hospitalization. She arranged for her children to stay with a female friend, but Crocker “insisted” on taking in her son, she said.

She agreed, describing Crocker as a surrogate father and a “pastor, boss, friend.”

While she was hospitalized and on subsequent visits between 2002 and 2005, Crocker molested the boy, according to trial testimony.

Crocker's attorney had asked the jury for leniency, requesting probation because of Crocker's medical problems, which include a history of heart attacks and high blood pressure.

http://www.timesrecordnews.com/news/2007/nov/01/former-pastor-sentenced-five-years-molesting-boy/

Pastor accused of raping girls turns self in

KOMO TV - Seattle, Washington

October 29, 2007

by KOMO Staff


KITSAP COUNTY -- A pastor wanted for allegedly raping two young girls in his own congregation turned himself in to police Monday morning. And Kitsap County Sheriff's deputies say two more alleged victims have come forward.

Kitsap County Sheriff spokesman Scott Wilson said pastor Robbin Harper of the Church in South Colby was taken into custody just after 10 p.m. He's being held on $500,000 bail for investigation of second-degree child rape.

Wilson said Harper is accused of raping two young girls over a period of several years.

"There was a pattern of sexual abuse that would cover the gamut of sexual activities that occurred with Pastor Robbin Harper being the instigator," he said.

Police learned about the abuse after one victim, now in her early 20s, came forward last week. The woman said Harper began molesting her when she was 12 years old and continued until earlier this year.

In court papers, the victim says initially, she refused the pastor's sexual advances. But she says, he told her: "She needed to get over these feelings so she wouldn't have problems with intimacy the rest of her life."

Harper allegedly showed her pornography so "she would know how to perform these sex acts."

The court papers say he even invited her to the Days Inn and Holiday Inn in Port Orchard. Deputies say she wasn't alone.


"All of them have said this was a typical conduct on how he would start a relationship with children," Wilson said.

Wilson said the woman informed police of another alleged victim, and investigators said the girl, who was once a member of the church, said she was also raped by Harper.

"The victims in this case, all of them, were scared," Wilson said Sunday. "I believe because they lived in a close-knit society, that they were afraid to come forward for fear of retaliation in one form or another."

A third and fourth alleged victim came forward Monday, but details surrounding those women were unknown.

Wilson said the abuse took place on church grounds, in the office, at the pastor's house and even at a motel.

KOMO 4 News asked Harper's son about the allegations but he would only say, "the charges haven't been filed yet."

Harper's neighbor, Cliff Delong said he's still in disbelief.

"No never. I don't halfway believe it now," he said. "I mean, you never know. Nobody's proven anything."

Investigators said they expect more victims to come forward.

"All indications of a predator, past practice in grooming, all of that kind of thing that seems to be so common these days, are quite evident," Wilson said.



http://www.komotv.com/news/10868116.html

Protecting the innocent

Christian News Northwest - July 2007

http://www.cnnw.com/index.html

By JOHN FORTMEYER

Plaintiff alleges sex abuse during his stay there in the 1970s

A Salem man has filed a $5 million lawsuit against the Children’s Farm Home and its parent Trillium Family Services, claiming he was sexually abused as a child there in the late 1970s.




It happens. Even once is too often, but tragically, it happens - and all too frequently. It most certainly breaks the heart of God.

And the staff of this newspaper dreads anytime it must be reported on these pages.

But the days of ignoring that sexual abuse of youths can take place in churches, ministries and Christian schools is over. In the past few years, the number of reports of abuse - whether from recent times or surfacing after many years or even decades - seems to have multiplied greatly.


Locally, perhaps no one has become more knowledgable about the growing epidemic of abuse than Portland attorney and former Oregon state legislator Kelly Clark. Clark last month visited Christian News Northwest in Newberg to discuss what can be done to better protect children from sexual abuse.

Whether by accident - or, as he ponders, whether it might be by divine direction - Clark’s extensive work on such cases has made him a noted and visible expert on the subject.

"In the last 10 years, it’s probably been 50 percent of what I do," he said. For nearly 20 years Clark has been one of Oregon’s leading advocates for victims of child abuse -while in the Legislature co-authoring Oregon’s child abuse statute of limitations and the ban on child pornography, and since then representing more than 150 individuals abused as children by trusted adults, including priests, other ministers, coaches, Scout leaders, and teachers.

For more than a dozen years he has been one of the Northwest’s leading lawyers working on behalf of the victims of the Roman Catholic priest abuse scandals. More recently, he represented three girls who had suffered sexual abuse at a Christian school in New-berg by two coaches who were eventually fired by the school; a confidental settlement in the girls’ lawsuit against the school was announced in May.

Clark is an adjunct professor of political science at George Fox University, and is also a candidate for the master’s degree in theology from Australia’s Melbourne College of Divinity.

