Abuse Prevention - A Serious Issue for Churches

[Dawn R. Morton]

In 1993, Richard Hammar, a leading lawyer in the US shared a great set of resources for the church to begin prevention steps from child sexual abuse with the church setting. He declared that 70% of churches were doing little to prevent this from occurring in churches.

In 2005, my study of leaders and their churches showed that still 71% of churches are doing very little regarding prevention of CSA. In fact, the average church only has 4 steps out of 16 in place. These 16 steps were compiled from the literature review of my research. Everyone who had a manual based it off of Richard Hammar's model presented in 1993, which has now been updated to a newer version.

The majority of churches and leaders say "It cost too much to deal with" or they say "We don't need it here at our church because we know everyone." It is unfortunate that the church still "sticks its head in the sand and hides from the reality" of CSA. Now in 2008, from talking with churches/leaders and doing a bit more research on the subject, still the percentage holds true. 70% of churches still are doing so little prevention regarding the problem. Sure some churches have stepped up and begun to make changes, but others still ignore the problem of abuse of power with leaders, especially church leaders.

Why is it that church leaders will not address the issue? Is it fear? Is it lack of understanding? I believe it could be both. This is a sensitive issue yet we as leaders must step up and take our ministry in a serious tone regarding the care of children and youth. We must overcome our fears of "what will people say if we put something in place?" and we must educate ourselves on the matter of prevention. Why wait until something unfortunate takes place, when we have the power to make a change and prevent it from happening.

The fact is this: Trauma, such as CSA, in children and youth stunt the normal developmental process, thus interrupting the spiritual life of the child. Prevention means protecting the spiritual life of the child, not just the physical, emotional, or mental part of the child. The spiritual life of children needs protection in our society so that the child may develop normally as God has designed.

Those that think it is only a Catholic Church problem are greatly mistaken. In fact, the greater problem is in the Protestant Church. We hear of the Catholic Church because of the media and the amounts of money involved. Yet, there are more cases in Protestant churches involving church pastors, youth pastors and leaders, Sunday School teachers, Associate Pastors, and the list goes on. Oh yeah, every denomination has had some incident that has made the newspaper headlines.

I would love to hear from others on this subject. What do you think is happening in our society regarding this epidemic?