fundamentalist churches face a widespread epidemic of sexual abuse and institutional denial that could ultimately involve more victims than the pedophilia scandal in the Catholic Church
...Sexual abuse is something that happens in the secular world, not among the God-fearing. This, after all, is the universe of abstinence pledges and old-fashioned courtship, where parents build their entire lives around shielding their children from worldly temptations.
Yet the potential for sexual abuse is actually exacerbated by the core identity of fundamentalist groups like ABWE. Like Catholics, fundamentalists preach strict obedience to religious authority. Sex is not only prohibited outside of marriage, but rarely discussed. These overlapping dynamics of silence and submission make conservative Christians a ripe target for sexual predators. As one convicted child abuser tells clinical psychologist Anna Salter in her book Predators: Pedophiles, Rapists, and Other Sex Offenders , “Church people are easy to fool.”
Over the past five years, in fact, it has become increasingly clear—even to some conservative Christians—that fundamentalist churches face a widespread epidemic of sexual abuse and institutional denial that could ultimately involve more victims than the pedophilia scandal in the Catholic Church . In 2012, an investigation at Bob Jones University , known as the “fortress of fundamentalism,” revealed that the school had systematically covered up allegations of sexual assault and counseled victims to forgive their attackers. Sovereign Grace, a network of “neo-Calvinist” churches, has been facing multiple allegations of child molestation and sexual abuse . In 2014, a New Republic investigation found that school officials at Patrick Henry College, a popular destination for Christian homeschoolers, had routinely responded to rape and harassment claims by treating perpetrators with impunity, discouraging women from going to the police, and blaming them for dressing immodestly.
Allegations of sexual misconduct have also engulfed four of fundamentalism’s most venerated patriarchs. Doug Phillips, a prominent leader of the Christian homeschooling movement, was forced to step down in 2013 from his nationwide ministry, Vision Forum, after he was sued by a former nanny who claimed he groomed her as a teenager to be his “personal sex object.” The following year, Bill Gothard, founder of the influential Institute in Basic Life Principles, resigned amid more than 30 allegations of sexual harassment and molestation by former staffers, interns, and volunteers . In the first case to cross over into the cultural mainstream, Josh Dugger, the beloved eldest son of reality TV’s favorite fundamentalist family, fell into disgrace in 2015 with the revelation that he had molested five underage girls , including four of his sisters. And this July, the chief of another fundamentalist reality-TV clan, Toby Willis, is scheduled to stand trial on four counts of child rape .
This burgeoning crisis of abuse has received far less attention than the well-documented scandal that rocked the Catholic Church. That’s in part because the evangelical and fundamentalist world, unlike the Catholic hierarchy, is diverse and fractious, composed of thousands of far-flung denominations, ministries, parachurch groups, and missions like ABWE. Among Christian evangelicals, there is no central church authority to investigate, punish, or reform. Groups like ABWE answer only to themselves.
The scale of potential abuse is huge. Evangelical Protestants far outnumber Catholics in the United States, with more than 280,000 churches, religious schools, and affiliated organizations. In 2007, the three leading insurance companies that provide coverage for the majority of Protestant institutions said they received an average of 260 reports per year of child sexual abuse at the hands of church leaders and members. By contrast, the Catholic Church was reporting 228 “credible accusations” per year.
“Protestants have responded much worse than the Catholics to this issue,” says Boz Tchividjian, a former child sex-abuse prosecutor who is the grandson of legendary evangelist Billy Graham. “One of the reasons is that, like it or not, the Catholics have been forced, through three decades of lawsuits, to address this issue. We’ve never been forced to deal with it on a Protestant-wide basis...”
I hope the media takes interest.
I hope the investigations are very conclusive.
That is a great article. Complete kudos to Kim; what a strong person, and now taking on the evil herself.
I think that this goes on in all faiths, especially those that make sex taboo. It seems the more we try to repress sexuality, the more it comes out in very sick ways.
I agree with that. The more it is taught to be dirty or bad, instead of introduced as a subject of love, slowly and in an age appropriate manner, the more forbidden it is and in many ways the more desirable. Humans are often tempted by that which they are told they can not have.
Here is a link to the whole story...
The one major flaw in this story is Evangelical missionaries are trying to convert indigenous peoples and the story of the indigenous children/people is never told....Do you actually think that the Evangelical/missionary kids are the only ones to suffer this fate...
History in the US, Canada, and Australia will tell you a far different story.
Kudos to Kim, and hopefully she can bring this to light with the press and everywhere that this rot exists.
While I have long said that sexual abuse occurs in all faiths, and this comes as no surprise to me, I hope that the investigations face few roadblocks. Getting people to cooperate is going to be difficult, I would think.
Any time there is a repressive environment, it seems to be human nature to pick on the weak and most vulnerable. I don't know if it is hard-wired into our DNA, or what, but it seems to be one of human's greatest evils that the veneer of 'civilization' can't quite seem to cover up.
What a shame! But finally, due to this investigation, perhaps some children, somewhere, will benefit. I hope!