Saturday, May 16, 1998

Authors help churches guard against child sexual abuse

By BERTA DELGADO / The Dallas Morning News

DALLAS --Joy Thornburg Melton's mother couldn't understand why she would write a book aimed at reducing the risk of child abuse at church.

And then it hit close to home.

A 12-year-old girl was abducted from a church near Mrs. Melton's mother's North Carolina home and raped during a Palm Sunday service. The abductor was a former church member who had asked the girl to help him carry flowers into the church, Mrs. Melton said.

"My mother said, 'Honey, now I know what you mean when you say it can happen anywhere, any time,' " says Mrs. Melton, a United Methodist minister and a family and church law attorney in Atlanta. "She used to think it only happened in big, faraway cities. Abuse of a child can happen anywhere, any time, in the blink of an eye."

And more and more cases are being linked to church leaders and members. Since January, nearly half a dozen clergy or church officials in the Dallas area have been charged, convicted or sentenced in cases involving charges of child molestation.

Several recent books tackle why churches are targets and what churches can do to prevent abuse.

"Churches have always been places based on trust," says Ernest J. Zarra III, who wrote "It Should Never Happen Here: A Guide for Minimizing the Risk of Child Abuse in Ministry" (Baker). "Family atmosphere, where 'brothers and sisters' worship together, lends to the trust."

Adding to that, historically, churches have not taken measures to screen volunteers and employees who work with children. If churches haven't taken precautions by now to safeguard against abuse within their walls, it is time, experts say.

Mrs. Melton says that according to the National Center for Child Abuse and Neglect, more than 2 million incidents of physical abuse or neglect are recorded each year. And she and Zarra cited national studies showing that one out of three girls and one out of seven boys are sexually abused before they're 18.

As the numbers grow nationwide, religious institutions aren't exempt. Zarra points out that, according to the Church Law and Tax Report, reports of sexual abuse of children at the hands of ministers, priests, deacons, elders, church volunteers and others are rising. But churches are still reluctant to report, he says.

"Churches often do not turn in their own when they suspect child abuse because they are put in positions of exposing that they did not have adequate mechanisms in place for screening and follow-up," says Zarra, a junior high history teacher in Bakersfield, Calif., who began writing his book while serving as an associate pastor for a Baptist church in New Jersey.

Mrs. Melton wrote the newly released "Safe Sanctuaries: Reducing the Risk of Child Abuse in the Church" (Discipleship Resources) for the North Georgia Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church. The conference decided in 1996 to make the reduction of child abuse a priority by providing churches with a resource to help them develop preventive policies and procedures.

The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) also published a book, "Surely Heed Their Cry," a guide to child abuse prevention, intervention and healing, in 1993. And Bill Anderson, a pastor in Michigan, wrote "When Child Abuse Comes to Church" (Bethany House) after dealing with abuse in his own church.

"Ignorance spells danger," he writes. "Education is the first line of defense in protecting our children. From powerful experience I know this is so."

An 11-year-old boy molested more than 60 children before Anderson became pastor, according to the book.

Experts agree that churches can begin protecting children by screening and conducting background and police checks on volunteers and employees and by making new church members wait six months to a year before participating in children's and youth ministries.

They also suggest keeping children from being supervised in closed quarters by a lone caretaker.

"Churches have failed our children in years past by not taking care of an incident or by covering them up," Mrs. Melton says. "We're not eliminating the problem as rapidly as we could, but I do see that happening in churches. We're not content anymore saying to the victim, 'We're so sorry and we hope you get over it soon,' and telling the abuser, 'Just don't do it again.' Because they move on, they go to a different community and abuse again and again until they pay meaningful consequences."

In the past few years, Mrs. Melton has traveled the country speaking to churches about the importance of safeguards.

"I've never spoken where at the end, someone didn't come and say, 'Thank you, I'm a survivor,' " she says. "All those who come up to me are adults, meaning they were abused 15 or 20 years ago. Finally, we have begun to let this abusive behavior get attention. Everywhere I go, people say, 'It's about time.'

"Maybe it won't be too late for our children."

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Distributed by The Associated Press