BishopAccountability.org
	What's at Stake: Protecting and Preserving the Innocence of Children Watch Keep October 17, 2011 http://watchkeep.blogspot.com/2011/10/whats-at-stake-protecting-and.html In a recent article in the Associated Baptist Press, Bob Allen, writes, "A victims’ advocate says autonomous Baptist churches are ill-equipped to deal with the problem of sexual abuse by clergy because they lack the objectivity to respond appropriately to allegations against a trusted minister." This lack of objectivity clouds the better judgement of those in places of authority charged with protecting the most vulnerable in their congregations, children. When familiarity with a credibly accused minister tragically trumps the mandate to report the knowledge of abuse or suspicion of abuse to the police, children are placed in danger, particularly when the perpetrator is removed from one place of ministry only to be allowed to move on to unsuspecting churches and communities. I have seen this firsthand in the mishandling of reports of abuse by my former youth music minister. A few months ago I was made aware of specific concerns about a minister credibly accused of the sexual abuse and stalking of at least one teenage boy of which I am aware. This music minister, Eddie Struble, was formerly on staff at Second Baptist Church, a Baptist megachurch in Houston, with a membership of more than 53,000. He left that position a couple of years ago and sometime after that was hired as the interim music minister at Humble Area First Baptist Church but is no longer on staff there and has moved to the Dallas/Fort Worth area. He also worked as a vocal coach at Hits Theatre in Houston. Prior to working at Second Baptist, he was on staff at Bellevue Baptist Church in Memphis and Idlewild Baptist Church in Tampa. I spoke on the phone in July 2011 with Barry Jeffries, the pastor at Humble Area First Baptist Church about my concerns about Eddie Struble, and he confirmed that Eddie had been fired in October 2010 for "suspicious behavior." To the pastor's knowledge, this behavior did not involve minors, but I encouraged him to please report any suspicion of harm to any kids as mandated by TX reporting laws. He said that he would and appreciated being made aware of the information. I expressed my concerns that there could be more victims. In July 2011 I obtained a copy of a police report from the Spring Valley Police Department, which is public information, from October 12, 2009 detailing a call for service to the former Struble home. In the report there are concerns about stalking of a minor as well as a Houston police department incident number filed with the juvenile investigation unit that handles sexual abuse. I also called Hits Theatre about these concerns and was told that they are "aware of the allegations." I advised them also to report any knowledge of or suspicion of abuse to the police, and to be aware that kids may be afraid to come forward for fear of not being believed. In my attempts to get more information from Second Baptist on Eddie's departure and the allegations of abuse stemming from his time at Second, David Dixon, executive pastor, responded in a voicemail to me that "we have no information at all." Christa Brown, in the Associated Baptist Press article cited above, states, “Many clergy abuse survivors say that the experience of having been disbelieved and attacked by their faith community is even more painful than the memory of having been sexually molested by a minister,” she said. “It is the community that often causes even more harm than the molesting minister.” Brown, of Stop Baptist Predators, a survivor of sexual abuse by her Southern Baptist youth minister when she was 16, shared her testimony in a 2009 book titled This Little Light: Beyond a Baptist Preacher Predator and His Gang. Christa's story and a review of her book were featured in the Austin American-Statesman, Christa Brown's saga resonates more for me now that I'm a mother: Christa Brown's story will likely make you mad. As a naive 16-year-old growing up in a North Texas Baptist church in the 1960s, she was pressured into having a sexual relationship with her youth minister. The married pastor told Brown it was God's will and justified his marital infidelity by citing Bible verses about concubines — then excoriated her as a satanic temptress when his wife found out. When Brown reported the abuse to another church leader, the minister, like so many Catholic priests we've since heard about, was transferred to another congregation. No police investigation. No announcement to the congregation. ... What happened to children at the hands of Catholic priests and bishops was so beyond the pale that no policy could ever make it right. I see that now because I know what it means to want to protect someone so fiercely. I know what innocence is and the importance of preserving it as long as possible. Molesters don't just ruin childhood, they set their victims up for an adulthood fraught with anxiety and anger, failed relationships and self-loathing — nothing any mother would wish for her child. I always felt sorry for abuse victims. But as I held my baby and imagined all the wonder and joy that awaited her, I began to understand more clearly what Brown and so many others had stolen from them. ... Like her Catholic friends who tried to effect institutional change, Brown said she encountered hurdles and denial and indifference among Baptist leaders in the national and state conventions. Her abuser, who finally left the ministry after serving different churches, never faced charges. And Baptist leaders have yet to create a national database of abusers or a central reporting point for victims. But "This Little Light" should stir Baptist leaders to action. And it should help all of us understand just exactly what's at stake.
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