North Texas Daily

Southern Baptist Convention policies liken being LBGTQ to engaging in adultery or pornography, according to the Human Rights Campaign. But where does the church stand on child sex abuse? A recent article in the Houston Chronicle provided eye-opening insights into the Southern Baptist Church’s history of sexually abusing children and covering it up.

Southern Baptist churches are locally run and the congregations hire their own pastors, unlike the Catholic Church, which has dealt with child abuse scandals for years, such as those reported by the Spotlight team of the Boston Globe. In the Catholic Church, predators were discreetly shuffled from diocese to diocese, but the autonomy of the Southern Baptist Church means there is a chance that the church hiring the abuser may never even know if he’s been suspected or accused of sexual misconduct.

There needs to be an overwhelming consensus in the church that anyone who has ever been accused of violating a child should be automatically referred to local law enforcement. If the church doesn’t refer these cases to the appropriate entities, it can be argued that they should face penalties.

It is entirely possible that the church could be held financially liable. As a man with young nieces and nephews, I would want anyone who hurt them to be held accountable.

There also needs to be a national database for the Southern Baptist Church to share the names and photographs of those accused of sexual abuse when working with children. More churches should be required by insurance companies to do a deep dive into the background of employees who will be around children.

We cannot allow this abhorrent scourge of pedophiles to victimize our children. Our children need to be protected.

There has been talk about not allowing churches to continue to be part of the Southern Baptist denomination if they knowingly employ someone who has been accused of child sexual abuse. While this is a good idea in theory, wouldn’t it be better to directly remove the person accused of molestation so they no longer encounter children?

Recently, the Southern Baptist Convention singled out three churches that were still being investigated in the wake of a past sex abuse scandal. The Denton Record-Chronicle indicated in a recent article that two of those three churches were cleared of wrongdoing.

We need to give our children more time to file suits against their predators, perhaps similarly to recent legislation out of New York, where the Child Victims Act loosens the extremely tight statute of limitations regarding molestation, allowing victims up to a year to file lawsuits against abusers, according to an article in The Daily Progress.

Why is this legislation necessary? It is simple.

Our children are precious. Why are we allowing predators to prey on their innocence, victimize them and not pay the price for their actions? Meanwhile, the abused children are paying the price in the form of developing mental illnesses, hypersexualization, potential STDs and teen pregnancy.

This situation is angering. Suffice it to say if I found out my church was standing with a pastor known to sexually abuse children, my support would terminate immediately.

Featured Illustration: Shannon Quillman