20 years, 700 victims: Southern Baptist sexual abuse spreads as leaders resist reforms

Discussion in 'Articles' started by News Readers, Feb 11, 2019.

  1. News Readers

    News Readers The Paperboy

    20 years, 700 victims: Southern Baptist sexual abuse spreads as leaders resist reforms (first of three parts)

    Thirty-five years later, Debbie Vasquez's voice trembled as she described her trauma to a group of Southern Baptist leaders. She was 14, she said, when she was first molested by her pastor in Sanger, a tiny prairie town an hour north of Dallas. It was the first of many assaults that Vasquez said destroyed her teenage years and, at 18, left her pregnant by the Southern Baptist pastor, a married man more than a dozen years older. In June 2008, she paid her way to Indianapolis, where she and others asked leaders of the Southern Baptist Convention and its 47,000 ...


    https://www.houstonchronicle.com/ne...-sexual-abuse-spreads-as-leaders-13588038.php



    Southern Baptist churches hired dozens of leaders previously accused of sex offenses (second of three parts)

    Doug Myers was suspected of preying on children at a church in Alabama — but he went on to work at Southern Baptist churches in Florida before police arrested him. Timothy Reddin was convicted of possessing child pornography, yet he was still able to serve as pastor of a Baptist church in Arkansas. Charles Adcock faced 29 counts of sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl in Alabama. Then he volunteered as a worship pastor at a Baptist church in Texas. The sordid backgrounds of these Southern Baptist ministers didn't stop them from finding new jobs at churches and working in positions ...


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    https://www.houstonchronicle.com/ne...churches-hired-ministers-accused-13588233.php




    Preying on teens: More than 100 Southern Baptist youth pastors convicted or charged in sex crimes (third of three parts)

    Chad Foster, a former firefighter from Missouri, arrived in Texas soon after his divorce and with his 30th birthday fast approaching. He described himself as a fairly new Christian with a history of hard drinking. He was hired and later ordained as a youth pastor by Houston's Second Baptist Church, one of the largest Southern Baptist congregations in the country. "When I took the job," Foster later said, "I didn't know anything about it." Foster preached abstinence and urged teens to sign a contract to save themselves for marriage. But he soon targeted underaged girls at the church's Cypress campus ...


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    https://www.houstonchronicle.com/ne...n-Southern-Baptist-youth-pastors-13588292.php
     
  2. News Readers

    News Readers The Paperboy

    The way forward: How can Southern Baptist churches and parents help prevent sexual abuse? (followup)

    Experts, prosecutors and activists say there are several ways that churches and parents can protect against sexual abuse: Develop clear guidelines and training: Allowing pastors or other church leaders to be alone with children can lead to opportunities for abuse. Proper boundaries may include instructing pastors and other leaders to avoid one-on-one encounters (even for counseling purposes) with members of the opposite sex, banning or limiting physical contact, especially with children and teens, and setting guidelines to limit or prohibit social media, email or cell phone communications. Shut down direct contact by phone or computer: Youth pastors should never communicate ...


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    https://www.chron.com/news/investig...forward-How-can-Southern-Baptist-13588296.php
     
  3. News Readers

    News Readers The Paperboy

    Two Tri-State men on list of accused baptist leaders

    Hundreds of Southern Baptist church leaders and workers have been accused of sexual misconduct over the past 20 years, including dozens who returned to church duties, according to a joint investigation by two newspapers. The San Antonio Express-News and Houston Chronicle reported Sunday that their six-month investigation found about 380 Southern Baptist church leaders and workers who were accused of sexual misconduct since 1998, leaving more than 700 victims. Some were as young as 3 years old while others were adults when they were abused, the newspapers reported. The newspapers say they compiled the list because the The Southern Baptist ...



    Nathan Anthony St. Pierre served as a youth choir director and pleaded guilty to sexual misconduct with a minor in a 2008 case out of Vanderburgh County.

    He was sentenced to seven years, but was released in 2010. He’s now a registered sex offender in fulluse.



    Jacob Condor was a youth minister at Wing Ave. Baptist Church in Owensboro. He was accused of abusing a 15-year-old girl in 2009. He was released, and then arrested again on child porn charges in 2014.

    Condor is in in prison in Oldham County, Kentucky.


    Several past presidents and prominent Southern Baptist Convention leaders have been accused by victims of concealing or mishandling abuse complaints within their churches or seminaries, the newspapers reported. In 2008, a victim implored SBC leaders to track sexual predators, act against congregations that harbored or concealed abusers and establish sexual abuse prevention policies such as those adopted by other faiths, including the Roman Catholic Church. But the SBC Executive Committee rejected the proposals. The committee's interim president, August Boto, who drafted that rejection document, expressed "sorrow" on Sunday about the newspapers' findings. "It would be sorrow if it were 200 ...


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    http://www.14news.com/2019/02/12/two-tri-state-men-list-accused-baptist-leaders/
     
  4. News Readers

    News Readers The Paperboy

    More than 100 Southern Baptist youth pastors convicted or charged in sex crimes

    Chad Foster, a former firefighter from Missouri, arrived in Texas soon after his divorce and with his 30th birthday fast approaching. He described himself as a fairly new Christian with a history of hard drinking. He was hired and later ordained as a youth pastor by Houston's Second Baptist Church, one of the largest Southern Baptist congregations in the country. "When I took the job," Foster later said, "I didn't know anything about it." Foster preached abstinence and urged teens to sign a contract to save themselves for marriage. But he soon targeted underaged girls at the church's Cypress campus ...


    Continue reading...

    https://www.houstonchronicle.com/ne...n-Southern-Baptist-youth-pastors-13588292.php