He also readily acknowledges that he is a recovering alcoholic who has "been through my own struggles with relationship and sexual brokenness." In the early 1990s, an alcoholic rampage and a guilty plea to a sex offense involving an ex-girlfriend ended his climb up the political ladder.

But Clark believes God is able to take his past failings and use them today to help victims of abuse.

"It’s given me an understanding of the world of mental health, the world of addiction, and the road back, which is an incredible thing to offer to these clients," he said.

Clark says he feels a sense of calling to assist victims of abuse. "I’ve come to accept that in some ways, this has been given to me as something I’m supposed to do."

Awareness of sex abuse increased greatly with the "explosion" of reports in the Catholic church, said Clark.

"Child abuse survivors feel incredibly isolated," he said. "They feel nobody would ever understand. They feel like it was their fault. So when all those courageous men and women came forward in the Catholic context … one of the great blessings that came out of the Catholic scandal was that people felt freed up to talk about it."

"But it’s not just a Catholic thing," Clark quickly added. "Not just a Christian thing. Not just a religious thing."

Yet when it happens in churches or other Christian settings, it not only attracts increased media attention, but it also potentially greatly multiplies the pain for the victims, because the abuse is often perpetrated by people who hold roles as representatives of God. Clark cited an article he once read that described abuse by clergy as a "murder of the soul" for the victims. It is an apt description, he said.

The biggest tragic mistake a church or ministry can make when such a problem surfaces is to pay more attention to the needs of the institution than to the needs of the victims, Clark said.

"The only response that is worthy of the Lord who said, ‘Suffer the little children who come unto me, the kingdom of heaven belongs to them,’ is to say we are most centrally concerned about the kids, and then everything works out," said Clark.

"If we take care of the kids, God will take care of the church."

Among the wide range of Protestant churches, some denominations have responded by putting good hiring and operational policies in place to help prevent abuse from happening, said Clark.

"The more networked the churches seem to be, the more that churches have those systems in place, and we know there are things that work, in terms of screening and policies," he said.

But for independent churches that don’t have those kinds of networks in place, the risk of abuse taking place appears to be greater.

"The smaller institutions that are on tighter budgets, they cut corners," said Clark. "Smaller churches are operating with stretched resources.

"For instance, some of the best policies are those that say it is not wise for any adult to be one-on-one with any child. But if you are a little bitty church and don’t have a lot of (staff) resources, you ask yourself, what are you going to do? It’s not just an organizational dilemma. It’s a legal and moral dilemma."

Clark said he has found a "slightly different dynamic" in some of the so-called "megachurches." He said they sometimes are less inclined than smaller churches to acknowledge the potential for sex abuse problems.

"They have all the resources they need," he said, "but there is a certain spiritual pride or naivete that says ‘It can never happen here.’ ”

But even small or independent churches should not have to go far to find good, solid resources to help them avoid sex abuse problems, according to Clark.

"There are resources out there,’ he said. "You don’t have to reinvent the wheel. My guess is that any Christian denomination that you ask will loan you a copy of their polcies. There are organizations that are set up to train churches in this. Insurance companies will come in and train your staff in how to avoid this. You can contact any child abuse survivors’ network. The FBI has policies. So do the Boy Scouts. You just have to look for it."

In his work, Clark experiences a full range of reactions from victims. Some carry such anger toward the church that they lose their faith and don’t want to hear any mention of God. But others are willing to give the church - and God - another chance if the church responds correctly.

"From the victims’ perspective, most of my clients don’t want to go to trial," said Clark. "They want a fair settlement. But most of the time, there are things that can be gotten beyond money, that matter to people. They want to hear an apology from the pastor, or the bishop, who could say ‘Maybe we didn’t know about this, but we failed you. Forgive us, we are sorry. What can we do to make it right?’

"Survivors of sex abuse really need to hear that."

Years of being so immersed working on the subject of sex abuse within the church does take a personal toll, Clark acknowledges.

"It does tend to cause spiritual cynicism, emotional burnout," he said.

But while Clark’s own faith in God has been challenged by what he has seen and heard, it hasn’t been eroded. He sees sex abuse as a reflection of the sin nature that every person must confront.

"I believe more than ever what (Alexander) Solzhenitsyn said, which is that the line between good and evil runs not through nations, not through ideologies, but through every human heart," he said.

Yet as a Christian, Clark admits it has been disappointing to see the church all too often failing to reflect God’s love and justice in matters of sex abuse.

"At a faith level, sometimes I do wonder if the Holy Spirit is asleep at the switch. For those of us who love the church and are called to be part of a body, it has shaken me up.

