Christian University Resumes Inquiry in Handling of Sexual Abuse Reports

By Richard Perez-Pena
New York Times
February 25, 2014

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/26/us/christian-university-under-fire-resumes-its-investigation-of-sexual-abuse.html?hpw&rref=education&_r=1

Students and faculty dispersed after attending chapel this month at Bob Jones University.

An investigation into Bob Jones University’s handling of sexual abuse complaints will be allowed to resume, the university and investigators said on Tuesday, after the school endured two weeks of criticism for cutting off the inquiry, without explanation, as it neared completion.

After Bob Jones, a fundamentalist Christian college in Greenville, S.C., suspended the investigation in late January, people who said they had been abused and had been interviewed by the investigators went public with their stories, some for the first time. Some common themes were that when university students sought counseling, officials at Bob Jones called them liars or sinners, and told them not to report abuse to the police because turning in a member of their religious community — especially a parent or pastor — would harm Jesus and the church.

Most of the accounts involved abuse that occurred when the students were children. But some people did say they were abused as students at the university or its affiliated grade school, Bob Jones Academy.

The university has not explained why it terminated its contract with the group it had commissioned to conduct the investigation, Godly Response to Abuse in the Christian Environment, or Grace. Stephen Jones, the university president and a great-grandson of the founder, acknowledged this month that it had not told Grace of any of its concerns before halting the investigation.

Addressing students and staff members on Feb. 7, he did not elaborate.

“We terminated our agreement with Grace so that we could sit down and get it back on track,” he said.

The university’s critics assailed his statement as contradictory nonsense, saying that Bob Jones was interested only in protecting its reputation.

The two sides met last week, and on Tuesday. Both said that the investigation would resume, with no new limitations placed on its scope. Bob Jones released a statement saying that “Grace satisfactorily addressed the university’s concerns.”

Grace released a statement that said it was “greatly encouraged this morning to be notified by B.J.U. of its decision to accept our offer to reinstate the original agreement with no changes.” The group said it was not clear when it would produce a final report.

Neither side would say what problems Bob Jones had cited, or what assurances it might have received.

“I’m really relieved, but I expected it to be back on, because I knew we weren’t going away, even if that’s what Bob Jones expected,” said Catherine Harris, one of the university’s most vocal critics. She has said that she was sexually abused by clergy members as a child, and that she went to a university administrator for counseling in the mid-1990s, only to be told not to go to the police.

Before the investigation began, several groups that included former students and staff members, and were intensely critical of Bob Jones and its handling of sexual abuse, had cropped up online.

In late 2012, the university hired Grace to investigate, and both organizations were committed to making the findings public. University officials have insisted that the inquiry was not prompted by prior criticism.

Grace is led by Basyle J. Tchividjian, an associate law professor at another evangelical Christian school, Liberty University, and a grandson of the Rev. Billy Graham. He caused a stir last year by saying that in looking at the Roman Catholic Church’s mishandling of abuse cases, evangelicals should not feel superior, adding, “I think we are worse.”

Bob Jones, with almost 4,000 undergraduate and graduate students, is not affiliated with any denomination. But it is a leading force within a loose network of unaffiliated congregations and schools around the country, including many led by Bob Jones alumni, that adhere to a particularly strict fundamentalism.

Students are not allowed to listen to popular forms of music or watch television on campus, and for students or employees, homosexuality, extramarital sex, pornography and alcohol are grounds for dismissal.