Report: Antigay Priest Used Position to Sexually Abuse Other Men

An Anglican priest who founded his congregation on antigay dogma used his position to commit sexual abuse against numerous young men, according to a new report from an independent watchdog group.

An investigation by a group called Godly Response to Abuse in the Christian Environment, or GRACE, found that Rev. Eric Dudley of St. Peter’s Anglican Church in Tallahassee, Fla., frequently touched men in a sexual manner without their consent, the Tallahassee Democrat reports. Dudley was forced to resign from the church in August 2018.

Dudley was rector of St. John’s Episcopal Church, also in Tallahassee, from 1995 to 2005. He departed after announcing from the pulpit that he was leaving the Episcopal Church due to its “deeply unrepentant heresies” — specifically, the elevation of an openly gay man, Gene Robinson, to the position of bishop, a first for the denomination. He then founded St. Peter’s, which is part of the Anglican Church in North America, formed in opposition to the Episcopal Church’s acceptance of LGBTQ people. Dudley is married to a woman and the father of three.

Report: Antigay Priest Used Position to Sexually Abuse Other Men

UPDATED::The Silence of the Lambs | New Republic

UPDATE::  Missionary doctor won't face sex assault trial

A former Baptist missionary doctor from Wyoming accused of molesting nearly two dozen girls and women in Bangladesh, along with a girl in Allendale, won't face trial.

An Ottawa County judge ruled that Donn Ketcham, now 87, is incompetent to stand trial because he suffers from dementia.

Prosecutors told 24 Hour News 8 they don't plan to appeal, which means the charge against him will be dismissed.
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Ketcham, who also suffers from Parkinson's disease, was never charged over the allegations in Bangladesh decades ago, in part because his missionary group covered up the alleged crimes.

In his decision filed last week, Ottawa County Circuit Court Judge Jon Hulsing cited Ketcham's age, the fact he suffers from Parkinson's disease and his failing memory.

He is "unable to recall his attorney's name, is unable to identify his medications, is unable to identify the date, has gotten lost when walking, obsesses over certain issues, forgets significant events, and becomes agitated," the judge wrote in his opinion.

A state psychologist testified July 20 that Ketcham was competent to stand trial.

This is an older narrative that fell through the cracks during my recuperation.  While many of the cases and lawsuits primarily deal with the RCC, the story of Donn Ketcham highlights that it is  not "just" a Catholic problem.  Not that I ever believed that it was, as this blog highlights

Donn, the pastor would soon learn, was not really Kim’s uncle. He was Donn Ketcham, the 58-year-old chief doctor at the mission hospital in Bangladesh. His father had co-founded the Baptist denomination that sponsored the missionary group, the Association of Baptists for World Evangelism; its goal was to create a “militant, missionary-minded, Biblically separate haven of Fundamentalism.” Little known outside the world of Christian fundamentalists, ABWE is among the largest missionary groups in the United States, deploying more than 900 Baptists to 70 countries. His father’s legacy made Ketcham a sort of prince within the world of ABWE: the doctor with the “magical name,” as one missionary later put it, much beloved by the family of churches that supported the group. He’d been the undisputed patriarch of the Bangladesh mission for almost three decades.
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Kim’s confusion only grew. “My body likes it,” she thought, “so either I’m a bad person or it’s OK.” The biblical teachings she’d grown up with, in a culture that preached abstinence and the sinfulness of sex, told her it was wrong. But Uncle Donn was a close friend of her parents, and the holiest man she knew. He wouldn’t do anything that’s not right, she thought. Ketcham told her God was using him to help her. If she told her parents, he warned, her entire family would be banished from the mission, “where God wanted them to be.” Kim was old enough to understand the implicit threat: By speaking up, she would be ruining God’s purpose for her family. And the blame would be no one’s but hers.

The Silence of the Lambs | New Republic

Orangewood Presbyterian Church faulted in report about allegations - Orlando Sentinel

The cover-up of abuse is not just a RCC problem,,,

An investigation into abuse and misconduct allegations against a pastor and a school coach reveals a pattern that spans at least two decades of several Orangewood Presbyterian Church and School leaders dismissing the claims, refusing to speak directly with alleged victims and failing to keep appropriate records of employment, according to the report.

“Attempts to discuss this matter over the years have been a twisted, convoluted, and self-aggrandizing attempt to minimize the reality of what actually occurred …,” the 35-page report shows.

One former associate pastor at the Maitland church explained to GRACE in an interview that it handled the claims “by considering it a ‘private sin’ and not a ‘public sin’.”

The accusations against Jeff Jakes — now a senior pastor who denies many of the allegations, according to the report — stem back to 1998 and were made public earlier this year in a post on Facebook by Katherine Snyder, who was 18 when she worked for Jakes. The report validated Snyder’s accusations, adding that Jakes’ assertions that he regrets “confusing” Snyder “marginalizes her dignity and robs her of the honor she deserves in bringing very painful events to light.”

Orangewood Presbyterian Church faulted in report about allegations - Orlando Sentinel

The epidemic of denial about sexual abuse in the evangelical church. - The Washington Post

This is more for reference, but a good report.  Many of the cases highlighter on H&C are mentioned. 

Without a centralized theological body, evangelical policies and cultures vary radically, and while some church leaders have worked to prevent abuse and harassment, many have not. The causes are manifold: authoritarian leadership, twisted theology, institutional protection, obliviousness about the problem and, perhaps most shocking, a diminishment of the trauma sexual abuse creates — especially surprising in a church culture that believes strongly in the sanctity of sex. “Sexual abuse is the most underreported thing — both in and outside the church — that exists,” says Boz Tchividjian, a grandson of Billy Graham and a former Florida assistant state attorney. 

The epidemic of denial about sexual abuse in the evangelical church. - The Washington Post

See also::
Report: Protestant Church Insurers Handle 260 Sex Abuse Cases a Year (2007)

Bob Jones University Blamed Victims of Sexual Assaults, Not Abusers, Report Says

3 accuse former Orangewood coach of abuse amid investigation of church and school's past - Orlando Sentinel

Last month, Orangewood hired GRACE, an independent organization that investigates claims of abuse in religious institutions, to conduct the investigation. The allegations, Orangewood Director Allyn Williams said, included “whether Orangewood had knowledge of such allegations and how it responded” at the time of the incidents.

Orangewood Church’s head pastor, Jeff Jakes, also has been accused of harassing and emotionally abusing a former intern in 1998 and is part of the investigation. The church announced he was placed on paid administrative leave Jan. 28 “to avoid any assertion of influence with [the] investigation, and will remain so throughout GRACE’s investigation,” Williams said. Jakes has not been accused of physical or sexual abuse.

Williams did not respond to specific questions about any of the allegations against Manes. He said GRACE asked Orangewood to refrain from commenting on the inquiry until it concludes.

Orangewood announced the GRACE investigation after its Jan. 28 church service. Williams said the probe was expected to take at least 90 days. In a statement, GRACE Executive Director Boz Tchividjian said the organization “cannot put a definitive timetable” on the investigation. When asked, he would not confirm whether Manes is part of the investigation.

3 accuse former Orangewood coach of abuse amid investigation of church and school's past - Orlando Sentinel

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