HOUSTON (TX)
Associated Baptist Press
Advocates say it isn’t enough for churches to enact policies to prevent child sexual abuse, but churches where abuse has already occurred must be more vocal in helping police catch predators.
By Bob Allen
A victim support group held signs outside a Houston megachurch Jan. 9 calling for greater transparency about the reporting of child sex abuse in Southern Baptist churches.
Representatives of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests said they are worried there may be more victims of two former ministers at Second Baptist Church in Houston accused of crimes.
A former youth pastor at the church, Chad Foster, was sentenced to five years in prison in April after pleading guilty to raping a 16-year-old girl in 2011 and soliciting another teen online. A former music minister was named in police reports for allegedly stalking a minor but was never charged. That individual no longer lives in Houston but is reportedly helping with the music ministry at another prominent Southern Baptist church in Fort Worth, Texas.
SNAP representatives urged victims of either man or any other sexual predator to come forward, and anyone who has witnessed or suspected crimes to call the police.
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