"But my anger is mainly directed at people that are supposed to have been watching out for this kind of thing."

http://www.kellyclarkattorney.com/news/ protecting-the-innocent/#more-35

Zimbabwe: 'Prophet' Faces Rape Charges

The Herald (Harare) - July 30, 2007

Chinhoyi Bureau Harare

A SELF-STYLED prophet of Johanne Masowe Apostolic sect in Murombedzi, Zvimba, has been brought to court for allegedly raping a pupil in a classroom at her school during a purported cleansing ceremony.

Madzibaba Mika Chikudo allegedly lured the girl by telling her that he wanted "to cleanse her of evil spirits".

Chikudo was not asked to plead when he appeared before Chinhoyi magistrate Mr Funwell Katewe.

Prosecutor Mr Voice Chivhiya said that on January 16, 2007, the accused went to see the girl at the school and instructed her to follow him to church for what he called a cleansing ceremony.

Instead of taking her to church, Chikudo took advantage of the girl and pushed her into an empty classroom where he raped her, the court heard.

The magistrate remanded him to August 8, pending investigations.

http://allafrica.com/stories/200707300052.html

Evangelist facing sex charges

Sun Herald - Mississippi

July 1, 2007
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
PHENIX CITY, Ala. --

An evangelist arrested in Atlanta earlier this week has been extradited to Alabama to face a sexual misconduct charge involving a teenage boy.

Christopher Bennett, 30, the president and CEO of Chris Bennett Ministries, was arrested Wednesday in the Atlanta area and charged with second-degree sodomy, said Russell County Sheriff's Lt. Heath Taylor.

The charge stems from a Russell County High student's claim that Bennett had inappropriately touched him in 2004 at Bennett's apartment when the boy was 14 or 15, Taylor said.

Bennett, a traveling evangelist, is also described as presiding bishop of the Generation Impact Movement, according to the Web site www.kingdompeople.org.

Bennett was held at the Fulton County Jail until Thursday, when he waived extradition and was taken to the Russell County Jail.

"It is my opinion that he befriends troubled teens and, at least on two occasions, has had sexual relations with them," Taylor said.

Bennett was charged with another sexual offense in College Park, Ga. in 2006, Taylor said. He called the circumstances in both allegations, while unrelated, very similar.

Taylor described Bennett as being cooperative with investigators.

http://www.sunherald.com/218/story/88785.html

The recycle of abuse continues at Baptist churches

By Greg Warner - Associated Baptist Press

Monday, June 25, 2007


JACKSONVILLE, Fla. - Secrecy about clergy sexual abuse may protect an abuser's current church from embarrassment but often comes at the expense of his next church - and its children.

Like many small, rural congregations that find themselves without a pastor, East Bonne Terre Baptist Church had a small budget and few options. So when church members heard there was a new preacher in the area who was seeking a pulpit, it looked like God's timing.

"When somebody comes along who has experience, can talk the language of love, and is a good preacher, its easy for them to believe God has called him to be their pastor," said Randy Black, a member of the Missouri church.

The preacher was "a smooth talker" who impressed the congregation as "a godly man," Black said. When his references checked out, the man was hired. One day before he was to preach his first sermon, however, the church received a tip. Their new pastor was a convicted child-molester.

"He ran a deaf ministry and took advantage of those boys who were deaf and mute who couldn't tell anybody," Black said. When the layman called one of the references back, he was told, "'He's an excellent pastor and he preaches great messages. He just has that one problem that he says he's dealt with and put behind him.'"

This far-too-common episode demonstrates why clergy sexual abuse - which some say has reached epidemic proportions - seems so insidious and hard to stop.

The situation in East Bonne Terre included many factors that make Baptist churches a breeding ground for clergy sex abuse: a trusted ministerial position, a winsome authority figure, an inadequate background check, church members who want to believe the best, a church's fear of embarrassment and liability, a tradition of autonomy, no denominational certification or safeguard, and no clearinghouse to identify repeat abusers.

Baptists might be tempted to think the recent high-profile scandal and cover-up of abusive Catholic priests resulted from a moribund church hierarchy bent on self-protection. But experts warn the lack of such a hierarchy in Baptist life gives abusers free rein - and makes Baptist churches unwitting accomplices to predator pastors who are recycled from one unsuspecting congregation to another.

While the Missouri episode is now two decades old, it's as fresh as today's newspaper. Accounts of sex abuse of minors and adults by Southern Baptist clergy have made national headlines in recent months, sparking widespread calls for reform - so far unanswered.

- In the most notorious case, Shawn Davies, a 33-year-old former music and youth minister, was sentenced to 20 years in prison in January after molesting at least 13 children while working in four churches in Missouri, Kentucky and Michigan, police said. Davies' last employer, First Baptist Church of Greenwood, Mo., hired him in 2003, while he was under investigation by police in Kentucky, and allowed Davies to work around children for four months after the church was notified of the investigation.

- At the 25,000-member Bellevue Baptist Church in Cordova, Tenn., a longtime assistant pastor was dismissed recently after admitting to sexually molesting his young son years earlier. The pastor had to fend off accusations he tried to cover up the offense.

