CO-FOUNDERS GREG SPORER and STEVE VANN

 KEEPING KIDS SAFE MINISTRIES

            Sex offenders are turning to God.  This is good news! The bad news is church leaders are not prepared to deal with sex offenders attending churches.  Keeping Kids Safe Ministries co-founders Greg Sporer and Steve Vann developed a ministry designed to keep kids safe at churches and help church leaders deal directly with sex offenders who attend their church, both registered offenders with a known history, and hidden offenders.

            Most of Greg's work has been as a prison therapist working in sex offender treatment programs and studying research.  Greg's specialization in church sex offenders began in 1989 due to being a Christian and God's leading to help churches keep kids safe.  Steve spent years providing therapy, often to victims of childhood sexual abuse.   Four years ago he finally recognized the need and the value of working with offenders to reduce the risk of their continuing to offend.  Since then his work has been in juvenile sex offender treatment.  God has used Greg's work with adult and juvenile offenders and Steve's work with victims and juvenile offenders to lead them together and into this ministry.

Who are these church members who abuse kids? 

            Half of the adult sex offenders Greg treated attended church before they were convicted.  Our peers in the field of sex offender management report similar findings.  About a third of the juveniles Steve has treated attended church before being caught and much higher than 50% planned to attend church after leaving treatment.  Many church sex offenders report living for Christ at one time, but chose a path of porn, secret sexual sin, multiple physical boundary violations, and eventually it led to shared sexual secrets with teens/children.  Others were led to church because of their guilt and recognition of their need for God.  Others have discovered that church children are often unprotected and church adults are ready to trust and reluctant to accuse.  Please don't be fooled, there is a percentage of church-going Christian men in every church involved with secret sexual sin who are getting closer to a sexual crime.

There are 3 main types of sex offenders who attend church. 

Non-convicted sex offenders seeking help

Church members struggling with secret sexual sin with a teen/child

Registered sex offenders

Non-convicted sex offenders seeking help:

            Many offenders reach a point in their offending behavior when they become desperate, scared, and concerned about getting caught with the possibility of life in prison.  Many try unsuccessful attempts to try to quit their sin on their own, but struggle with failure.  What are their options?  If an offender seeks professional help, mandated reporting laws require the helping professions to report the offender to the authorities.   

            Non-convicted sex offenders seem to avoid professional help and turn to spiritual help.  There are many non-convicted sex offenders turning to God to help them deal with their secret sexual sin problem.  Non-convicted sex offenders present a high risk to church kids because their sin is secret.  Although non-convicted offenders are attending church for spiritual reasons, it is difficult for them to grow spiritually when they continue to have a shared secret with a teen or child.  It is difficult for them to stop offending as long as the secret is hidden.

Christian or church-going men with secret sexual sin:

Some church goers doubt Christians could be sex offenders.  I did not doubt the offenders' claims because most reported they were living for Christ at one time in their life prior to offending.  Christian men and women do not become sex offenders overnight.  For many it starts with porn or an emotional bond with a teen/child, and over a period of time a secret sexual sin with a teen/child emerges. 

An England prison study sampled 5097 inmates and showed a link between sex crimes and religion.  The proportion of all inmates declaring faith compared with those with none is 2:1, but among those convicted of a sex crime it rises to 3:1. (Foot, 2006).  There is credible evidence by networking with other sex offender treatment providers to account for an educated guess of how many church going men engage in sex offender behaviors.  In my own experience, and from my peers working in the field, 50 % or more of sex offenders stated they attended church or were Christians. 

According to Sexual Abuse a Journal of Research and Treatment, the study was to examine whether a sexual offender's commitment to religion impacts the extent of their sexual offending. (Eshuys & Smallbone 2006). The findings provide unexpected evidence that religiosity in sexual offenders is positively related to the number of their sexual offense victims, the younger age of their victims, and the number of their sexual offense convictions.  Religiosity means church attendance and religious practices, not the extent of a personal relationship with Christ.  This is one example of research about sex offenders in churches and there are many studies of sex offenders, but I do not want to bore you with research.  I do want to explain in practical reasoning what this study means spiritually and how it affects churches.

