“There are risks and costs to a program of action. But they are far less than the long-range risks and costs of comfortable inaction.”John Fitzgerald Kennedy
On Monday, I wrote Do You Think That the SBC Is Finally Going to Adequately Deal with Sex Abuse? Not So Fast, Says Christa Brown. For purposes of this post on what’s happening in Germany, I want to focus on what Christa Brown and David Clohessy said here:
Clohessy and Brown: Let’s involve the state and federal secular authorities.
Specifically, state attorneys general must launch thorough investigations into sexual abuse, institutional enablement and survivor maltreatment in the Southern Baptist Convention.
…Investigations like this already have been done, or are in progress, in roughly half the states in the U.S. with respect to the Catholic Church, and this is what must come next for the Southern Baptists as well.
…Also on the state level, legislators must relax or repeal archaic, predator-friendly statutes of limitations that prevent civil lawsuits.
…Ireland, Australia and other Western nations and set up well-funded totally independent inquiries into clergy sex crimes and cover-ups. Such inquiries must be focused on exposing wrongdoers and writing well-documented reports.
Why civil lawsuits are essential.
Civil lawsuits also are the most sure-fire way to prevent abuse and expose child molesters, because when civil suits are filed, the names of wrongdoers are nearly always made public, which allows parents to safeguard their kids.
It appears that there is movement in these areas in the country of Germany. Given that insurance companies are leading the charge, I bet it is only a matter of time until we see this in the US.
German insurers are upping the ante in church sex abuse cases.
Religion News Service posted: Insurers suddenly raise stakes on German churches’ sex abuse response.
VBG, a national association of accident insurance providers, recently complained to the two predominant church bodies in the country that they had not been notified of the thousands of sexual abuse cases that have been found in the church groups’ ranks.
According to German law, sexual abuse cases can fall under the rules governing the churches’ insurance policies. Policyholders must inform the company of known cases and help insurers determine how much compensation they should pay.
According to German law, policyholders must report all known abuse cases to the insurance companies. Those companies then decide how much compensation must be paid to the victims.
The insurance companies are claiming that volunteers molested during their volunteer work at the church are to be covered as if these were “work accidents.”
Church insurance policies, the VBG lawyers have determined, cover both paid employees and volunteers at church-run activities such as liturgies, youth groups or outings.
I am aware of an interesting case in the US involving a megachurch. I cannot give the specifics. However, a church activity was held at the volunteer’s home. There was a serious accident involving a child. The church, fearing repercussions from their insurance company, claimed that the “outing” was not an “official” outing of the church. This meant that the church insurance would not cover the accident. This was baloney and par for the course for this despicable church. The volunteer then had to report it to her insurance company in order to cover the accident. This was not the first rodeo for this church, and I wish I could name it. However, let all church members beware. Make sure you know if the church’s insurance will cover you if you put on a nice dinner for families and a kid gets injured.
Back to German churches. Now, if a volunteer is abused it will be treated as a work accident meaning there will be reimbursement from the church insurer to the victim.
How does the abuse investigation system work in Germany? For years, it allowed churches to investigate the claims of victims in secret.
Until recently, German law allowed the church to investigate what went down and suggest to the insurance companies what the victim should get paid. Of course, you know what happened. The church lowballed their estimate.
In the dozen years since the abuse scandal broke in a Berlin Catholic school, Germany has mostly left it to them to investigate the problem and indemnify the victims.
They have issued several headline-grabbing reports, apologized profusely and offered compensation up to 50,000 euros per person.
Victims complained that the compensation was too low, and the decision-making was kept a secret. The insurance companies agreed.
It is the insurance companies which is enforcing a change to help victims who have reportedly been compensated far too little for their abuse.
“No more,” says VBG.
Its letter, sent in late April, clearly outlined what those lawyers thought victims deserved. “The earlier the accidents are reported, the earlier we can care for victims and try to lessen their psychic pain through therapy,” it said.
In Germany, this new ruling could mean that churches will most likely pay higher premiums for coverage.
The almighty buck is the great leveler here. And you can be sure the churches know this. Not only is the Catholic church in contact with VBG but:
The Evangelical Church in Germany, a federation of 20 Lutheran, Reformed and United regional churches, indicated it was “in contact with the VBG about this.”
What does this mean to this observer? The church knows just how prevalent sexual abuse is in their churches and now fears it could come back to bite them in the nose in the form of much higher premiums
Even more concerning for the churches: disability settlements are coming.
