Three Baptist Ministers and my Niece

Anonymous in South Carolina

I know of three ministers on the Southern Baptist Convention's registry who have engaged in a pedophile cover up. They are John, Joe and Jim, all of South Carolina.  

My sister was married to John and they had a daughter, Tina. In the early 1990s, due to financial difficulties, they moved in with John's brother, Joe, and his roommate, Jim. John was getting his ministry degree at the time, and Jim was already a Baptist minister. After a few years, Tina, who was 8 at the time, told her teacher she had been repeatedly molested by Jim over about a two year period. As luck would have it, the teacher attended the Baptist church where Jim was a youth minister. The teacher did not want to bring attention to the church so instead of reporting the abuse to the authorities, she contacted John.  

In a nutshell, John did not believe Tina and interrogated her over a week's time, often threatening her, before he decided to approach Jim about it. John had erroneously decided to address this situation under the Matthew 18:15-17 scenario. Jim denied the allegations so John continued to interrogate Tina, telling her she needed to recant. Eventually, John took Joe with him to confront Jim, and Jim then admitted that Tina was telling the truth.  

John and Joe decided to take action by asking Jim to receive counseling. They approached one of their close friends, another minister, about counseling Jim. This particular minister had no business doing this for many reasons including the fact he had been busted twice by churches for having affairs with church staff. He was in no way a "man of God." Anyways, this is all John required in lieu of reporting Jim's abuse to authorities.  

Of course, Tina received no counseling at all because it was too risky. Someone might find out.  

At the time, I was friends with Joe and Jim and spent much of my time at my sister's home, but I had no knowledge of this. Eventually my sister's family moved from Joe and Jim's home to the home right next door.  

Jim was a very popular minister. In fact, he was well thought of in that whole part of South Carolina. He married and had children. He went on to become a missionary, and after returning to the United States, he helped Joe plant a church in the area of Taylors, South Carolina. There Jim was the youth director and his wife operated the nursery department and the Parents Day Out program. Of course, Jim claimed to have a calling from God to work with children! He moved freely throughout the nursery, children's department, and youth department.  

In 1999, my sister passed away. Even before she became sick, I knew she was having marital problems. I did not know what it was about, but after her death, and upon discovering the situation, I was told by a friend of hers that she was struggling with the fact she had covered up Jim's pedophilia. She was planning on separating from John and exposing Jim. This never happened.  

After my sister passed, John, who was by this time the pastor at another South Carolina Baptist church, remarried within a few months. In 2003, John kicked Tina out of the home simply because she "got on his nerves."  

Tina, upon being kicked out of the home, moved in with me and my family. She was going to college at the time. After moving in with me, she told me of the entire situation. She said I was the first person she had ever told who knew both her and Jim and who got mad at Jim. Everyone else sympathized with Jim.  

I tried to get Tina to report the abuse to the authorities. She was confused and scared because John had told her if she ever did that her family would abandon her. This includes her own sister who, even though she knew about the abuse, had remained close friends with Jim. She was totally brainwashed by Jim, Joe, and John about the situation, and she told Tina that Jim was a strong man of God and that it took courage for him to even come around Tina. In other words, Tina's sister sympathized with Jim just as everyone else had.  

John and Joe told Tina that scripturally they had acted according to God's plan for the situation, and that Jim had repented and was being held accountable by John and Joe (yeah, right). Once, I got John to admit in front of Tina that he did not deal with the situation correctly, but he refused to admit the right thing to do was to report Jim. He convinced Tina that Jim had repented and had never abused anyone else.

Tina decided she wanted to sit down with Jim and talk to him to figure out what she should do. Of course, Jim bawled like a baby and claimed he had changed his ways. But when Tina specifically asked him if he had abused anyone else, he would only say, "I do not know but if someone comes forward and says I did, I probably did."

That is basically like saying, "I did, but I am not admitting to it unless I have to." Also I find it hard to believe someone doesn't remember if they had abused anyone else or not. The only other way to interpret that response is, "I abused so many people that I do not remember."

After all Jim's talk, Tina talked herself into believing Jim and refused to turn him in.  

Because Tina would do nothing for fear of more rejection by her family, I tried to get someone else to initiate something. Nobody would. By then, I had confirmed that several other children, including Tina's sister, had been touched or groomed by Jim, but I was unable to convince anyone to do anything. So, I at least thought Jim's wife and family should know and I forced Jim to tell them. Jim's wife was irate that he was ignorant enough to continue to go to places where Tina was.

Jim resigned from the church staff and said he would not ever be part of a church's staff. Of course, I was the bad guy according to his family, Joe and John. I had ruined his life and his ministry. Even so, only select people were told of this, even in Jim's family.  

To this day, Tina continues to struggle with what happened. She continues to be pressured by John, Joe, Jim, and her own sister, not to take any action.

Joe was eventually fired from the church for teaching "unscriptural doctrines." John remains the pastor at another Southern Baptist church in South Carolina. He claims to have a special calling to counsel pedophiles and those abused by them. Essentially, he harbors pedophiles in his church and works to keep their families together by encouraging their families to allow the abused back in the home while getting counseled by him. I am almost certain he is enabling these pedophiles and I am starting to think he gets off by hearing the details.  

Even though Jim agreed never to take a ministry position again, he has escaped. He claims to be held accountable by John and Joe, but that is impossible considering he was never held accountable by them in the first place. I have no way of confirming what he does "unofficially" in whatever church he attends. Because only a select few still know of this, he can move freely in whatever way he wants within the community and church. He should be registered as a pedophile but he is not. It is certainly disturbing to know that so many cases like this go unreported.  

Churches are stocked hunting grounds for pedophiles. They know it is doubtful they get reported if caught. The clergy would rather sacrifice children rather than bring a bad reputation to the church.