The victims'
advocates who dogged the Roman Catholic Church over sex
abuse by its clergy have now turned their attention to the
Southern Baptists, accusing America's largest
Protestant denomination of also failing to root out
molesters.
The Chicago-based
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests has
started a campaign to call attention to alleged sex abuse
committed by Southern Baptist ministers and concealed
by churches. SNAP presented a letter Monday to
Southern Baptist Convention executive committee members
in Nashville, asking the group to adopt a zero-tolerance
policy on sex abuse and to create an independent
review board to investigate molestation reports.
Church leaders
concede there have been some incidents of abuse in
Southern Baptist congregations but say their hands are tied
when it comes to investigating complaints across the
denomination. Unlike the Catholic Church, with its
rigid hierarchy, Baptist churches are independent. They
make their own decisions about hiring ministers and
conducting investigations, Baptist leaders say.
''They don't want
to see this problem,'' said Christa Brown, a SNAP
member from Austin, Texas, who says she was sexually abused
as a child by a Southern Baptist minister. ''That's
tragic, because they're imitating the same mistakes
made by Catholic bishops.''
In the past six
months SNAP has received reports of about 40 cases of
sexual abuse by Southern Baptist ministers--with some
of the incidents dating back many years, Brown said.
SNAP leaders hold that abuse is typically
underreported because being molested is such a painful
experience that victims often wait years before stepping
forward.
Southern Baptist
Convention president Frank Page said the denomination
plans to teach its churches how to conduct background checks
and to require letters of recommendation for job
candidates. But he said the Southern Baptist
Convention, which has 16.3 million members, does not
have the legal authority to create an independent board to
investigate abuse complaints.
''As much as
possible within our structure, we're going to assist
churches,'' Page said. ''We're deeply concerned about this.
We believe children are the most precious gifts from
God.''
Southern Baptists
passed a resolution in 2002 urging its churches to
discipline ministers guilty of sexual abuse and to cooperate
with authorities in their prosecution. But Brown said
that's not enough. She says the Southern Baptists need
an independent review board precisely because there's
no clear chain of command among Baptist churches. The SBC
also does not keep a list of ministers who have been accused
of abuse. Advocates say this means molesters could
move from church to church.
''I believe kids
are not safe in Southern Baptist churches,'' said Brown,
who runs a Web site called the Voice to Stop Baptist
Predators.
One SNAP member,
Debbie Vasquez, said she was raped by a Southern Baptist
minister in Texas when she was 15 years old.
Now 48, Vasquez
filed a lawsuit last year against the pastor, the
Reverend Dale ''Dickie'' Amyx, and his current church,
Bolivar Baptist in Sanger, Texas, about 45 miles north
of Dallas. She claims the church knew, or should have
known, about Amyx's past.
Vasquez says she
was raped when Amyx was a minister at the now-defunct
Calvary Baptist Church in Lewisville, another town north of
Dallas.
When she became
pregnant with Amyx's child at age 18, church leaders
forced her to go before the congregation and ask forgiveness
as an unwed mother. But the congregation was never
told it was Amyx's baby. The lawsuit claims Calvary
Baptist helped Amyx get another job at a church in
Arizona.
Amyx acknowledged
in court documents that he had a sexual relationship
with Vasquez and was the father of her child. Texas court
records also show that Amyx was convicted in 1967 for
giving beer to a minor. When reached at home
Wednesday, Amyx said he couldn't comment on the case and
referred all questions to his lawyer, James A. Harrison. The
attorney did not return multiple phone calls.
Vasquez said she
filed the suit because she fears Amyx could be abusing
other girls and she wants to see him removed from his
position. ''In any denomination where you have these
men with this power that's not questioned and you have
these people who are vulnerable...you're going to have
a problem,'' Vasquez said.
Philip Jenkins, a
professor of religious studies and history at
Pennsylvania State University and author of the book
Pedophiles and Priests, said it's harder to track
child sexual abuse in Protestant denominations. ''Southern
Baptists are massively decentralized compared to the
Catholic Church,'' he said. ''They're independent.
It's very difficult to gauge how many abuses might be
occurring within the Southern Baptist Convention.''
Several child sex
abuse cases in Southern Baptist churches have surfaced
recently.
Bellevue Baptist,
a megachurch near Memphis, fired a longtime minister,
the Reverend Paul Williams, last month after he acknowledged
sexually abusing his son 17 years ago. The church's
internal investigation found that church leaders,
including the current pastor, the Reverend Steve
Gaines, knew about the abuse last year but did not act
immediately.
The investigation
began in December only after the prodding of Williams's
son, who asked Gaines why his father was allowed to continue
as a minister even after leaders had found out about
the abuse.
''I accept full
responsibility and could have handled this in a more
appropriate way,'' Gaines told the congregation last month.
In another case,
Shawn Davies, a former music and youth minister at the
First Baptist Church of Greenwood, Mo., pleaded guilty last
month to molesting boys ages 12 to 16.
Vasquez says
she's seeking damages for medical costs and mental and
physical injury as well as punitive damages. ''They're
allowing these men to go from church to church,'' she
said. ''They're not protecting the victims. They're
protecting themselves.'' (Rose French, AP)