Can you imagine the rates climbing for church insurance if victims could get a disability? This is something I could support.
If the damage done has long-term effects, the victim could get a disability pension.
Victims could force churches to open up their secret archives so they could contest their settlement.
It is amazing for me to see that insurance companies in Germany are behind this effort to bring light to lowball compensation.
When handled this way, all decisions could also be contested legally. And insurance companies could ask courts to force churches to open their archives, something no church has yet had to do.
Even the newly elected German government is jumping on the bandwagon to help victims of church abuse!
The government believes that the churches will not cooperate in this effort to help victims. I tend to agree with them.
(Enter) the new left-wing government of Olaf Scholz, a Social Democrat who became chancellor in December.
Used to kinder treatment by Angela Merkel, a Christian Democrat who was chancellor for 16 years, the church suddenly heard that Scholz was “appalled” by the Munich report.
“There is a consensus in the government that dealing with cases of structural child abuse cannot be left to institutions alone,” a Cabinet spokesman said.
The world is changing, and this means that victims of sex abuse will no longer be left out in the cold in Germany. I think churches will be in trouble in Germany. They had their chance to do right by victims, and, of course, they blew it. They were protecting the institution over the abused, and the time came when enough was enough. In Germany, the insurance companies have ensured that church insurance rates will rise as victims are fairly compensated. I will rejoice when I see some deserving victims get disability coverage. I would love to see this in the US and can think of a few victims who would deserve this.
The new government is stepping in, and it appears they will not kowtow to the church leaders. It will be a sad day when churches need to be held to account by a secular government. I wish the US government would get involved in looking at churches that have consistently covered up abuse. Unless churches begin to change, I predict that the coming years will see further actions against churches and denominations with a consistent history of hiding abuse. Instead of following the One who demanded we care for those who have been hurt and abused, churches will be increasingly responsible to insurance companies and the state which will do what churches should have done.
First?
HereIStand,
Well done or as they say in Germany “gut erledigt”
> It is amazing for me to see that insurance companies in Germany are behind this effort to bring light to lowball compensation.
While I’m glad that there seems likely to be more transparency and juster compensation to victims, I’m tempted to suspect that the companies might not be doing this out of humanitarian motives. I suppose that the proof will be what they do in regard to payment of claims after the premiums have been raised. I’m inclined to doubt that this move will have detrimental short term effects on the companies’ financial performance. Long term, that line of business may dry up (as the customer base vanishes), the way flood insurance in parts of US has become unaffordable.
You are exactly right! If the church had acted blamelessly and cared for the victims, they would not have to be held accountable by others. Excellent summation!!
Hmm. Good for Germany, I guess? Don’t get me wrong-no question survivors deserve all the help in the world. If churches provide cover for abuse, let them cover the cost of the fallout. I’m also skeptical about the insurers’ motives, but oh well. They’re for-profit companies. What I’m really cynical about is the likelihood of the U.S. taking a similar approach. Let officials start making moves in this direction, and watch everyone from pastors to pundits start yakking about “religious freedom” and “separation of church and state.” Heck, if anything actually were done you know a whole lotta folks would be screaming “persecution!” I think in many places in this country it would be political suicide for legislators to attempt something like that.
Healthcare and services in Europe are completely different from that in the US. NHS are standard, in practice, in policy.
Note to CM
This blog is not about politics. I do not state who I do or don’t support in political offices on this blog.
I find your comments and language directed at me demeaning. I would suggest that you examine the root of your anger because, IMO, it goes well beyond pastors, religion and politicians that you hate. My guess is that you have been confronted about your anger problem by others. Please get some help. I just stopped and prayed that you will find peace.
““There is a consensus in the government that dealing with cases of structural child abuse cannot be left to institutions alone,” a Cabinet spokesman said.”
SBC, are you listening?
There should be no separation of church and state when it comes to dealing with sex abuse. We’ve seen far too many examples of ministers and ministries covering and protecting abusers. Don’t call pastor, call 911! Sex abuse is a crime.
If the fear of God won’t cause the pulpit to walk the straight and narrow, perhaps the fear of a lawsuit will!
Many German churches are much more entwined with the state than here in the U.S. – many of them are what would be called established churches under U.S. law. Here the constitution prohibits establishing a religion. There is a church tax which is a percentage increase to your income tax, usually 9%.
