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Ministry Sexual Abuse

“A LifeWay Research study found more than 1 in 10 Protestant pastors say someone on church staff has sexually harassed a congregation member at some point in the church’s life.” - F&T

Discussion

Wed, 07/15/20

The person interviewed suggests that far more background checks return “something of interest” than I would have guessed—I’d have guessed that very few people with a serious record would even dare to take the check. Background checks are not the end-all in child/church protection, but they are an essential part.

Worth noting as well is that if indeed 10% of pastors are aware of someone on staff sexually harassing a congregant….then our associations (GARBC, SBC, MARBC, MBC, etc..) seriously need to start a list of “people shown the door, whether or not they were prosecuted or convicted.” Churches can still choose to hire/employ someone on this list, but I wouldn’t want to try and defend that from the witness stand as a plaintiff’s attorney asked why the resource was not used, or why the church chose to disregard the fact that their applicant was a known bad actor.

Aspiring to be a stick in the mud.