As a therapist who has worked with church sex offenders in sex offender treatment programs, I have seen this dynamic of religiosity increase sex offending.  Church sex offenders are different from other sex offenders I treat.  Many church offenders report that after each offense, they would go weeks/months avoiding their victim, have intense self-loathing, increase bible reading, serving their church, and praying/begging God to take their sin away so they don't go to jail.  It is a selfish prayer.  The prayer is not about the victim and the harm they caused to children.  This dynamic is repeated with many offenders until they are discovered and perhaps convicted.        

Unfortunately, this repeated dynamic doesn't stop for some offenders because the secrecy of the sin prevents true repentance and change.  They chose not to confess the sin because of the legal and social consequences.  Most offenders do not stop until they are caught.  Their religiosity perpetuates their sin of sexual offending.  Once an offender is convicted, many offenders replace religiosity with a true relationship with Christ.  True change occurs with appropriate remorse (often not until the secrets are exposed) for their victim and a commitment to never re-offend.

Registered sex offenders:

            There are 600,000 registered sex offenders in the USA .  One probation report estimated 50%-75% attend church to worship.  (Pearson 2002)  With 100,000 registered sex offenders or more attending church, it is much more likely that any one church will have a registered offender in attendance than most people imagine.  Most of the registered sex offenders attending church claim to be Christians with a strong desire to serve Christ.  Please do not be confused with the non-convicted sex offender who is in church to save himself from the consequences of his sin.  Most sex offenders who have been convicted and are registered are successful at not re-offending.  There are meta-analysis studies on convicted sex offenders' success rates.  Low risk sex offenders succeed at 90%-95% without re-offending and other sex offenders succeed from 85% to higher.  (Hanson & Bussiere 1998) There is a myth that sex offenders do not change.  Sex offenders do change and with Christ in their life most do well with accountability, sex offense specific treatment, and court supervision.  

            Registered sex offenders are increasing in church attendance for several reasons.  It is difficult to live in a community as a registered sex offender.  They are rejected by the community, it is difficult to find a job, and hard to keep relationships once others find out who they are.  Churches are an attractive alternative for offenders.  Congregations welcome sinners, fellowship opportunities meet emotional and relationship needs, and Jesus died for all sinners including sex offenders. 

REFERENCES

Clayton, Mark Sex abuse spans spectrum of churches.  The Christian Science Monitor Apr 2002.

Cobble, J., Sexual abuse reporting in churches.  Christian Ministry Resources, 2002

Eshuys, Donna and Smallbone, Stephen;  Religious afiliations among adult sexual offenders sexual abuse:  A Journal of Research and Treatment volume 18, 3, July 2006 pp.279-288

Finkelhor, D., Mitchell K., and Wolak, J.,  The internet and family acquaintance sexual abuse.  Child Maltreatment, Vol. 10, No. 1, Feb 2005

Finkelhor D., Current Information on the scope and nature of child sexual abuse.  Sexual Abuse of Children 4 (2), 31-69.  1994

Greenfield , Analysis of data on rape and sexual assault, US Department of Justice, bureau of Justice Statistics.  1997.

Hanson, R., & Bussiere, M., Predicting relapse a meta-analysis of sexual offender recidivism studies.  Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 66 (2), pp 348-362

MSNBC/Stanford Duquesne study, Washington Times 1/26/20000

Nobus, D., & Saradjian A.,  Cognitive distortions of religious professionals who sexually abuse children.  Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 18, pp 905-923

Pearson, David, Sex offenders use church as cover.  The Guardian 2002

Scott, C., Child pornography link to abuse of children unclear.  Conference:  Internet and child pornography, University of California , Davis 2006

Sex offending Against Children, Probation Journal, Vol. 46: pp 56-57 1999