Re: CBF minister arrested
Posted: Thu May 23, 2019 6:15 am
My greatest problem with our Baptist handling of sexual predators has always been and still is that we as churches focus on the "damage to the church if this sort of thing is revealed," as expressed a few years ago by an SBC pres. The swift dismissal of staff who are told to leave and all will be covered has been wrong. Now the greatest reputational damage to the church is coming because when laws governing sexual behavior have been violated, churches have become complicit in hiding the crime. I'm a bit hard-nosed on this, but whether it's in Baptist churches, Methodist, Presbyterian, independent, or the RCC, immediate prosecution should be the norm, not the exception. Even for ministers, if you commit the crime, you should do the time. The legal system is better equipped to deal with sex offenders than are most churches. I think it's the only way to recover our reputations. By the way, I have encountered parents who no longer allow their children to attend church youth groups after almost every headline of this type comes out. The stories recently from the "Houston Chronicle" exposed the real extent of this among Baptists in the South. The only disciple available for CBF or the SBC, given our current polity, is simply to decline to receive contributions from churches, not exactly a powerful carrot or stick.