{"id":31026,"date":"2016-12-05T05:00:53","date_gmt":"2016-12-05T09:00:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/?p=31026"},"modified":"2016-12-02T11:15:42","modified_gmt":"2016-12-02T15:15:42","slug":"evangelical-pastor-writes-about-the-dilemma-reporting-child-sexual-abuse-presents","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/2016\/12\/evangelical-pastor-writes-about-the-dilemma-reporting-child-sexual-abuse-presents.html","title":{"rendered":"Pastor: Reporting Child Sexual Abuse Presents a “Dilemma”"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

My regular readers are likely familiar with Doug Wilson by now. Wilson is an evangelical pastor who is influential in conservative circles. He lives in Idaho and has his own association of Christian schools, his own magazine, and a slew of books. He\u00a0once co-wrote a book portraying slavery as a time as racial harmony. He also once asked a judge to show lenience toward a man who had admitted to sexually molesting multiple children\u2014a man Wilson later married to a young woman in his church, blessing the young couple with children. And now, he has written an article\u00a0on pastoral confidentiality and child abuse<\/a>\u2014something he calls a dilemma.<\/p>\n

Wilson starts out well:<\/p>\n

In the first place, when plausible suspicion arises that child abuse has occurred or is occurring,\u00a0the first priority<\/em>\u00a0is to ensure that it does not continue in the present circumstance, and that it does not continue into the future, in any other circumstance. In other words, you might be solving the problem in\u00a0your<\/em>\u00a0youth group by dismissing the youth minister, but if he gets a job at another church in the next city, you haven\u2019t really fixed anything. Predatory child abuse is a crime, not just a sin, and so in principle the civil authorities do have the right and responsibility to be involved, and at that point church officials have an obligation to involve them. The simple fact of a reporting requirement is not tyranny. And Christians with tender hearts need to remember that abusers are clever, calculating, ingratiating, and know how to work the Jesus game.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Abusers are clever, calculating, and ingratiating\u2014bear in mind that the man Wilson begged leniency for has gotten in trouble for violating the terms a judge set after he and his wife had a child. But Wilson\u2019s completely correct in pointing out that dismissing someone from your church, and assuming that fixes the problem, isn\u2019t enough, because it doesn\u2019t. Boz Tchividijian of Godly Response to Abuse in the Christian Environment has often pointed out that without an organizational hierarchy, there\u2019s nothing to stop abusers from moving from pastorate to pastorate or missionary post to missionary post, even after being\u00a0discovered and dismissed.<\/p>\n

But Wilson does not stop there. He goes on:<\/p>\n

So how is there a dilemma then? The \u201cauthorities,\u201d as we call them, have also become a massive part of our cultural decline. The average age of introduction to the world of porn is eleven years old, and who was it that made it easy for pornographers to insinuate themselves into homes? The authorities. Who is trying to mandate that local governments (and churches) allow sexually disturbed individuals into any restroom they please? The authorities. And remember these rest rooms are the one place where surveillance cameras are obviously not in operation. Who was it who determined that dismemberment and sale of children was a constitutional right? The highest authorities. Who is it that has abandoned our centuries-long commitment to the rules of evidence and the rights of the accused in child molestation cases? The authorities. And who was it that set up grooming classes in every government school, so that adults could easily introduce young people to a wide assortment of perversions? The authorities.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Oh boy. Where to even start? Child porn is illegal. Other forms of porn do not cause child sexual abuse. Child sexual abuse is not an extension of adult sexual interest, it\u2019s something different entirely. Trans people are not \u201csexually disturbed individuals\u201d and are in fact at far higher risk of being sexually abused than they are of sexually abusing others. Planned Parenthood does not sell and never has sold aborted fetal tissue\u2014and even if it had, this has nothing to do with child sexual abuse. Evidence does in fact still matter in child molestation cases; not every report is investigated and not every investigation is substantiated. Finally, sex education classes are not \u201cgrooming classes\u201d WTF.<\/p>\n

This framing is a problem. Not only does Wilson draw lines between things that are completely unconnected\u2014abortion has nothing to do with child sexual abuse\u2014he also suggests that there are reasons not to trust the authorities to investigate child sexual abuse claims.\u00a0As I\u2019ve said before, many evangelicals insist on viewing child sexual abuse as something stemming out of overall sin or depravity rather than as a specific\u00a0issue we can research and study and work to prevent. And as for distrust of the authorities, many evangelical congregations have problems reporting child sexual abuse\u2014problems that don\u2019t need to be exacerbated by rhetoric like Wilson\u2019s.<\/p>\n

Wilson goes on as follows:<\/p>\n

So this is the dilemma. A wise Christian pastor knows that a sexual predator should be restrained and prosecuted by the authorities, but he also knows that we live in a time when ungodly standards are often assumed by the authorities, and also when unreasonable suspicions are officially considered reasonable. When a kid can fall out of a tree in the backyard and break his arm, and that is\u00a0all<\/em>\u00a0it takes for a doctor down at the ER to feel the need to call CPS, then clearly we live in demented times.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

That second sentence should have stopped right before the word \u201cbut.\u201d There is no but<\/em>. There is also so much<\/em> misleading information here.\u00a0ER doctors are trained in recognizing signs of child abuse, and\u00a0they\u00a0are unlikely to make a report over a simple broken arm. In addition, being reported to CPS is not<\/em> the same as being found guilty. Social workers are trained in\u00a0how to recognize whether or not there are problems in a home.\u00a0Social workers do not, as a whole, assume guilt. They visit families to find out whether<\/em> there is a problem, not to drag them straight to court. And\u2014and I cannot emphasize this enough\u2014in most cases, child abuse and neglect\u00a0allegations are found to be unsubstantiated, no harm no foul.<\/p>\n

