UNITED STATES
Christianity Today
Ed Stetzer
I recently spoke at Liberty University convocation. While there, I had the privilege to sit down with my friend, Boz Tchividjian.
Boz is a prosecutor by background, specifically dealing with child sexual abuse cases. He has recently been engaged in advocacy for the protection of victims—first and foremost that there might not be victims. Second, he advocates that those who are victims might be heard and that the perpetrators might ultimately be prosecuted.
Sadly, this is an ongoing challenge in the life of the church. We are certainly all aware of the scandals within the Catholic Church. But increasingly people are asking questions about the Protestant and the Evangelical world. I’ve blogged on such abuse situations on several occasions—see here, here, and here.
For this reason, I felt that an interview with Boz would be worth our time.
Over the course of the next few weeks I will post parts of my interview with Boz and link them together. I recognize that I have written frequently on the subject of child protection, and this will just add more, but I think the protection of children is worth dwelling on since this blog is read mostly by pastors and church leaders.
Let me encourage you to check out Boz’ brand new Religion News Service blog. Also, be sure to check out this article from CBN.
Boz, thanks for taking a few minutes to talk.
The issue of child sexual abuse continues to be in the news, and rightfully so. We need more attention to the issue and more awareness on how to prevent such abuse and then to respond to it if it happens. So, let’s jump in.
First, as you look at some of the challenges right now, what is wrong with the way churches are dealing with sexual abuse issues?
I think, perhaps, one of the major problems is the understanding and acknowledgement that this is an issue within the church. If you don’t acknowledge and understand it to be an issue in the church, then you won’t spend any time dealing with it.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.