- Last year Larry Reynolds, pastor of Southmont Baptist Church in Denton, Texas, for 28 years, was accused by former member Katherine Roush, now 37, of sexually abusing her for several years, also beginning when she was 14. Reynolds apologized to the church, which allowed him to retire, even giving him a retirement party and a gift of $50,000.

While these dramatic cases have grabbed headlines, most clergy abuse remains cloaked in secrecy, which is the ally of predators and first instinct of many offended congregations.

The Journal of Pastoral Care reported in a 1993 survey that 14 percent of Southern Baptist senior pastors have engaged in "sexual behavior inappropriate for a minister." Those statistics include sexual misconduct between adults. But 70 percent of reported sexual assaults involve minors, according to the victim-advocate group Darkness to Light, and an estimated 30 percent of child victims never report their abuse. Most abusers will have multiple victims, and serial abusers can have 40 to 400 in a lifetime.

The toll of abuse on children is devastating - one-fourth of girls and one-sixth of boys are sexually abused, according to long-term studies.

But why churches? Experts say all sexual abuse involves broken trust.

"Churches have always been a place where everybody trusts everybody," said Robert Leslie, a detective with the Greenwood Police Department who investigated the Shawn Davies case. "Everybody feels safe there. If you think about it, what better place for a predator to go?"

Too often, a church that discovers a predator in its midst tries to minimize the damage by keeping the incident secret. Whether intended to protect the church, the victim or the rare wrongly accused, that approach only compounds the abuse, experts and victims say.

"The tendency has been to bend over backwards to protect the good name of the church or the reputation of the minister charged with clergy sex abuse...," said ethicist Joe Trull of Denton, Texas. "Often the victim is re-victimized by the church."

"Because most Baptists have no system of ministerial ethical review or power to rescind ordination, we are vulnerable to terrible life-shattering situations," said retired pastor Michael Olmsted of Springfield, Mo., who twice in his long career had to intervene when abusers were discovered in his church.

When he later refused to provide positive references for two pastors who had ethical failures, he "was treated as though I didn't believe God forgives sin," Olmsted said. "A good-old-boy system that rewards people for denominational service and recommends them to other churches, while ignoring immoral and abusive behavior in our churches, neither honors God nor represents the God of grace."

Now there is a new urgency in Baptist life, but for all the talk, little has been done. The Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) has said it is powerless to impose a sex-abuse policy on its 42,000 churches, citing local-church autonomy. But at its annual meeting in San Antonio, the SBC was asked to consider developing a public database of ministers convicted of sexual abuse or harassment. The motion was referred to the SBC Executive Committee.

The U.S. Catholic Church has responded to its national abuse scandal with a systemic solution. Each diocese must have a molestation policy that requires an investigation by a lay-dominated review panel, care for the victims, defrocking of abusive priests, and protection of the rights of the accused and accusers.

The reform measures under consideration by Baptists don't go nearly as far. Congregational autonomy is usually the reason offered for Baptist inaction, but it can also be a tool of reform. Unlike Catholic parishioners, Baptist laypeople hold the power to punish abusers, intervene to prevent abuse, and short-circuit the system that recycles abusers from church to church.

Dee Ann Miller, one of the first to bring Southern Baptist sex abuse to light decades ago, said autonomy need not stand in the way.

"There are ways to take advantage of the polity," said Miller, a mental-health nurse and writer who herself was abused by a Southern Baptist missionary and says the denomination covered it up. "The problem is that minds and hearts have to be in gear to do it."

While the Catholics' system of governance is quite different, their abuse scandal shares a scary similarity with the Baptist experience, said Thomas Doyle of Vienna, Va., a Catholic and former Vatican canon lawyer.

The SBC's argument that it has "no authority" over autonomous churches is "actually quite analogous to what Catholic bishops were espousing prior to 2002," Doyle said in a March 30 letter to SBC leaders. The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has no direct authority over any bishop, Doyle said. Each of the 194 U.S. dioceses "is civilly and canonically independent."

Doyle's early warning in the mid-'80s about a "looming clergy sex-abuse nightmare" went unheeded until Catholic laity and activists became insistent. In the end, it was "the desperate need for a system of accountability that drove the creation of an oversight mechanism, and that mechanism was created outside the usual structure," he said.

Miller has been petitioning the SBC's "usual structure" for decades now. She's not holding her breath for systemic change any time soon. But she's hoping for improvement even closer to home - perhaps in the heart.

"The best that can happen now - without a lot of discussion and change in attitudes as well as some creation of new structures - is for individuals to put ethics above their fears for self-protection and institutional protection."

It starts with talking and with openness, she said. "Freely talking, and being willing to go to anyone who may be concerned, works if enough people who know the truth will really talk, and keep talking."

