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	Background Checks Studied by Baptists Churches Worried by Sex-Abuse Issue By Peter Smith The Courier-Journal [Kentucky] June 23, 2007 http://www.courier-journal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070623/NEWS01/706230423 Even as the Southern Baptist Convention studies the feasibility of creating a database of sex offenders in the ministry, its Kentucky counterpart is considering ways to help its churches do background checks on potential staff and volunteers. "We're going to provide resources to churches so that they can find help in making sure they do excellent background checks on any staff or pastors or anyone that is going to be employed in their church," said Bill Henard, pastor of Porter Memorial Baptist Church in Lexington and chairman of a Kentucky Baptist Convention subcommittee looking into the issue. The studies come as Baptists and other Protestant churches are drawing closer scrutiny over their handling of sexual abuse, an issue that has led to a widespread scandal in the Roman Catholic Church and prompted that church to bar all abusers from ministry. Earlier this month, the Southern Baptist Convention voted to ask its Executive Committee to look into creating a database of sexual offenders. The Baptist General Convention of Texas recently posted a list of people on Texas' sex-offender registry who are believed to have ministered in Baptist churches in the state. But when the Kentucky Baptist subcommittee looked into creating a database of sexual offenders, the convention's lawyer cautioned there could be problems with such a list being incomplete or erroneously including the names of innocent people. "A registry would be inadequate, we felt, simply because you probably can't keep it as up to date as it needs to be," Henard said. But he said the state's largest denomination can do other things to help its 2,400 churches look into people's backgrounds. For example, churches can consult sex-offender registries, conduct criminal background checks and call multiple people in a job candidate's background -- not just those the candidate lists as references. "If there's only one child ever abused, that's one too many, so we take this situation very, very seriously," Henard said. "Part of the problem that churches have is if they're looking for a candidate for a particular position, by the time they find someone they like, at that point they get in too big of a hurry," he said. "They don't want to go through several months of interviews and checks and balances." Henard said the subcommittee, which may recommend the distribution of a booklet on ways to conduct background checks, will report to convention officials later this year. Recommendations also will include ways to learn of past financial misconduct or moral failings such as adultery. The report also will suggest ways for small churches to find affordable ways to do such checks, he said. Traditionally, churches have been "a little too lax" in scrutinizing their candidates for criminal backgrounds, Henard said. "In our desire to trust God, we misunderstand the need to be wise," he said. He added that at his congregation, even volunteers who work with children must now submit to background checks. Christa Brown, the Baptist coordinator for the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, an advocacy group for victims of clergy sexual abuse, said she's "glad that the Kentucky group is at least talking about it." But she said victims of sexual abuse should be consulted and several denominations now have review panels that can consider allegations against clergy. In many cases, she said, allegations have never gone to court. Under the Baptist form of government, a denominational review panel could not tell a congregation what to do, but it could provide its findings to that church and to any church that may want to hire the accused person in the future, she said. She cited as an example the American Baptist Churches, another denomination that has review boards that can issue findings but not hire or fire pastors. "It lulls people into a false sense of safety to think that doing background checks are enough," she said. "There must be some place to which victims and witnesses can make a report with some reasonable expectation that it will be objectively received." Reporter Peter Smith can be reached at (502) 582-4469 or psmith@courier-journal.com.
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