Tennessee church hid rape of 3-year-old boy, lied to parents, urged against prosecution; lawsuit filed

David Edwards
Raw Story
Tue, 01 Dec 2015 12:55 UTC

© Fellowship Baptist Church training video

A church volunteer takes children to the bathroom.

A family filed a lawsuit this week against a church in Brentwood, Tennessee for allegedly covering up the rape of their 3-year-old child. The lawsuit, which was obtained by WTVF, indicates that the family left their 3-year-old-boy in the care of the church's Children's Ministry on the Sunday of August 24, 2014.

When the boy said that he did not want to go back to church the next week, the family discovered that a teenage volunteer had raped the child in one of the church's bathrooms. The family explained in the lawsuit that they confronted church leaders, who initially claimed that the child was lying about the incident. The church later "urged the [family] not to pursue criminal charges against the perpetrator," the lawsuit stated.

After the volunteer pled guilty to aggravated sexual assault, the lawsuit said that the church "sought to hide the truth about the perpetrator pedophile and about the rape of [the 3-year-old child] from other families."

"We want justice for this family," attorney Kathryn Barnett of Morgan & Morgan told WTVF. "But also we want to make sure that every child at this church and every church is safe." "It's not okay to wait until a child is raped before you start to take youth protection seriously." she added.

A Fellowship Baptist Church training video that was created earlier this year explains that the Children's Ministry has a strict bathroom policy. "In all cases, no one should be alone with a child," the video says. "Two adults are required to escort a child to the bathroom."

Watch the video report below from WTVF, broadcast Nov. 30, 2015.

Comment: We hope they get millions from the church. Sadly, for this child, his family and other families yet to be victimized, churches are a place where where predators have easy access to children and most offenses are covered up by the church. The best we can do in this day and age is educate and protect ourselves with knowledge of where and how these sexual predators operate. Listen to or read our interview with Dr. Anna Salter, author of the best-selling book, Predators: Pedophiles, Rapists, and Other Sex Offenders, Who They Are, How They Operate, and How We Can Protect Ourselves and Our Children. And do read the book.

See also: Men Who Hate Women: The Franklin Scandal and the Truth About Our Leaders