"That's how we learn - when victims are allowed to speak," Miller concluded. "A victim's story is a big part of her or his life. It is a valuable witness for us all. ..."

(EDITOR'S NOTE - This story is part of a six-part series on clergy sex-abuse. Bill Webb of Word and Way and Jim White of the Religious Herald contributed to the article.)

http://www.biblicalrecorder.org/content/news/2007/06_25_2007/ne250607the.shtml

Two More Civil Suits Filed Against Trinity Baptist Church

By Jeannie Blaylock

First Coast News


JACKSONVILLE, FL -- More legal action is being taken against Trinity Baptist. Two more civil suits have been filed.

They stem from the alleged sexual abuse by former pastor Bob Gray.

Dr. Gray is scheduled for his criminal trial in November. He's accused of capital sexual battery on several girls and one boy. Those children are now adults.

The two new civil suits bring the total to five filed now against Trinity. The civil suits allege Trinity knew Dr. Gray was a child abuser and did not tell authorities and did not protect the children or warn their families.

Miami attorney, Adam Horowitz, said Wednesday he expects each suit to be worth "millions." He says it's certain the civil action won't be ready before the criminal trial in November. He's asking for separate civil trials with separate juries, but one judge.

Trinity's attorney, Ed Trent, had no comment today because the litigation is pending. Trinity has said all along its own internal investigation found no cover-up.

The latest civil suits involve Jane Doe #4 and Jane Doe #5, as they're called.

Jane Doe #4 currently lives in Mississippi and was born in 1973 in Jacksonville.

She alleges, for example, that around 1980 she missed the school bus coming home from Trinity.

She says Dr. Gray put her in his car and abused her under her panties.

She also alleges Dr. Gray put her hands on his private parts and requested sexual action.

The suit says, "Jane Doe #4 has experienced severe and permanent psychological, emotional and physical injuries."

The suit for Jane Doe #5 alleges similar damage.

Jane Doe #5, according to the suit, currently lives in Santa Rosa County, Florida. She was born in 1972.

She is alleging Dr. Gray french-kissed her and fondled her over her clothing.


Related articles:


Third Suit Filed Against Trinity Baptist 3/13/2007

Another Lawsuit Against Trinity Baptist Church 3/2/2007

Attorney Says Trinity Lawsuit Worth "Millions" 2/24/2007

Jury Selection Set for Pastor Accused of Molestation 2/7/2007

Trinity Responds To Cover-Up Investigation 11/3/2006

Was There A Cover-Up at Trinity Baptist Church? 11/2/2006

Pastor Bob Gray Appears in Court Again 9/15/2006

Former Pastor Dr. Robert Gray In Court Again 8/16/2006

Dr. Gray's Newest Alleged Sex Abuse Victim Consolidated With Others for Trial 8/15/2006

Exclusive: The Man Accusing Dr. Gray of Molestation 7/9/2006

Pastor Bob Gray Arrested Again: Accused of Molesting a Boy Years Ago 7/7/2006

Alleged Victims Molested by Pastor Speak 5/23/2006

Pastor Arrested on Molestation Charges 5/22/2006



http://www.firstcoastnews.com/news/news-article.aspx?storyid=84223

JOIN US, the new film from Ondi Timoner

LOS ANGELES FILM FESTIVAL 2007

JOIN US, the new film from Ondi Timoner.

USA, 2007, 100 min
World Premiere

Directed By: Ondi Timoner
Writer: Ondi Timoner
Producers: Ondi Timoner, Vasco Lucas Nunes, Jared Tobman
Executive Producers: Ondi Timoner, Vasco Lucas Nunes
Cinematographers: Vasco Lucas Nunes, Ondi Timoner
Editors: Tim Rush, Ondi Timoner
Music: Richie Kulchar
Featuring: Joaquin Sullivan, Tonya Rogers, Raymund Melz, Deborah Melz, Liz Shaw, Paul Martin

In Ondi Timoner’s chilling exposé, four families flee their pseudo-Christian pastor and check into a prominent cult-victim treatment facility where counseling uncovers the twisted pathway that led to the sacrifice of family, job, finances, ethics and, finally, individuality in order to benefit the church. But they will not feel a true sense of closure until they return to the community they built and attempt to seek justice. Shooting in visceral cinéma vérité style, Timoner launches viewers onto a rollercoaster ride that deftly examines the nature of belief and belonging in a nation that boasts an estimated 5,000 cults.


http://www.joinusthemovie.com/

Teenage Holy War

Ron Luce: "I want an attacking church!" He isn't just looking for followers -- he wants "stalkers" who'll bring a criminal passion to their pursuit of godliness.

JEFF SHARLET - April 3, 2007

This is an excerpt from Rolling Stone magazine.



