Baptist sex case surfaces in Virginia

Southern Baptists must do more to stop abuse, advocates say

From staff and wire reports, Feb. 23, 2007, Richmond Times-Dispatch

NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- The victims' advocates who dogged the Roman Catholic Church over sex abuse by its clergy have turned their attention to the Southern Baptists.

The Chicago-based Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests is accusing America's largest Protestant denomination of also failing to root out molesters.

SNAP has started a campaign to call attention to alleged sex abuse committed by Southern Baptist ministers and concealed by churches.

It 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 they 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.

Brown said she was aware of one case in Virginia. The pastor of New Prospect Baptist Church in Amherst County was convicted last month of molesting a 17-year-old boy he had been tutoring, according to the News & Advance of Lynchburg.

The Rev. Kenneth Payne, 70, was found guilty of taking indecent liberties with the teenager. Payne faces one to five years in prison when he is sentenced March 14. He also will be required to register as a sex offender.

Asked about Payne's status at the church, his lawyer, John E. Falcone of Lynchburg, declined yesterday to comment on the case.

Brown said, "This case was unusual in that it was able to be prosecuted. We hear about far too many cases when a kid attempts to tell adults and nothing happens. The minister just moves on."

John Upton, executive director of the Baptist General Association of Virginia and the Virginia Baptist Mission Board, said he was aware of one other abuse case in Virginia but would not elaborate on it.

"We do give churches information in an effort to be sure that those ministers don't move on," Upton said. "We do not pass predators on to another church. It matters to us to guarantee that church is a safe environment for families."

New Prospect is one of the association's more than 1,400 churches with 443,000 members, a spokeswoman said. Not all are aligned with the Southern Baptist Convention.

The Rev. H. Doyle Chauncey, executive director of the Southern Baptist Conservatives of Virginia, which includes about 500 churches with more than 150,000 members, said he was not aware of any instances of abuse but that his organization would not play a role in investigating such complaints.

"The only thing the state body could do [is] withdraw fellowship from a church," he said. " We have a fraternal relationship with the churches . . . the highest authority is at the church level."

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 SBC, which has 16.3 million members, does not have the legal authority to create an independent board to investigate abuse complaints.

Diane Smith, children's ministry strategist for the Virginia Baptist Mission Board, said the board conducts seminars on steps to protect children and teaches how to do criminal background checks. Suggested guidelines include having two adults present with a child, windows on classroom doors and background checks on volunteers.

"We want to take care of our children as God would care for children," Smith said.

Southern Baptists passed a resolution in 2002 urging the 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 Southern Baptists need an independent review board precisely because there's no clear chain of command among Baptist churches.