I am not unfamiliar with this fear, though. I grew up with it. As a child,\u00a0I was given instructions for what to do if a social worker were to ever show up at our door\u2014i.e., call HSLDA, get a lawyer on the line. Today, I\u2019m a mother with two children of my own. And\u00a0guess what? I was reported to CPS.<\/em>\u00a0I had a social worker show up on my own doorstep. It was my mother\u2019s worst nightmare come to visit me. I could feel the steady diet of fear my parents had fed me rising up to engulf me\u2014but I swallowed it and pushed it down. And guess what? Everything was fine<\/em>. The social workers spoke with me, I showed them the children, our home, and they closed the case. They were extremely professional and friendly and no one was traumatized. The end.<\/p>\n

And yet, look at what Wilson says:<\/p>\n

And so the dilemma is this. No conscientious pastor can be willingly complicit in a child having to spend\u00a0one more minute<\/em>\u00a0under the control of his abuser, and no pastor can willingly turn over an innocent person to a system that will simply presume him to be guilty, and quite possibly make a hash out of the rest of his life. That really is a true pastoral dilemma.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

No, no, no, no, no!<\/em> No pastor has the ability to conclusively determine that\u00a0a person accused of child sexual abuse is innocent! That\u2019s why we have trained professionals whose job it is to investigate!\u00a0Wilson\u2019s suggestion that the \u201csystem\u201d presumes innocent individuals guilty and makes \u201chash\u201d out of innocent people\u2019s lives is dangerous in the extreme. Is the justice system perfect? Of course not! But the justice system\u00a0does<\/em> have standards, and thresholds of evidence that have to be met.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s be very clear about what Wilson is suggesting here.\u00a0If a child tells her pastor\u00a0that she has been sexually molested by her father, he should report that to the authorities<\/em>. But Wilson disagrees. He suggests, instead,\u00a0that the pastor\u2019s role is to investigate to determine whether or not he thinks the girl\u2019s father actually molested her. Only if he determines the father is guilty should a\u00a0pastor report the girl\u2019s allegations. That is not<\/em> okay. Pastors are not trained in the dynamics of sexual abuse. They\u2019re not trained in investigating sexual abuse. That is not their job<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Wilson isn\u2019t shy that this is what he\u2019s saying.<\/p>\n

You are not \u201cblaming the victim\u201d if you are\u00a0honestly<\/em>\u00a0involved in finding out who the victim is. A young girl abused by her stepfather is the victim. A stepfather falsely accused by his stepdaughter is the victim. If your approach is \u201cready, fire, aim,\u201d it does not matter if you\u00a0say<\/em>\u00a0that your intent was to side with the victim. That really must be your first priority, but getting the identity of the victim right is part of it.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I\u2019m being\u00a0repetitive here, but it is not the pastor\u2019s job to determine who the victim is<\/em>. Pastors are not trained or equipped in investigating child sexual abuse, period<\/em>.<\/p>\n

In addition, Wilson\u2019s framing here suggests some sort of equivalence, and positions children as potential abusers via false allegations. It is incredibly rare for a child to make a false allegation. No pastor is in a position to determine\u00a0for certain that a child\u2019s allegation is false. That is why we have a system for reporting and investigating child abuse allegations. Child welfare workers are trained in recognizing false allegations that may spring from messy custody cases, etc. Reporting allegations is not<\/em> the same thing as convicting\u00a0someone.<\/p>\n

Wilson appears to think he\u2019s warding off criticism by talking about how wily child abusers can be, but that does not erase the fact that he\u2019s telling pastors they should investigate allegations of child sexual abuse themselves rather than reporting such allegations\u00a0to the authorities.\u00a0This is not okay<\/em>. There are children who have ended up trapped in abusive situations because their pastors decided to ask around rather than risk reporting\u00a0Brother Steven or Brother Andrew to the authorities.<\/p>\n

I can\u2019t believe this is even an issue. And yet, it is.<\/p>\n

I have a <\/b>Patreon<\/b><\/a>! Please support my writing!<\/b><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My regular readers are likely familiar with Doug Wilson by now. Wilson is an evangelical pastor who is influential in conservative circles. He lives in Idaho and has his own association of Christian schools, his own magazine, and a slew of books. He once co-wrote a book portraying slavery as a time as racial harmony. He also once asked a judge to show lenience toward a man who had admitted to sexually molesting multiple children—a man Wilson later married to a young woman in his church, blessing the young couple with children. And now, he has written an article on pastoral confidentiality and child abuse—something he calls a dilemma.<\/p>\n

Click through to read more!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":845,"featured_media":31143,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[386,181],"class_list":["post-31026","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-evangelicalism-fundamentalism","tag-child-abuse","tag-sexual-abuse"],"yoast_head":"\nPastor: Reporting Child Sexual Abuse Presents a "Dilemma"<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Evangelical pastor Doug Wilson has written an article on pastoral confidentiality and child abuse---something he calls a dilemma.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/2016\/12\/evangelical-pastor-writes-about-the-dilemma-reporting-child-sexual-abuse-presents.html\" 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