C.D. Smith Investigations

Sexual Offenders – Their Risk To And In Your Church

Consider the average size community, what percentage of the population do you think make up convicted sex offenders. You might be surprised if you do your homework.

In one Northern California community there are between 30 and 40 convicted sexual offenders within a 2-mile radius. A community with over two dozen places of worship.

If that doesn't surprise you, perhaps this will. The average urban church has one dozen convicted sexual offenders within a one mile radius of its property.

Consider that nearly one in every ten churches has a convicted sexual offender within its membership, often unknown to its member and the pastoral staff. Consider that while most sexual offenders are required by law - in most states - to register as a sexual offender, they are not required by law to notify anybody else. Not nearby schools, not their employers, not nearby churches.

Consider, despite how scary it may be, how often a sexual offender walks in front of your church on a weekly basis while the children are outside having a good time.

These are all unfortunate considerations that we in ministry need to be aware of, as it is our responsibility to be protectors of those that need protection. It is our responsibility to be aware of whom to pay special attention to. This means being aware of the men and women walking past your church after a youth group meeting. It means being aware of who is in your church. It means, unfortunately, being a watch-dog. It means contacting your local law enforcement agency for a list of known sexual offenders (you DO have a good relationship with your local police department, right?) within a ten mile radius of your church, or going online to you're counties online database of sexual offenders – if you are fortunate enough to have a county that can legally do so – and reviewing where in your churches neighborhood sexual offenders reside at. Not that we are on a witch hunt, but rather out of protection of those you are responsible to protect.

Our fight against sexual predators is not only outside the walls of our churches!

In speaking with pastors from around America is has become all too alarming that a number of senior pastors are encountering sexual offenders within their own church walls - even within their own staff and lay-staff. If that is not enough to wake up every pastor in American, I'm not sure they should be in ministry!

Every month, and in some regions of American every week, we hear of another church going through the woes of dealing with a staff member who has been convicted of sexual offences. While not always it seems a large majority of the sexual offenders are youth pastors or associate pastors - married and unmarried, both male and female. And while not always the case, a large majority of sexual offenders are never given a background check (a real one, not just a few phone calls to other pastors) to check to see if they have any known convictions. Most states require churches to perform background checks on all of their staff and lay-staff, yet the large majority of churches never do. Who can be blamed for allowing sexual predators into our churches when even a simple and fairly inexpensive background check can solve issues that will haunt a church for years to come?

The large majority of pastors that I have spoken with who have had to handle the issues of a staff member who has been taken to jail for sexual offences never had the slightest idea of the actions being taken. How can this be? How can men and women who serve together have secret sins they hide and live? To me it would seem that if you are in constant prayer for one another, as we should be doing for our fellow ministers, the Spirit of the Lord would begin setting off warning flags. Hopefully you are in tune to these types of warnings, which is all that can be prayed for by the people within your church.

This is not to say that you are always going to know the deepest dark secrets of everybody in your church, and it does not mean that you will always be aware of what those in your church are doing. What it does imply, however, is that we need to wake up, to be aware of, and to pay attention to warning signs, to certain actions, and to good old Holy Spirit guidance!

Not all sexual offenders are men. Let me say that again: not all sexual offenders are men!

Let me be clear about this: The biggest cases we hear of on a national level are when adult men have sexual encounters with juvenile male, however there are just as many cases of adult men having sexual encounters with juvenile females. Why they do not make the public news more often I can only attribute to an attempt to protect the juvenile female from any further humiliation. But let us not forget that a sizable percentage of sexual offenders are women - Adult women who have committed sexual offences against juvenile females and juvenile males. These rarely make the local newspaper or national news, yet they are still a major threat to those we need to be protecting.

As ministers we need to be aware that while most sexual offenders are men, we should never forget that a sexual offender can just as easily be an adult female. Please do not think you can hire a female staff member without the same scrutiny and background check as what new male staff members should be receiving. Anybody – anybody! – can be a sexual offender and if you do not do your home work, you very well may pay a price that could cost your ministry, your church, and most importantly, a victim within your church, unknown and avoidable hell at the hands of a sexual predator.

Be a good pastor; make sure you pray daily for those under your leadership and in your church; perform a background check when you hire a new staff member; perform a yearly background check; finger print all staff, board member, and layleader – and if your church can afford it, even quarterly! Consider the cost of not doing it. Consider the costs of not being aware. It simply is not worth the risk!

Article Posted On ChristianBlog.com

20/20 Predator Preachers Accused Of Sins, And Crimes Child sex abuse by Catholic priests has been headline news in recent years, but is the same abuse happening within Protestant churches? In a six-month investigation, ABC News' "20/20? found preacher predators in every corner of the country, including several affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) — the largest Protestant denomination. Jim Avila’s exclusive report airs on"20/20," Friday, April 13 (10:00-11:00 p.m., ET), on the ABC Television Network.

Avila’s reporting finds that the SBC, an organization of 43,000 independent churches and 16.3 million members ¨C has an overall structure that makes it difficult to police preacher predators. One example includes a profile of a SBC pastor who abused kids in Kentucky and then moved on to do the same to eight boys in Missouri before he was finally sent to prison. In an interview with Avila, the SBC president concedes that there is a problem with tracking predators.

"20/20" lists numerous SBC preachers who have been convicted or charged with child sex abuse, including pastors still identified on the SBC's own website of ordained ministers.

Avila also interviews a preacher who admits, in his jobs as Southern Baptist preacher and teacher in East Texas, that he molested more than 40 boys. For the first time, Ken Ward speaks publicly about how he manipulated families and churches as he targeted and molested children in his care, and how the church is actually a magnet for predators. ¡°I wanted them to love me and that was part of the strategy," Ward tells Avila. He also gives insight to parents about how to spot a predator.

"20/20" is anchored by Elizabeth Vargas and John Stossel. David Sloan is the executive producer. You can watch a little preview video from ABC News here: http://abcnews.go.com/Video/playerIndex?id=3032132

Abuse Tracker is a blog written by Kathy Shaw of BishopAccountability.org that is compiled of a digest of links to media coverage of clergy abuse.

Find sex offenders near me

Comments expressed in this segment of our website are in no way intended to accuse all clergy members or churches of housing clergy members of child sexual abuse. It is however, intended to provide parents and the community as a whole the education needed to be aware of the dangers that surround our kids in a lot of churches around the USA. Even though these are not the expressed views of C.D. Smith Investigations, we do hope that you learn a lot from this segment.