Quote:
Originally Posted by MissBrattified
When a minor child's safety hangs in the balance, there is no time to allow for the abuser to make up his mind about whether or not he wants to turn himself in. The first concern should be the safety of the victim. Repentance and other concerns for the abuser can be addressed after that. ...let's say a man is abusing his stepdaughter (as someone hypothesized above)...would a pastor counsel him to consider turning himself in and then allow him to go back home to his stepdaughter?
I only agree if by "encouraged to turn himself in", you mean something along the lines of, "Call the authorities and turn yourself in, right here in my presence, right now, or I will do it myself."
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That was
not a hypothesis, but a factual, true case. I knew the preacher, the family and because of my employment knew the inside facts of the criminal proceedings. It was also very disturbing because the mother of the child knew as well as the pastor's wife and some other family members who were also members of the same church. It was never reported by the pastor and some outside apparently had suspicion that something was going on even a few years later when the agencies were notified. It was THEN that the incident came to light. One of the agencies involved wanted to bring charges against the mother and the pastor for not reporting but that wasn't done.
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