The Least of These: Implementing Child Protection Policies, Personal Safety Education, and other Reforms to Keep Safe the Children God has Entrusted to our Churches & Schools

According to the Centers for Disease Control, 1 out of 4 girls and 1 out of 6 boys will be sexually abused before the age of 18. More than one out of four children will be beaten to the point of injury and 13% will witness their mother beaten. One out of ten will be denied food, clothing, shelter, medical care or other necessities of life for periods of time during their childhood. Maltreated children are not only impacted physically and emotionally but also spiritually with many victims losing their faith. Even those who retain their faith often leave church–with one study finding that 10 percent of Protestants below the age of 35 having left the church because they don’t believe the Christian community is committed to keeping children safe. Although these facts are well known, most Christian churches and schools lack child protection policies and training or, if they have training and policies, it falls well below what child abuse experts recommend. This is true even though widespread child sexual abuse scandals in Catholic and Protestant communities have resulted in the church paying billions of dollars in civil lawsuits. This workshop provides an overview of best practices for implementing training and policies for called workers, volunteers, children and parents. The speaker argues that God expects us to care for the “least of these” (Mt. 25:40) and that it is sinful to wait until a child is abused in our churches or schools before we implement appropriate policies and training. The speaker also argues policies should be developed in collaboration with child abuse experts who are focused on protecting children from abuse, as opposed to lawyers and insurance companies who focus more on limiting liability.