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EC recommends D.O.J. database for child sex abuse prevention in SBC churches

Discussion in 'General Baptist Discussions' started by Revmitchell, Jun 11, 2008.

  1. Revmitchell

    Revmitchell Well-Known Member
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    INDIANAPOLIS (BP)--The Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee passed a recommendation June 9 urging churches to screen prospective volunteers and employees with the U.S. Department of Justice's national sex offender database and said it believes the "potential threat of sex abuse" on the local church level "is tragically underappreciated."


    More Here
     
  2. Salty

    Salty 20,000 Posts Club
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    Does someone have the link for the DOJ list?
     
  3. Ulsterman

    Ulsterman New Member

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    On the surface this is a good idea. Here in the UK it is a legal requirement for churches and other charitable organisations who work with children and vulnerable adults to be screened through the Criminal Records Bureau. However, our government has used this system to raise stealth taxes. For example, if a school teacher is cleared by her school, she cannot use that clearance to work with children in the church, therefore she must be screened again, and of course the government must be paid again to do the now uneccessary screening, and so it goes for every organisation she might be associated with. It is quite costly for our church as we must pay for Sunday School teachers, Children's club leaders, youth leaders and creche workers to be checked.

    Don't misunderstand, I am all for protecting children, and am not complaining about the law in that respect, I just resent our government using it as a means of raising income, and loading decent people down with over the top bureaucracy.
     
  4. Beth

    Beth New Member

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    I agree

    I believe everyone who works with a child should be fingerprinted and have those prints run through the federal database.

    My husband and I teach K Sunday School class....we have NEVER been asked for anything to verify that we do not have any sort of criminal record. Ironically, both of us have been criminally screened in the past...myself, when I was certified as a teacher in Rhode Island, him, when he first started working on federal projects for HP. No one at church knows that, though....
     
  5. Magnetic Poles

    Magnetic Poles New Member

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    And yet, the SBC rejected this.
     
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