Adventists Face Abuse of Minors

http://www.atoday.org/article/1361/news/august-headlines/abuse-is-a-challenge-for-the-adventist-church-new-campaign-is-launched-to-counter-it


Though Adventists claim sexual and physical abuse is not at "crisis" level in their church... (many former SDAs and current SDAs would vehemently disagree)... at least the church is now beginning to openly deal with it...

Abuse is a Challenge for the Adventist Church; New Campaign is Launched to Counter It

Submitted: Aug 22, 2012
By AT News Team

Although the number of cases has not reached the crisis level that it has in some denominations, the Seventh-day Adventist Church does face an incidence of abuse suffered by its children and teens sufficient to result in the launch of a new, world-wide campaign. In a scan of public records over the past 30 days, Adventist Today found at least four serious cases of sexual abuse, physical harm and even murder by ministers, teachers and lay leaders. This is not a scientific sample and it is not intended to imply that this is a typical period, yet it is disturbing.

A 23-year-old Fifth Grade teacher in an Adventist elementary school in St. George’s, Grenada, was arrested during the last week of July and charged with murder. According to the Jamaica Observer, the remains of a 19-year-old young woman were found in a refuse container along with a weapon and personal belongings. An autopsy showed that the woman died from strangulation and bleeding. To date, there is no report of how the young teacher pled in court.

Last week a 46-year-old man in Berrien County, Michigan, was sentenced to 15 years in prison after he pled guilty to sex crimes against a nine-year-old girl which occurred at the Niles Westside Seventh-day Adventist Church. He was also convicted of failing to register for prior convictions of criminal sexual misconduct. The prosecuting attorney was quoted by the South Bend Tribune, “He’s done this before. He said that he couldn’t control himself with children.” There was no comment about why he was allowed to have contact with children at the church.

On July 29 The Times of India reported that a female teacher at the Adventist school in Virudhunagar allegedly hit a seven-year-old girl with a wooden ruler causing injuries that made it difficult for the girl to walk home. “Police sources said they had filed a complaint under section 323” of India’s criminal law and “section 23 of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act of 2000.” An unnamed police official is quoted as stating that the teacher had “accepted that she caned the girl.”

On August 20 the tabloid London Daily Mail and the South Africa Press Association (SAPA) wire service both reported that Elder Steyn Venter, pastor of the Adventist church in Bloemfontein, South Africa, had been fired for “improper advice” in marriage counseling. The newspapers reported that he had encouraged young couples to engage in public nudity and kept photographs in which at least one couple appeared naked. Elder B. M. P. Ngwenya, president of the KwaZulu-Natal and Free State Conference, told the Die Volksblad newspaper that the pastor had been fired.

Among those who might have access to statistics on cases of this kind, no one was willing to give Adventist Today any hint if this is a typical month or not. What is widely reported is that the Adventist Risk Management (ARM) insurance company owned by the General Conference used the occasion of the recent North American Division Teacher’s Convention in Nashville to launch the Seven Campaign, a “grassroots” effort “stop child abuse.” In February ARM had launched a Child Protection Plan and it has presented recommendations that led to the adoption of strong prevention measures in the NAD Working Policy over the last decade or two.

“We want to not only make it clear that we stand against child abuse, but we want to get our members talking and actually engaged in spotting and preventing misconduct,” an ARM spokesman told the Adventist News Network (ANN), the official news service of the GC. He stressed the involvement of local church members as a major goal of the campaign in his comments to ANN.

Yet, to some observers the initiative stumbled out of the starting blocks when convention planners pulled the plug on an Adventist group that is involved in anti-bullying efforts. Someone to Talk To is an independent organization pulled together by Carol Grady, the wife of an Adventist minister, who has written a book entitled My Son, Beloved Strangerabout her gay son and the problems he faced growing up in the Adventist denomination’s schools and youth ministries. Her group had applied to be one of 160 organizations that had exhibits at the convention. Because her web site does not take the official position of the denomination regarding gays and lesbians, she was told she could not participate.

An article about refusing Grady as an exhibitor appeared in The Huffington Post and a response was released by the denomination, stressing that the NAD Office of Education provide eight contact hours of in-service education on bullying during the convention, including a preview of the Olweus Bullying Prevention Program, “a whole-school program that has been proven to prevent or reduce bullying.”

The Church “recognizes that every human being is valuable in the sight of God, and we seek to minister to all men and women in the spirit of Jesus,” the statement quoted from the denomination’s position paper on homosexuality. “We hold that all people, no matter their sexual orientation, are children of God. We do not condone singling out any group for scorn and derision, let alone abuse.”

