ADDENDUM::Stetson graduate prepares churches to protect children | Stetson Today

As I said in an ealier post concerning Tchividjian, "Trying to figure out how he is able to rectify this view in light of where he teaches law? Criminality is suppressed and restoration of the "guilty" party back into leadership is the typical modus operandi of the evangelical crowd as recent headlines have shown (ie. Dino Rizzo and Sam Hinn)."  I still feel that way as he is still with Liberty.

But as a young assistant state attorney handling a variety of criminal cases, Tchividjian couldn’t ignore the horror of those that violated children. When he volunteered to aggressively prosecute all of the 7^th Judicial Circuit’s child sex abuse cases, the state attorney approved and established a sex-crimes unit that handled hundreds of cases, a third of them involving children.

It was the start of a lifelong passion for fighting child sexual abuse.

“As I was prosecuting, you really see the cases up close,” says Tchividjian. “You see the victims, the families, the devastation, but you also deal with the offenders. You see common characteristics and behaviors, and get a comprehensive picture of this offense.”

The issue remained heavy on his heart as he went into private practice in 2001. “What do I do with all of this information that I learned in the trenches?” Tchividjian asked himself.
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“Churches are fearful of damaging their reputations, and it’s easier to buy the redemption narrative from offenders, because that’s what Christianity is all about,” explains Tchividjian. “The real narrative is that offenders are the most deceiving people you’ll ever meet, having abused multiple victims before they are caught.”

Facing sexual abuse is difficult for churches to grasp, so Tchividjian founded GRACE — Godly Response to Abuse in the Christian Environment — to educate Christian organizations on how to prevent and respond to child abuse.

A culture of trust and naïveté can attract perpetrators to church environments. Moreover, many church leaders choose not to believe the allegations of victims and instead side with the offender, further devastating the survivors of abuse.

“We have to shift the cultures of our churches by highly valuing our children and being vigilant about their protection … always receiving up-to-date training, monitoring for these issues, with children’s safety classes for the adults, the parents, and also the kids,” advocates Tchividjian.

Stetson graduate prepares churches to protect children | Stetson Today