Religions where the church tax applies include:
1) Evangelical churches
2) Catholic churches
3) Jewish
Religions where it doesn’t apply include:
1) Orthodox
2) Baptist
3) Muslim
4) Buddhist
5) Hindu
grberry,
Interesting.
Fear of the public, the image, the village, … may be what’s keeping celeb predators & institutional predators in place.
Courts, laws, and prosecutors don’t always bring justice.
Epstein had Harvard. R Kelly had fans. They both dodged consequences (justice) in initial slamdunk Court cases.
Only this week, both R Kelly and Epstein’s Maxwell have been sentenced. Look at what turned it around, 2nd time around.
Yes, always report to LE for the DOJ. But there’s more to justice in our society.
(BTW, both R Kelly Lifetime productions streaming on Netflix have excellent analysis throughout the testimonials. The analysts are all trained academics explaining in great detail the issues. Examples: What makes a celebrity untouchable. How a namebrand controls their public. How very wise self protecting people still get sucked in. All aspects of a cult and cult leader. When a leader plays the Gospel for nefarious purposes, and does this well. Etc.)
“He was a charmer. Until he wasn’t.”
Sorry, this is not well stated.
Better:
It is the adulation and use of the adoring public, village, fans… that keep the celeb predators and institutional predators in place. And, wow, do the hiding in plain sight predators know how to play the masses into the palm of their hand to safeguard their con? YES!!!
(Jesus vs Barabbas and the Mob before Pilate: Pilate & the DOJ & LE knew who was the criminal. But the conned mob had their way.)
NO.
Churches are more of a Third Rail than even Social Security.
“TOUCH NOT MINE ANOINTED!”
This Sort Of Thing always reminds me of Peter’s warning that the governing authorities wield the sword to punish wrongdoers. Fundagelicalism has an uneasy relationship with that wee scrippie, for obvious reasons.
“Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God [granted by His permission and sanction], and those which exist have been put in place by God. Therefore whoever resists [governmental] authority resists the ordinance of God. And those who have resisted it will bring judgment (civil penalty) on themselves.” (Romans 13:1-2 AMP)
Nick Bulbeck,
You got that correct. I remember 50 years ago my Fundamentalist Baptist considered gov’t/police worldy pagans, or worse, and definitely had an “uneasey” relationship… That is why all the stuff we see on TWW about churches not reporting abuse.. Of course there is the issues that they “protetcing the name of the Church” thinking, but I also think some of them think they are more “pious” than the worldly authorities, and they can deal with such “sin” better than the authorities..
having seen the destruction wielded by a mysogynistic authoritarian extreme right-wing ‘leader’, I imagine the reality of catering to such a monster has given some ‘wisdom’ to the German people that our own people seem to be lacking as we have ‘tolerated’ paternalistic misogyny now to the point of governmental interference in the personal lives of families and there is talk now of our SCOTUS banning birth control . . .
I applaud the wisdom of the German decision to care for victims of this most horrendous type of abuse, a violation of ‘trust’ that wounded so many vulnerable souls
we in this country ‘pander’ now to forces that cry ‘freedom’ but instead serve political interests and certain religious teachings that do not represent the whole of our nation, but only those of partisan convictions . . . we shall see how far the partisan interests take our country into that area of which Walt Whitman once wrote:
‘. . . “re-examine all you have been told in school or church or in any book, and dismiss whatever insults your own soul ”
There is a place where people say ‘no more’ to controls and to abuses and especially to ‘injustices’ to those who have been wounded by having their trust betrayed by power figures. I hope our own nation finds some equilibrium along the same lines as countries which advocate for victims benefits instead of pursuing giving power to those manipulate and control along partisan lines.
We shall see.
For Germany, lessons in humane living have come from ‘going through the fire’;
and I wonder where our own journey going forward will take our people now.
grberry,
Evangelical = Lutheran, is my understanding, if you’re talking about state-supported churches in Germany.
My (German) uncle left his Lutheran church for a Baptist one. His pastor was concerned he was joining a cult.
And my Catholic (German) ex-boyfriend didn’t have a problem with me not being Catholic, but he was a little concerned when finding out I belonged to an Evangelical Free Church, for the same reason.
My guess would also be it won’t happen in the US, despite the huge advantage of having punitive damages. It’s always been blindingly obvious to me that where abuse is concerned damages should obviously punish the church.
