Billy Graham's Grandson Claims "Evil" Evangelicals Are "Worse" Than Catholics for Sex Abuse
By Matthew Hall
'Protestants can be very arrogant when pointing to Catholics,' Tchividjian said. 'We’ve got the Gospels backwards.' Tchividjian is a law professor at Liberty University, a Christian college in Virgina founded by Jerry Falwell, the Southern Baptist pastor who died in 2007. Falwell is remembered for defining televangelism and founding the Moral Majority, a right-wing Christian political organization. Tchividjian told the Austin RNA conference that Christian mission agencies keep reports of sexual abuse secret and fail to report abuse to local authorities.
The agencies fear being barred from working in foreign countries, according to research by Tchividjian. He said abusers may be sent home by the agencies but if transgressions go unreported they can easily join another agency and repeat their abusive behavior. According to reported data, at least 25 percent of abuse cases are repeat offenders, Tchividjian said. An anti-child abuse activist, Tchividjian is executive director of Godly Response to Abuse in the Christian Environment (GRACE), an organization which has investigated sex abuse allegations. Tchividjian was previously Assistant State Attorney for Florida’s 7th Judicial Circuit where he created the Crimes Against Children' division of the State Attorney's office. Tchividjian's recent comments echo an interview he gave earlier this year where he claimed Christian institutions had put their own reputations before the welfare of sex abuse victims. 'What makes such responses even more heinous is that they are often justified in the name of “protecting the name of Christ”,' he said. 'Silence is one of the most common failures of the Christian community in preventing child abuse,' he said in the interview. 'Too many within the Christian community respond to the prevalence of child abuse with a dangerous and very hurtful silence. 'A silence that is too often preferred over acknowledging the existence of such evil within our midst. A silence that is too often preferred over openly discussing how to protect our little ones from perpetrators.'
The Catholic Church has been mired in a series of highly controversial and widespread sex abuses cases around the world. The Church has also battled allegations it systemically harbored abusers and provided a safe haven for them rather than turn the accused over to law enforcement agencies. The scandals have included allegations, investigations, trials and convictions of child sexual abuse committed by priests, nuns and members of the church's hierarchy, sometimes against children just three years old. A damning report on abuse nine years ago found evidence that priests were moved out of countries where they had been accused of abusing children and were able to start new lives elsewhere and, in some cases, continue working with children. It is estimated the Catholic Church has paid over two billion dollars in compensation to sex abuse victims in the U.S. alone. A 2007 case in Los Angeles saw the nation’s largest Catholic archdiocese settle its long list of sex abuse cases for at least $600 million.
Officials of Poland's Catholic Church said on Friday they were investigating cases of pedophilia among Polish priests, two of who are under investigation on allegations of sexual child abuse while serving in the Dominican Republic. Secretary of the Episcopate, Bishop Wojciech Polak, told media that 'sorry' was 'the least that was owed to the victims'.
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