“Being a gay, lesbian or bisexual teenager in the United States is risky business,” pointed out Elder Ryan Bell, senior pastor of the Hollywood Seventh-day Adventist Church. “According to the 2009 National School Climate Survey nearly 85 percent of LGBT teens report being harassed in school and nearly two-thirds report feeling unsafe in school because of their sexual orientation.” Adventists and other Christians have found it difficult to balance a belief that homosexual behavior is sinful and a belief that all people should be respected and treated without discrimination.

At the same time, it is clear that there are problems of abuse and violence that do not appear to be related to tensions over sexual orientation. “Sexuality and spirituality are both powerful things,” one veteran pastor told Adventist Today. “All human beings are sinners. It is only by God’s grace that things do not go wrong more often than they do. This is why those of us who are preachers must constantly hammer on the duty of compassion and the core doctrine of grace. If we let off the emphasis, more people get hurt.”

Sexual Abuse

Most Holy and Merciful God, Abba Father, please give me the grace to write this with love, truth, compassion and with the purpose of honoring You as I wish to honor your dear children.

I knew this post was coming somewhere deep in me. But I dreaded it. Oh God, help me. My conscience will no longer allow me to dismiss this, belittle this problem or leave it for someone else to write.

There is rampant sexual abuse in the Seventh-day Adventist church. If only a small percentage of the cases I personally have been told are true, then this is a problem of such serious and prevailing nature as to demand attention.

For years, these are the things that have gone through my mind:

1. These Adventists and former Adventists are just lying for attention or they are grossly exaggerating the problem. They are bitter against the church and want to hurt the Adventists.

2. There is something mentally wrong with these people--emotional instability.

3. If I say something publicly, it could cause so many people to be badly hurt and some people falsely accused. The last thing I would ever want to put on someone is a false accusation of sexual abuse. People lose children, marriages, careers, are ostracized and live in deep depression after being falsely accused. God in heaven, please, I beg of you pour out your grace of truth on this subject so no innocent person will be ever accused of this.

4. There is no--or little--way to prove any of the cases I have heard. The victims themselves admit that it is a he said/ she said situation. Many were children when it happened and have zero interest in revisiting the memory or the person. So, to write about something you can't prove is something I try very hard to avoid. However, the anecdotes are becoming so numerous as to demand a voice. I am sure I have heard more than a hundred cases, ... I haven't kept count. But a large number....

Once, while still an Adventist, I called a SDA televangelist and expressed my concern about this subject and asked him what we, as a church, can do. He admitted the problem was grave, and yet offered no solution. He left the conversation saying something to the effect that what they need is to focus on forgiveness.

Well, yes.... of course. I agree. Forgiveness is an important step in a victim of sexual abuse. But what about the perpetrator? Should we not expose him or her and put them in jail? I honestly don't think the leadership of the Adventist church have any idea how severe this problem is. I think they imagine it is about an inappropriate touch, or an inappropriate remark. I can tell you, very few stories approach innocuousness. We are talking about systematic incestuous rape, violent rape or sodomy by SDA pastors, principals, teachers, Sabbath school leaders, Pathfinder leaders, etc and SDA fathers and even mothers....

Frequently, these girls have had to go to the emergency room, at times they are taken by the perpetrator or another SDA leader because of physical damage. I have heard numerous stories from girls who were secretly taken to get abortions by SDA Bible teachers, or church leaders to prevent the story from becoming public.

Lest any of you think I am drudging this up to hurt the SDA church as a former, stories began while I was in an SDA boarding academy. Most of these girls did not blame the church itself, but properly blamed the perpetrator and are loyal Adventists today. So this isn't about bitterness or attention for them. Nevertheless, at some point, you have to ask if there isn't an intrinsic problem with the church who considers themselves the sole remnant that covers this up to prevent scandal.

I am aware this happens in other churches--after all, I'm Catholic! The fact that this happens in other churches in no way minimizes the responsibility for Adventists to deal with this most heinous problem among their own children. Learn from the Catholic scandal and root out this problem and deal with it. You can see from the Catholic Church, we survived! It is possible to survive such a terrible blow. (I can't be as optimistic about the victims though.)

Think of the words of Our Lord, Jesus Christ when He said, "In as much as ye did it to one of the least of these, ye did it to me."

Let us Christians not turn a blind eye to our children. This abuse ruins their lives and often leads to drug addictions and sexual immorality. It can lead to serious mental problems and abuse. Often, victims attempt suicide! Some of these Adventist victims are today in jail, in psychiatric units, on the streets, isolated, alone and internally screaming with pain. Many others are walking in SDA churches as emotional corpses who cannot deal with reality, whose marriages are wrecks and the victim's spouse is taking the hit for the perpetrator's actions.

The multitude of stories I am privately told, if--as I wrote--if even a small percentage are true, it should awaken the greatest horror in Adventists. They should demand a church wide investigation into this and see how extensive and damaging it is. 

My heart continues to break for these women. Please, Christians out there, daily pray for these wounded souls, their families and their perpetrators.

God, have mercy on us all.