I don’t think it will happen because churches will get round it. For example the RCs are of course a couple of decades ahead of SBC. Many dioceses have gone bankrupt, but this literally just protects the dioceses assets and makes it more difficult for victims to get compensation. Some have set up compensation schemes offering relatively small sums with a contract so you sign away any possibility of future claims – they make out that this is because they care. Still others have for several years been putting diocesan property in a separate legal entity (sorry, don’t know the correct US legal term) so it’s not actually the dioceses property any more and is safe from claims.
It’s all despicable and basically means that even if they can’t get litigation insurance any more nobody can touch them.
If it’s going better in Germany it’s because they have experience in living memory of reconciliation after horrendous human acts of violence and hatred, and are experts on doing it right.
The only thing which surprises me would be that any insurance company would still insure any church against claims of any sort.
If it was one of SBC’s newfangled New Calvinist churches, he did join a cult!
Except such sin (sex abuse) is a crime. Piety doesn’t cover criminal acts. Church discipline should never substitute for the criminal justice system.
Good point.
Max,
Good point!
dee,
Hi Dee, I suppose most likely this was in reference to a comment by a person with a similar handle to mine whose remarks weren’t posted. But I just wanted to make sure that was the case since what I said was rather political and maybe not appropriate for this space.
“Reformed” is merely the rebadged brand name for what was earlier touted as “designer outlet” or “emergent”.
Superstition = materialism = pharisaism = unbelief in prayer or Holy Spirit providential gifts: all same thing, mounting from AD 130 to 2018.
“Let no mind be in you” is their unholy scripture. I was there in 1969.
Exactly. The New Calvinist (resurgent/reformed) movement is an outgrowth of the emergent church championed by Rob Bell, Brian McLaren, and other wackos. Driscoll was emergent before he was resurgent and subsequently became submergent before he launched his unrepentant comeback in Phoenix.
The 21st century pulpit loves folks in the pew who have that as their life verse. They don’t want pewsitters who critically think and speak, let alone pray and seek God.
From an old comment on some blog:
FUND = Send Money
A = Without
MENTAL = Brains
And don’t these same churches denounce the RCC for its pewsitters who just “Pay, Pray, and Obey”?
Is “regurgent” a word yet? If not, it should be. It’s needed here.
“You’ll always have Nazis among you,
You’ll always have Nazis among you;
Next time they won’t come in brown shirts or boots,
They’ll come speaking softly in three-piece suits,
But you’ll always have Nazis among you.”
— Donna Barr, The Desert Peach: The Musical, closing aria
And this time they come in the pulpits, wrapped in the Stars and Stripes and holding up a Bible.
The essence of a scam is the victim only realizes it is after paying and is then too embarrassed or committed to demand their money back.
A related rule: I might forgive a cheating spouse, but I’ll never forgive the friend who tactfully told me about the signs of cheating.
Sunk Cost Fallacy, the con man’s greatest friend.
Get the suckers so emotionally invested in the scam that they can’t back out, even when they KNOW they’re being taken to the cleaners. Because admitting they got scammed is too much for their egos. So they will double down and defend the scammer (Loyalty, Loyalty, Loyalty) even as he cleans them out.
And God-talk just ramps everything up to (literally) Cosmic-level Importance.
Germany, the German government, its political climate + parties, etc. are vastly different than ours.
I can’t see itt ever being done here, though I’m relieved for those in Germany who will benefit from it. Looks as if many others won’t, sadly, since it exists in every religion, there and here and all around the planet.
Wild Honey,
There *are* evangelicals in Germany, though as a US Lutheran whose synod is called the Evangelical Lutheran Chirch in America (ELCA for short), i can understand why people might make assumptions that i, and other ELCA Lutherans, are lower-case evangelicals.
We’re not. In our name, it simply means of or pertaining to the Gospel and has never had any affiliation with US evangelicalism.
I hope that makes sense!
* And yes, my synod is one of the “liberal” ones, per most evangelicals, so not to be trusted. Especially on LGBTQ+ clergy and issues and people being integral to our congregations at this point. A lot of congregations left b/c of that, even though it was left up to individual congregations to adhere to the new policies or not.
I think the biggest shakeups have occurred in the Midwest and in parts of the Pacific Coast. It hasn’t changed much of anything in my state. COVID has had a devastating effect, though. My mom and others of her generation are just gone.