This is how you enlist in the Army of God: First come the fireworks and the prayers, and then 4,000 kids scream, "We won't be silent anymore!" Then the kids drop to their knees, still but for the weeping and regrets of fifteen-year-olds. The lights in the Cleveland arena fade to blue, and a man on the stage whispers to them about sin and love and the Father-God. They rise, heartened; the crowd, en masse, swears off "harlots and adultery"; the twenty-one-year-old MC twitches taut a chain across the ass of her skintight red jeans and summons the followers to show off their best dance moves for God. "Gimme what you got!" she shouts. They dance -- hip-hop, tap, toe and pelvic thrusting. Then they're ready. They're about to accept "the mark of a warrior," explains Ron Luce, commander in chief of BattleCry, the most furious youth crusade since young sinners in the hands of an angry God flogged themselves with shame in eighteenth-century New England. Nearly three centuries later, these 4,000 teens are about to become "branded by God." It's like getting your head shaved when you join the Marines, Luce says, only the kids get to keep their hair. His assistants roll out a cowhide draped over a sawhorse, and Luce presses red-hot iron into the dead flesh, projecting a close-up of sizzling cow skin on giant movie screens above the stage.

"When you enlist in the military, there's a code of honor," Luce preaches, "same as being a follower of Christ." His Christian code requires a "wartime mentality": a "survival orientation" and a readiness to face "real enemies." The queers and communists, feminists and Muslims, to be sure, but also the entire American cultural apparatus of marketing and merchandising, the "techno-terrorists" of mass media, doing to the morality of a generation what Osama bin Laden did to the Twin Towers. "Just as the events of September 11th, 2001, permanently changed our perspective on the world," Luce writes, "so we ought to be awakened to the alarming influence of today's culture terrorists. They are wealthy, they are smart, and they are real."

Luce is forty-five, his brown hair floppy, his lips pouty. On the screens above the stage, his green eyes blink furiously. "The devil hates us," he exhorts, "and we gotta be ready to fight and not be these passive little lukewarm, namby-pamby, kum-ba-yah, thumb-sucking babies that call themselves Christians. Jesus? He got mad!" Luce considers most evangelicals too soft, too ready to pass off as piety their preference for a bland suburban lifestyle. He hates what he sees as the weakness of "accepting" Christ, of "trusting" the Lord. "I want an attacking church!" he shouts, his normally smooth tones raw and desperate and alarming. He isn't just looking for followers -- he wants "stalkers" who'll bring a criminal passion to their pursuit of godliness.

Cue Christian metal on the mammoth screens flanking the stage: "Frontline," a music video produced at Luce's Honor Academy in east Texas for the band Pillar. It opens with a broken guitar magically reassembling itself, a redemptive reversal of four decades of rock & roll nihilism. Then comes the gospel: "Everybody with your fist raised high/Let me hear your battle cry!"

In the hall outside the arena, kids line up to buy BattleCry T-shirts and hoodies and trucker caps, a dozen designs scrolled with goth and skater patterns. A brown tee for boys features a white silhouette of a kid with a baseball bat, a devil behind him rubbing his horns after a beat down. no more lies, reads the legend. On the second day, when the time comes for even the youngest to enlist in Luce's army, I find myself sitting on the main floor of the arena next to a couple of twelve-year-olds, Hanneh and Mallory. Hanneh has straight blond hair; Mallory's a redhead with curls. Mallory wants to borrow my pen. "I have to write a message to MTV," she says. She hunches over in her seat, her hair hiding her hand as she scratches it out. "Dear MTV," she reads aloud, "leave those kids alone!"

Then she adds a kicker: "Repent." I ask her what she means. She giggles as if I'm teasing her. "Ron Luce said so!"

Luce knows that most of the kids who attend his shows come for the music (P.O.D. headline his biggest events; a screamo band called Flyleaf gets top billing in Cleveland), but he also knows that from their numbers, he's growing a new hard core for American fundamentalism. Luce recruits the politically powerless -- kids too young to vote. "That makes 'em want to fight," he tells me backstage after one of his events. "They get so livid. They're mad. They've been very cleverly marketed to. Kids started finding out that we cannot just stand back and let these people do this to us."

Luce calls his crusade a "counter-rebellion" or a "reverse rebellion" or sometimes simply "revolution." The Cleveland event, Acquire the Fire, only one stop in what is becoming Luce's permanently touring roadshow, is not meant to save souls -- most of the kids say they accepted Jesus when they were four or five -- but to radicalize them. He's been doing this for two decades, but it didn't take off until days after the Columbine shootings of 1999, when Luce rallied 70,000 angry, weeping kids at the Pontiac Silverdome outside Detroit. In 2006, he brought his rallies to more than 200,000 kids. Overall, he's preached to 12 million.

