Covering Sins of the Church, IRE 2019

Bob Smietana, Religion News Service, @bobsmietana, Bob.Smietana@religionnews.com

Lise Olsen, Houston Chronicle, @chrondigger, Lise.Olsen@chron.com
Jeremy Rogalski, KHOU-TV, @JRogalskiKHOU, jrogalski@khou.com

Tips for investigating all religious groups

Get the religion part right. Be sure to get the details right: the name of the specific congregation, what
denomination or tradition they fit into, what their leaders are called (pastor, rabbi, priest, imam, bishop,
elder, minister, guru, etc.), what members of the religion are called (member, parishioner, devotee,
etc.), how the group describes themselves. Remember that every word matters. If you don’t know the
right term, ask someone. Don’t assume you know one group from another.

Consult a guide. There are a number of resources such as the religion reporter primer from the religion
news association (https://www.religionlink.com/reporting-on-religion/ ) or the Awareness in Reporting
religion toolkit (http://www.awarenessinreporting.org/religionToolkit/default.asp) that can walk you
through the basics of beliefs of most major religious groups. Those guides can also help you understand
the jargon that faith leaders and their followers use – to help avoid unfortunate understandings. (For
example, if a Pentecostal pastor says they want God to “slay” someone – they want God’s spirit to fall
on them. They don’t want God to kill them.)

Find a religion scholar to help you with the details. Most religious groups have scholars that study them
or have colleges/universities that have ties to them. They can help you understand the group you are
studying and see connections you might have missed. Denominational websites, seminary websites, and
church publications also are great background sources – as are denominational directories or annual
reports. They can also help you understand documents from religious groups — to make sure those
documents say what you think they say (i.e. Catholic canon lawyers and Vatican documents).

Remember religion is a people business. If people trust you, they’ll talk to you. If they don’t, they won’t.
And word gets around fast in either case. And to really find out what is going on – someone has to vouch
for you. The best approach is to shut up and listen and go slow.

Religion is also a family business. People will circle the wagons and try to keep bad news in the family.
Even if they know something is wrong, they won’t want to talk about it. The risk for doing so is high:
whistleblowers can lose friends, their community, and their faith at times—if they talk to the press. They
may feel like they are betraying something sacred. And religious people know how to keep secrets.

Religions people write things down. This is especially true for the major religious groups in the US:
Protestants, Catholics, and Jews. They write books, keep records, write reports, keep minutes, write
histories, archives — often at educational institutions tied to the faith groups.

Don’t forget the money. Houses of worship and other institutions usually don’t have to file the same
reports to the IRS that secular nonprofits do. But they do produce internal reports for members – often
with detailed budgets. They also sometimes have affiliate organizations: schools, hospitals, retirement
homes, camps, community development organizations, etc. that do. And sometimes there’s more than
one nonprofit affiliate — (For example, Jay Sekulow, the Christian legal giant turned presidential lawyer,
runs two nonprofits that use the same name.) Property records – to check how much a religious leaders
house is worth or who owns the — can be helpful. And remember religious groups collect a lot of money
— $127 billion in 2017, according to Giving USA. And sometimes they are less than transparent about
how they ask for money or how the spend it. (Gospel for Asia, one of the largest mission groups in the
country, may have to refund as much $37 million after donors complained they were misled.) And
political groups that spread anti-religion messages – such as those opposed to Islam — often run highly
lucrative organizations.

Abuse of power can happen anywhere. Pastors at some of the largest churches in the country have had
to step down in recent years for alleged abuse of power and other misconduct. (For example, James
MacDonald at Harvest Bible Chapel and Bill Hybels founding pastor of Willow Creek Community Church.)
But small congregations has also have harmful or abusive practices — from a small Massachusetts faith-
healing sect where two children died to a cult of personality run by a prosperity gospel preacher that
collected millions from Christian musicians to an apocalyptic sect that worships their cats in Tennessee
and disguised itself as a cat rescue.

Resources for investigating religion

Watchdog blogs: These are evangelical Protestant groups that monitor abuse in churches and other
pastoral misconduct. They are often the first place a victim will tell their story or post
letters/statements/documents. Several were recently profiled in the Washington Post.

http://thewartburgwatch.com/
Dee Parsons started this after a youth pastor at her former church was convicted of abuse. @wartwatch

http://watchkeep.blogspot.com/
Amy Smith founded this blog after finding that a former youth minister who’d been fired from
Prestonwood Baptist for alleged abuse was still working in Baptist churches. @watchkeep

https://spiritualsoundingboard.com/about/
Julie Anne Smith founded this blog to write about abuse in her home church. Now writes about spiritual
abuse.

https://jimmyhinton.org/blog/
Jimmy Hinton’s father was a minister in the Churches of Christ (an acappella evangelical movement) and
was convicted of abuse. @JimmyHinton12

https://www.wthrockmorton.com/
Warren Throckmorton is a professor at Grove City College in Pennsylvania. His blog focuses on abuse of
power and financial misconduct. Often posts insider documents and is relentless in following a story.

