Protestant Church Staff Sex Abuse: Over 250 Reported Cases a Year
- Posted by: Todd
- Posted on: Tue, June 26, 2007
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- (1) comments so far
Some of the only numbers come from three insurance companies - Church Mutual Insurance Co., GuideOne Insurance Co. and Brotherhood Mutual Insurance Co.
Together, they insure 165,495 churches and worship centers for liability against child sex abuse and other sexual misconduct, mostly Protestant congregations but a few other faiths as well. They also insure more than 5,500 religious schools, camps and other organizations.
The companies represent a large chunk of all U.S. Protestant churches. There are about 224,000 in the U.S., according to the Association of Statisticians of American Religious Bodies, although that number excludes most historically black denominations and some other groups, which account for several thousand congregations.
Church Mutual, GuideOne and Brotherhood Mutual each provided statistics on sex abuse claims to The Associated Press, although they did not produce supporting documentation or a way to determine whether the reports were credible.
The largest company, Church Mutual, reported an average of about 100 sex abuse cases a year involving minors over the past decade. GuideOne, which has about half the clients of Church Mutual, said it has received an average of 160 reports of sex abuse against minors every year for the past two decades.
Brotherhood Mutual said it has received an average of 73 reports of child sex abuse and other sexual misconduct every year for the past 15 years. However, Brotherhood does not specify which victims are younger than 18 so it is impossible to accurately add that to the total cases.
Abuse reports don’t always mean the accused was guilty, and they don’t necessarily result in financial awards or settlements, the companies said. The reports include accusations against clergy, church staff and volunteers.
More here in this article at Beliefnet.com...
The three companies that insure the majority of Protestant churches in America say they typically receive upward of 260 reports each year of young people under 18 being sexually abused by clergy, church staff, volunteers or congregation members. The figures released to The Associated Press offer a glimpse into what has long been an extremely difficult phenomenon to pin down - the frequency of sex abuse in Protestant congregations.
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Tony Kummer on Tue, June 26, 2007
Any real solution is nearly impossible on a denominational level. Ultimately, it will take local churches who do the right thing for children. My own Southern Baptist convention passed a resolution on this topic but it lacked any real teeth. I have mixed feelings about the resolution. I am really glad that we said something, even if it is obvious and redundant. By their very nature ‘SBC resolutions’ can never really change things. It is a positive step that we are willing to admit this is a problem in our churches.
Thanks for posting this story.
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