One month ago, in May 2019, we posted an article titled “California School District Teachings on Pedophilia Reminder of Child Sexual Abuse Epidemic and Cover-Ups.” We also introduced a new book we now carry called Wolves Among Sheep by pastor Stacey Shifflet (a pastor who blew the whistle on sexual abuse in the church and was ostracized for doing so). Last week, a New York Times article headlined: “Her Evangelical Megachurch Was Her World. Then Her Daughter Said She Was Molested by a Minister.” The megachurch that is being referred to in this article is Matt Chandler’s Village Church. While the perpetrator against an 11-year-old girl was removed from the church, reported, arrested, and convicted, the New York Times article reveals once again that churches are falling short in how they handle child sex abuse situations including how the victim and his or her family is treated.
The reason Lighthouse Trails posts news stories like the two above is because we care about children, and we know that child sexual abuse is rampant in our society, and sadly, it is happening far too often in churches. We can partly understand why it happens so much in churches: Christians tend to be very trusting people, and sexual predators know it. Let’s face it, kids in churches are easy targets. But once a sexual crime against a child has been reported to church leaders, too often the incidents are swept under the rug, and often the perpetrator is moved to a different church. While that is not what happened in the case at Village Church, if the New York Times article is anywhere near accurate, leadership at Village did not handle things in the best interest of the children and their parents at the church.
But Village Church is just one church. Similar abuse is happening in churches across North America, and too often, predators are not exposed, and the victim and his or her family is looked at as the ones who are causing trouble and disunity. How crazy is that!
Please, if you are attending a church where there are children, make sure everyone who is part of that church is equipped to protect them. As Christians, it is a responsibility that God has placed upon us, and it is far too often neglected. We hope Christian leaders, teachers, pastors, and parents will read Stacey Shifflet’s book as well as Patrick Crough’s book Seducers Among Our Children, both of which give ample biblical and practical advice on how we can protect our children.
Related Articles:
Saddleback Church Youth Worker Arrested for Molesting 14-Year-Boys Brings Issue to Surface
‘They Hid It All’: Catholic Priests Abused 1,000 Children in Pennsylvania, Grand Jury Report Says
Protecting Your Child From Sexual Predators – With Prayer & the Word
(photo from bigstockphoto.com; used with permission)
24 June 2019 / 21 Sivan 5779
To LHT’s & Visitors to this site:
I really despise Satan and the wickedness that he has inflicted on innocent, unsuspecting souls in the name of “Christ!” God has a “special” place reserved for evil men who seek to trip up, lead astray, or cause to sin those “little ones” who believe in the LORD Jesus!
Here is something to seriously think about:
Matthew 18:1 “At the same time came the disciples unto Jesus, saying, Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?
Matthew 18:2 And Jesus called a little child unto him, and set him in the midst of them,
Matthew 18:3 And said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.
Matthew 18:4 Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven.
Matthew 18:5 And whoso shall receive one such little child in my name receiveth me.
Matthew 18:6 But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea.
Matthew 18:7 Woe unto the world because of offences! for it must needs be that offences come; but woe to that man by whom the offence cometh!”
Yes, I know this is true. A very gifted preacher said he was molested when he was a teen, week after week at a local church whose youth group he attended. A “pastor” was the one who molested him. He was severely messed up for years, got into severe drug addiction, was in a rock music band where he got into virtually every kind of perversion there is.
BY THE GRACE OF GOD, he was delivered, set free, but sadly, had a big fail in his own life decades later (not s/s) of which he has repented but lost his ministry (which, sadly, was appropriate).
Yes, I should have said ‘boys’ too. But I was truly focusing on men being raped. The two young men raped by the pastor were drugged…they never dreamed that being invited over by the pastor was evil intentions…men might not believe, nor want to believe, that rape can and does happen because they think they can fight back. Not if they are drugged and such.
Iva,
Sadly, you are so right. Boys are very often sexually abused today too. In Stacey Shifflet’s book, he testifies of this, as does Gregory Reid in his book Nobody’s Angel. Boys need protecting too.
I hate to tell you but men are sexually abused too. A local pastor, a quarter mile from my home, where I had considered attending church(I had asked the pastor about his stance on homosexuality and he wouldn’t answer), was recently arrested for raping two young men on different occasions…the police have solid evidence. I think the rape of men goes unreported a great deal of the time. No one is safe from evil.
The church’s today are buildings full of people who are not born again and don’t even know the gospel. Just ask most of the attendee’s. They won’t be able to answer this question: What is the gospel? In my experience I have not heard the correct answer yet. Before I was born again I did not know I wasn’t and most of these people don’t know it either. So if they are not born again they are not part of the body of Christ and are just like the rest of the world of the unregenerate.
It is so sad, Elizabeth. And to hide behind “god” and trying to justify these crimes make it an even bigger atrocity. These children (and abused women) are indeed scarred for the rest of their lives, as healing takes so long, even when successful…if successful. The scar remains forever.
May God help us to be vigilant over all children and protect them by discerning the spirits that come around the children and pray for the evil ones to be brought to the light and arrested mbefore any harm can be caused in Jesus mighty name. Amen.
The RCC is hard core Arminian. it is hard core anti Calvinism. There s no logical linkage to assume that doctrine is the cause of the effect of child abuse.
Casual research on the topic of child abuse by various religious institutions reveals that it is wide spread across the theological spectrum. it is widespread in secular institutions too.
The culprit is the pedophiles who look to infiltrate into any and every target rich environment. S.O.P. is to place themselves into various positions of trust and authority over their desired prey.
The screening process is at fault first and foremost. Trust but verify and other safeguards are a must. The crime of cover up after the fact by leadership is just as wicked, if not more so. Lev. 5:1 A witness who does not expose a sin is imputed with the guilt of having committed that sin. This is how our most Holy and Just God sees it.
Like it or not (I’m talking from countless personal experiences), but Calvinist/Reformed “churches” are just as good a champion as their older brother, the RCC, at hiding sexual abuse and abuse of any kind (including children and that of women). After all, they are all cut from the same unbiblical cloth.
That’s it; no surprise there or in the article.
Our innocent children, born and unborn are no longer safe from the evil around them. The least of these…are easy prey for human monsters who would violate them , hurting them physically and emotionally, damaging them sometimes forever. Tears,