They're the base. Of that number, Luce has sent 53,000 teen missionaries around the globe to preach spiritual "purity" -- chastity, sobriety and a commitment to laissez-faire capitalism -- in Romania, Guatemala and dozens of other "strongholds" that require young Americans to bring them "freedom" -- a Christ they believe needs no translation. Luce selected more than 6,000 for his Honor Academy, some of whom become political operatives, media activists and militant preachers who then funnel fresh kids into the Academy. It's a vertically integrated movement, a machine that produces "leaders for the army," a command cadre that can count on the masses Luce conditions as its infantry.

Luce says only four percent of the U.S. will be Christian, by which he means "Bible-believing," when the current generation, the largest in American history, comes of age. To understand how a nation more actively Christian than at any point in its past is about to become some vast Sweden -- Luce's archetypical wasteland of guilt-free sex and socialized medicine -- you have to know that his antagonism toward secularism is dwarfed by a contempt bordering on hatred for what he dubs "cultural Christians." He considers them traitors.

At Acquire the Fire, Luce tells the kids to make lists of secular pleasures they'll sacrifice for the cause. Hanneh starts with Bow Wow and Usher, bites her pen, and then decides to go big: "Music," she writes, then "Friends" -- the nonfundamentalist ones -- and "Party." This, she explains, is a polite way of saying "sex." Not that she's had any, or knows anyone her age who has, but she's learned from Luce that "the culture" wants to force it upon her at a young age. "The world," he tells her, is a forty-five-year-old pervert posing as another tween online.

Luce sometimes brings a garbage truck onto the floor to cart the lists away, but this is a relatively small event, so Hanneh and Mallory trot over to one of the trash bins stationed around the arena and drop theirs in. "I feel so much better," Mallory tells Hanneh. Hanneh nods, smiling now. "I feel free," she says.

Later, one of Luce's PR reps takes me backstage to sift through the bins of rejected affections. Most kids mention music, movies, girlfriends and boyfriends, sex or, surprisingly often, just condoms, but a number of new warriors are oddly precise about their proposed abandonings. They cast into perdition Starbucks (multiple votes), Victoria's Secret (ditto; Luce encourages kids to confront the managers of lingerie stores), cereal (Special K and Cap'n Crunch), hip-huggers, "smelling amazing," "vengeance," "medication" and A&W root beer. "I would say it's ridiculous what they are doing to root beer," wrote the boy who will drink A&W no more.

"This is a real war," Luce preaches. When he talks like that, he growls. "This is not a metaphor!" In Cleveland, he intercuts his sermons with videos of suicide bombers and marching Christian teens. One of the most popular, "Casualties of War," features an elegiac beat by a Christian rapper named KJ-52 laid over flickering pictures of kids holding signs declaring the collapse of Christendom: 1/2 OF US ARE NO LONGER VIRGINS, reads a poster board displayed by a pigtailed girl. 40% OF US HAVE INFLICTED SELF-INJURY, says a sign propped up over a sink in which we see the hands of a girl about to cut herself. 53% OF US BELIEVE JESUS SINNED, declares the placard of a young black man standing in a graffiti-filled alley.

Luce lays out cooked statistics, images, assertions. He doesn't explain -- he warns. To the crowd of watery-eyed teens he recites letters he says their peers have sent him, souls lost to what he calls, over and over, the "pigpen" of secularism. It's a reference to the sorry fate of the prodigal son in the Gospel of Luke, who wound up tending hogs until he submitted to the authority of God and was restored to his riches. There's an unnamed girl who left Jesus and then "got date raped." There's "Emily," who dated a non-Christian boy -- "now she works in pornography and lives a bisexual lifestyle." Luce sneers: "pigpen." There's "Heather," who wrote to Luce to complain that "my father is passive, and my mom is controlling." "Pigpen," Luce says, his voice filled with sorrow for the girl with the sissy dad...

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/14021621/teenage_holy_war

More than 260 sex abuse cases reported annually to insurance companies by Protestant churches

Rose French/Associated Press

Friday, June 15, 2007


NASHVILLE, Tenn. — The three companies that insure the majority of Protestant churches in America say they typically receive upward of 260 reports each year of young people under 18 being sexually abused by clergy, church staff, volunteers or congregation members.

The figures released to The Associated Press offer a glimpse into what has long been an extremely difficult phenomenon to pin down - the frequency of sex abuse in Protestant congregations.

Religious groups and victims' supporters have been keenly interested in the figure ever since the Roman Catholic sex abuse crisis hit five years ago. The church has revealed that there have been 13,000 credible accusations against Catholic clerics since 1950.

Protestant numbers have been harder to come by and are sketchier because the denominations are less centralized than the Catholic church; indeed, many congregations are independent, which makes reporting even more difficult.

Some of the only numbers come from three insurance companies - Church Mutual Insurance Co., GuideOne Insurance Co. and Brotherhood Mutual Insurance Co.