https://theelephantsdebt.com/
This blog has been focused primarily on abuse of power and financial mismanagement at Harvest Bible
Chapel — an influential megachurch outside of Chicago.

https://www.ministrywatch.com/
This organization monitors the financials of mostly Protestant organizations. Issues reports when they
think an organization’s finances raise questions. More likely to be critical of a group than the Evangelical
Council for Financial Accountability.
News sources
Baptist News Global: https://baptistnews.com
This site covers the SBC and other Baptists/evangelicals from a moderate/progressive point of views. Is
more likely to cover controversies/misconduct that Baptist Press (www.bpnews.net), which is the official
news service of the SBC.

National Catholic Reporter https://www.ncronline.org/

A national, independent news organization cover the Catholic church. Was the first outlet to cover
abusive priests, starting in the 1980s.

Christianity Today (Christianitytoday.com)

Founded by Billy Graham, probably the most authoritative news sources on evangelicals.

Charisma magazine https://www.charismamag.com

Charisma is one of the most influential sites covering Pentecostal and Charismatic Christians. It’s more
promotional than news but a good way to see what’s happening in that world—a world that often
causes controversy.

Other resources
Southern Baptist Historical Library and Archives http://www.sbhla.org/
This site has archives of files on Baptist leaders, Baptist news, and digital of all the annual reports from
the SBC since 1845. Those reports included financials of every Southern Baptist entity -
http://www.sbhla.org/sbc_annuals/index.asp.

The ARDA (Association of Religion Data Archives) http://www.thearda.com/

Hosted at Penn State, the ARDA hosts the most extensive collection of statistical data about the US in
the country. The Pew Forum also has extensive data on religion and public life. The National
Congregation Study and the Faith Communities Today study also have data on the details and scope of
religious life in the US.

Religionlink: https://www.religionlink.com/
Run the by Religion News Foundation, this is a comprehensive list of guides for covering religion, with
detailed source lists.

Investigating Religion Panel at the 2010 RNA meeting

Featuring Laurie Goodstein from the NY Times and Daniel Burke (now from CNN) talking about abuse
and Melissa Burke, who covered the national scandal of Angel Food ministries.

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/rna-2010-investigating-faith/id396202690?i=1000087881183

IRE guide on investigating religion https://www.ire.org/product/investigating-religion-an-investigative-

reporters-guide

Covering Southern Baptist sexual misconduct

Links to Houston Chronicle/San Antonio Express-News six-part series on sex abuse carried out by
Southern Baptist faith leaders nationwide, Abuse of Faith: www.houstonchronicle.com/abuseoffaith
Houston Chronicle/SAEN free searchable database with public records and data on 263 offenders in 30
states who were convicted/pleaded guilty: https://projects.houstonchronicle.com/2019/southern-
baptist-abuse/#/

Covering sex abuse in the Catholic church

As of June 2019, there are 197 Catholic dioceses in the United States. Only 127 have released lists of
clergy “credibly accused” of child sexual abuse. There are stories to be done both before and after your
diocese releases its list:

Before the list is released:

Tell survivor stories. Many have waited years, even decades for the Church to acknowledge their abusive
priest.

Find them through http://bishopaccountability.org/, SNAP (Survivors Network of Those Abused by

Priests) or lawsuits (county and federal). Search for keywords: father, reverend, Rev., Catholic, church,
roman, diocese, archdiocese, bishop, Jane Doe (as plaintiff), John Doe (as plaintiff)

Find your diocese annual directories and scan. Also find access to the Official Catholic Directory (local
library or university library) which contains assignment histories of ALL priests in the United States. Start
building a database of priests potentially on your diocesan list to be released.

After the list is released:

How transparent is it? Are the number of victim/survivors listed? The year(s) of the abuse? The
parish(es) where it occurred? A summary of the abuse? Find the gaps and point them out (utilizing the
data you have already compiled from above), plus you have collected lawsuits which often provide great
detail about the abuse.

Where priests shuffled around? This is where your directories come in handy. You have a priest’s
assignment history, so now you can see if he hopscotched from parish to parish (likely to keep the
faithful in the dark about his abuse).

Look for credibly accused priests in other dioceses NOT named on your diocesan list. Why? Some
dioceses only list priests where abuse occurred within its geographic boundaries. But again, the shuffle
game comes into play. We found a priest with a sordid past in Fort Worth, TX, who later served in
Houston parishes for a dozen years, and never appeared on the Houston credibly accused list.

Where are they now? Check out Facebook and Twitter. You’ll be surprised at the lives accused priests
are living now. We found one having a good ol’ time playing keyboard at local bars in jazz bands, and
another swimming with dolphins on his 25th Caribbean cruise.