Summary
"State of Affairs" Re. Overcoming Abuse and Violence
Seventh-day Adventist Church
The
Bad News
Sadly, the Seventh-day Adventist Church must in too many instances
plead guilty to various of the charges leveled at the Christian
community by professionals working with victims and their families,
e.g. defending patriarchy, fostering family isolation, perpetuating
teachings which leave women and children vulnerable, adding abuse
to abuse in dealing with victims, protecting perpetrators, failing
to connect with the wider network, showing more concern for corporate
image than protection of persons, and responding inadequately
to spiritual questions confronting victims/survivors.
The
Good News: Journey Out of Denial and Into Action
• Breaking silence. Ninety-six related articles were
published in church papers between 1983-1993. Between 1993 and
1995, three special issues were released by the world church paper
and the international Adventist journal for clergy.
• Quantifying the magnitude of the problem. Breaking
silence lead to asking aloud: "Do these things really happen
among Adventists?" Efforts had already begun to quantify
the problem, culminating in a 1994 international study of more
than 8,000 Adventists that revealed a range of data from 7 world
divisions with 8-18% of female respondents reporting experiencing
sexual abuse; 15-43% physical abuse, and 27-69% emotional abuse.
Among males, 4-12% reported sexual abuse, 16-55% physical abuse,
and 6-37% emotional abuse.
• Educating church administrators. An educational
conference for international administrators was conducted in 1994
at the world headquarters.
• Elevating abuse and violence as pressing world church
issues. 1995 World Session delegates mandated an educational
strategy and action to include: strong position statements re.
incompatibility of abuse and violence with Adventist beliefs;
education of church leaders re. legal and moral responsibility
to report child abuse; further research to determine nature and
extent of the problem within Adventism; intentional networking
with the wider community; and policies related to ethical responsibilities,
employment practices, and the tracking of church employees/volunteers
accused of abuse and violence.
• Voting position statements. Statements decrying
Family Violence (October 1996) and Child Sexual Abuse (April 1997)
were voted by the world church in executive session.
• Resourcing pastors/church leaders. A planbook specifically
aimed at educating clergy and church leaders and helping them
break silence in the local church (1997), a video featuring Adventist
professionals with relevant expertise and a quick reference guide
providing practical "how-to's" were combined to create
the Peace and Healing resource (1998), available in English,
Spanish, and French and the video in NTSC, PAL and SECAM.
• Adopting policies. Model policies for sexual misconduct
involving church employees and volunteers, negligent hiring prevention,
convicted sexual offender tracking, and sexual harassment were
developed. At least three divisions have adopted policies outlining
specific positions and procedures which have been locally contextualized.
One division has established a toll-free line and extensive process
for receiving reports.
• Moving toward responding effectively to theological
and spiritual issues. A new resource has been funded which
will be designed to lead the church to rethink its biblical understanding
regarding such things as meaning of suffering, nature of marriage
and parent-child relationships, the dignity and equality of women
and children, sexuality, sex education, family privacy, the emotion
of anger, forgiveness, reconciliation, divorce, etc. in light
of abuse and violence issues. This resource is intended to be
coupled with on-going pastoral inservice and the strengthening
of cooperative ties with the wider community.