Together, they insure 165,495 churches and worship centers for liability against child sex abuse and other sexual misconduct, mostly Protestant congregations but a few other faiths as well. They also insure more than 5,500 religious schools, camps and other organizations.

The companies represent a large chunk of all U.S. Protestant churches. There are about 224,000 in the U.S., according to the Association of Statisticians of American Religious Bodies, although that number excludes most historically black denominations and some other groups, which account for several thousand congregations.

Church Mutual, GuideOne and Brotherhood Mutual each provided statistics on sex abuse claims to The Associated Press, although they did not produce supporting documentation or a way to determine whether the reports were credible.

The largest company, Church Mutual, reported an average of about 100 sex abuse cases a year involving minors over the past decade. GuideOne, which has about half the clients of Church Mutual, said it has received an average of 160 reports of sex abuse against minors every year for the past two decades.

Brotherhood Mutual said it has received an average of 73 reports of child sex abuse and other sexual misconduct every year for the past 15 years. However, Brotherhood does not specify which victims are younger than 18 so it is impossible to accurately add that to the total cases.

Abuse reports don't always mean the accused was guilty, and they don't necessarily result in financial awards or settlements, the companies said. The reports include accusations against clergy, church staff and volunteers.

Even with hundreds of cases a year "that's a very small number. That probably doesn't even constitute half," said Gary Schoener, director of the Walk-In Counseling Center in Minneapolis, a consultant on hundreds of Protestant and Catholic clergy misconduct cases. "Sex abuse in any domain, including the church, is reported seldom. We know a small amount actually come forward."

Tom Farr, general counsel and senior vice president of claims for GuideOne, based in West Des Moines, Iowa, said most abuse cases are resolved privately in court-ordered mediation. Awards can range from millions of dollars down to paying for counseling for victims, he said.

One of the largest settlements to date in Protestant churches involved the case of former Lutheran minister Gerald Patrick Thomas Jr. in Texas, where a jury several years ago awarded the minister's victims nearly $37 million. Separate earlier settlements involving Thomas cost an additional $32 million.

When insurance companies first started getting reports of abuse from churches nearly two decades ago, the cases usually involved abuse that happened many years earlier. But over the past several years, the alleged abuse is more recent - which could reflect a greater awareness about reporting abuse, insurance companies said.

Insurance officials said the number of sex abuse cases has remained steady over the past two decades, but they also said churches are working harder to prevent child sex abuse by conducting background checks, installing windows in nurseries and play areas and requiring at least two adults in a room with a child.

Patrick Moreland, vice president of marketing for Church Mutual, said churches are particularly susceptible to abusers.

"By their nature, congregations are the most trusting of organizations, so that makes them attractive targets for predators," he said. "If you're a predator, where do you go? You go to a congregation that will welcome you."

A victims' advocacy group has said the Southern Baptists, the nation's largest Protestant denomination, could do more to prevent abuse by creating a list of accused clergy the public and churches could access.

"I think they should have a list of credibly reported clergy child abuse," said Christa Brown, a member of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, a group initially created to hold the Catholic church accountable for sex abuse by its clergy.

"These are things people are entitled to know," said Brown, who says she was sexually abused as a child by a Southern Baptist minister. "The only way to prevent this crime is to break the code of silence and to have absolute transparency when allegations are raised."

At the Southern Baptist Convention's annual meeting in San Antonio this week, the Rev. Wade Burleson of Enid, Okla., proposed a feasibility study into developing a national database of Southern Baptist ministers who have been "credibly accused of, personally confessed to, or legally been convicted of sexual harassment or abuse."

A convention committee referred Burleson's motion to the SBC executive committee, which will report back with findings and a recommendation at next year's meeting in Indianapolis.

Southern Baptist President Frank Page said leaders are considering several options to help churches protect children against abuse.

"We believe that the Scripture teaches that the church should be an autonomous, independent organization," Page said. "We encourage churches to hold accountable at the local level those who may have misused the trust of precious children and youth."

Several years ago, the Baptist General Convention of Texas, which represents moderates who have increasingly distanced themselves from the conservative-led Southern Baptists, started a list of accused clergy for churches, but not the public. Under pressure from victim advocates, the Texas group just released the names of some convicted sex offenders who may have been ministers in local congregations.

Joe Trull, editor of Christian Ethics Today and retired ethics professor at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary, helped the Texas convention create its registry and says there are now about 11 cases involving clergy abuse with minors.

But he believes these are just the "tip of the iceberg" because churches don't have to report abuse cases to the registry and aren't likely to.

"The problem we're having is that churches just weren't sending the names," Trull said. "In the normal scenario, they just try to keep it secret. We're going to have to be more proactive and let them know if they don't come forward, they're helping to perpetuate this problem."

http://www.abqtrib.com/news/2007/jun/15/more-260-sex-abuse-cases-reported-annually-insuran/