Beginning this semester, prospective pastors at the Dallas Theological Seminary will get training on sexual abuse prevention. The evangelical seminary says it鈥檚 the only one in the country that makes this sort of training mandatory.
teaches church officials how to spot and prevent child abuse. Fort Worth lawyer Kimberlee Norris co-founded and developed the program.
鈥n why the Dallas Theological Seminary mandated this kind of training:
鈥淚 don鈥檛 think there was a trigger in terms of a specific case. I think they simply saw the need. Most pastors learn about this risk typically on the job, and that鈥檚 not the best time to be learning how to effectively protect children and how to address this in a ministry context.鈥�
鈥n misconceptions about child sexual abuse:
鈥淥ne of them is the concept of 鈥榮tranger danger鈥� 鈥� the idea that the risk to children comes outside the fence. Statistically, 90 percent of the kids who sexually abused are abused by someone they know and trust 鈥� somebody inside the fence. Parents for instance, tend to believe that people that they know and have come to like and trust鈥re not a risk to their children. Statistically, that鈥檚 not commonly accurate.鈥�
鈥n the 鈥済rooming process鈥� abusers take on:
鈥淲e talk about the concept that molesters groom the gatekeepers. They don鈥檛 just groom kids, and therefore, when these situations hit the news, what you commonly hear is 鈥業鈥檓 so shocked, that鈥檚 so hard to believe.鈥� The molester has so effectively groomed the people surrounding that circumstance that he or she is not assumed to be a risk.
The number one reason kids don鈥檛 tell: 鈥業 didn鈥檛 tell because I didn鈥檛 think anyone would believe me鈥� and commonly, the molester has told the child, 鈥榠f you tell, no one鈥檚 going to believe you.鈥�
I don鈥檛 think kids are any more at risk in church contexts than they are outside in the world at large, but parents assume that they are.鈥�
On measuring the success of MinistrySafe:
鈥淲e measure success by watching circumstances where we feel like quantifiable, measurable protocols are put in place where they didn鈥檛 exist before. We know from our experience over 20 years that when quantifiable, measurable protocols are put in place, kids are protected.鈥�
Kimberlee Norris is the co-founder of MinistrySafe.
