Clergy Abuse Survivors Advocate Calls For Lutheran Leader's Removal
by Jim Brown and Jenni Parker
December 4, 2003
(AgapePress) - A national victims group is accusing the head of the Sexuality Task Force of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) of covering up clergy pedophilia in his denomination.A group called the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) is calling for the immediate resignation of James Childs, the former dean of Trinity Lutheran Seminary in Ohio. The group alleges that during his 19-year tenure, Childs had several opportunities to take action against a seminarian accused of abuse, but chose to look the other way.
SNAP director David Clohessy says while head of the seminary, Childs received several explicit warnings about Gerald Thomas, a student who went on to graduate from the seminary, despite documented abuse complaints from several of his supervisors during his studies and internship. Thomas went on to molest several young boys in three states, and was eventually arrested and found guilty of multiple counts of misconduct, including child pornography, indecent exposure, and sexual assault. The convicted sex offender received a nearly 400-year prison sentence, the longest ever given to any clergy sex-abuse convict in the U.S.
SNAP's director feels that as former dean of the seminary, Childs is guilty as well -- guilty of participating in a cover up that allowed a pedophile to become credentialed and go on to leave "a trail of victims everywhere Lutheran officials sent him." Clohessy says Childs "essentially ignored the warnings about the suspected child abuser, which enabled the abuser to go on and become ordained, have access to kids, and commit these crimes."
Childs currently heads the ELCA study group formally known as the Studies on Sexuality Task Force, which is in charge of exploring and addressing a number of issues, including childhood sexual abuse. But according to Clohessy, "having Childs head up a sexuality task force is like putting the Big Bad Wolf in charge of Little Red Riding Hood."
The victims' advocate says his group feels that it is fundamentally "very dangerous" to have someone like Reverend Childs heading up a nationwide committee on sexuality for the Lutheran Church. "Certainly in an organization of that size there have to be good, qualified men or women who could lead a sexuality study who don't have this kind of blemish on their record," Clohessy says, "and we think that ultimately the committee's work would be far more effective and far more credible if Reverend Childs were not the head of it."
Clohessy feels having Childs in this position sends a chilling message to others victimized by Lutheran clergy. "Childs should resign immediately," he says, and "if he refuses, ELCA should force him to do so."
The parents of 14 of Thomas's young victims are suing Childs and have also named the ELCA, Trinity, and several other denomination and the seminary officials in the suit.
Chicago-based SNAP is the nation's largest and oldest support group for men and women abused by clergy. Although its title uses the term "priest," the organization includes individuals molested by ministers of any faith. SNAP's healing model is based on the belief that both the survivors of abuse and the institution that abused them must be healed.
