Our Most Serious Charge
Another loss that draws great concern and is a priority for ARM and the Adventist Church is child abuse.1 While child protection is a priority for ARM, it is not the denomination’s area of greatest financial loss. Throughout the past 20 years, ARM has paid slightly more than $1.5 million per year (a total of $30 million) in settling claims involving sexual misconduct in the United States for the entities we insure. This accounts for about 400 claims involving 526 victims.2
Property claims alone incur far greater financial losses for the church. But child protection is critically important because it involves victims who are children. Like a severe physical injury that can impair one’s life, these acts of abuse can have an ongoing impact in the lives of children and their families.
Working with the Adventist Church in North America, ARM has taken significant, positive steps to prevent this problem from occurring in our churches and schools. All teachers in Adventist schools across North America, and every volunteer involved in activities with children, must be screened for criminal conduct that would prevent them from working with minors.
“The Adventist Church in North America is committed to preventing these incidents from occurring. We have zero tolerance with persons who commit these criminal acts,” says Dan Jackson, president of the Adventist Church in North America. “The church and our partner ARM are committed to making our churches and schools safe for children.”
ARM has developed guidelines to help direct the church through this difficult issue. Additionally, some aspects of child abuse are not just a matter of following guidelines but of following the law. Offenders, for example, should be reported to the police and other appropriate authorities immediately. In fact, in many states failure to report such incidents is a violation of law. Church organizations have to cooperate fully with investigating agencies.
Equally important, ARM recommends that all church organizations become involved with the victim and family of such abuse early in the process in order to provide appropriate counseling and support, and the alleged perpetrator must be immediately suspended from any contact with children. Those who are found to have committed these acts should be permanently removed from all activities with children in the church. If they are employees of the church they should be terminated from their employment.
While it is understood that the Seventh-day Adventist Church is grace-oriented and forgiveness is part of the church’s belief structure, when an individual has been proven to have abused a minor, he or she must live with the consequences of those acts.
Risk Prevention Resources for Everyone
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www.twitter.com/adventistrisk Sometimes people cannot believe such acts were committed by these individuals. ARM has received phone calls from pastors or conference administrators trying to deal with these challenges. Church members often want to forgive and let the offender not only attend church but also be active in church leadership positions. While forgiveness is always appropriate, continued service as a leader is inappropriate. It must not be forgotten that the primary concern in these situations is to safeguard the children entrusted to the church for worship, school, or other activities.
The church’s response in the aftermath of a sexual molestation is vitally important. The focus should be on doing what’s right for the victims involved. While some insurance companies may take the position that they do not want to hear from the insured church organization until a lawsuit is filed, ARM takes a proactive position in assisting church organizations in addressing the needs of the victim and providing legal defense in the event of a lawsuit against the church.
However, if there is abuse, and the church has failed in its duties to protect a child, ARM does not fight that child’s rights to a fair redress of wrongs.
ARM aims to do the right thing and compensate the victim appropriately for the injury suffered. We know that money will never correct the trauma inflicted against a child, and we work to include counseling and other necessary assistance. It should be noted that ARM does not provide a legal defense of the alleged perpetrator if authorities proceed with criminal charges, as is often the case.
The church has a moral and legal obligation to protect our children and to provide them with a safe environment for worship, study, and play. But whether it is protecting our precious children, our churches, or our ministries, ARM is committed to be wise stewards of the resources God has entrusted to us and to help the church do the same.
ARM’s profile in the overall ministry of the church is low in relation to the impact we have on the mission of the church. And that’s as it should be. It is not the purpose of ARM to be the center of attention. Rather, it is educating to prevent losses, helping to control losses, and assisting the church when a loss occurs that makes Adventist Risk Management a successful ministry. ARM provides simple solutions to minimize risk for the church.
ARM’s ministry is to protect the church’s ministry!
1 See the article “Abuse Prevention a Priority for Adventist Risk Management,” Adventist Review, March 8, 2012.
2 Financial data as of December 31, 2011.
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Julio C. Muñoz is a marketing specialist for Adventist Risk Management.
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Topic: Adventist Risk Managemenet (Read 5424 times)
