Advocates for sex abuse victims are calling on the Chicago-based Evangelical Lutheran Church in America to remove the chairman of a study on sexuality, saying that as a former seminary dean he knowingly ordained a child sex abuser six years ago.
Victims charge that the chairman, Rev. James M. Childs, former dean of Trinity Lutheran Seminary in Columbus, Ohio, ignored warnings that a candidate for ministry presented a threat to children and ordained him anyway.
In a civil lawsuit filed by the families of 14 victims in Marshall, Texas, the church, the chairman and 27 others are accused of allowing a pastor to commit acts of sexual assault and indecent behavior with children, for which he was convicted in 2002.
That pastor, Gerald Patrick Thomas Jr., is serving time in a federal prison in Florida for child pornography. At the end of that term, he will return to Texas to serve a 397-year sentence on the most recent convictions. He will be eligible for parole in February 28, 2083, said a spokesman for the Texas Department of Corrections.
The Texas case is one of at least a half-dozen incidents in the last 15 years in which Lutheran pastors have been accused of sexually abusing children. Attorneys for the victims say the pattern of abuse was overshadowed by the crisis in the Catholic Church.
"They have been below the radar screen and have been paying this hypocritical lip service to zero tolerance when really all they're doing is ignoring the problem," said Ed Hohn, an attorney in Daingerfield, Texas, who represents the 14 plaintiffs in the case.
On Tuesday, advocates with the Chicago-based Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) called for the removal of Childs as chairman of the sexuality task force.
The lawsuit is another setback in the Lutherans' landmark study launched in August 2001 to help the church develop positions on issues of human sexuality. The Lutherans are one of many Protestant denominations debating homosexuality, but the only one to have engaged in such a sweeping examination.
The first priority of the study is to guide the churchwide assembly's decision on whether to bless same-sex unions and ordain non-celibate gay clergy. The decision is set for 2004, but church conservatives wish to extend the study or stop it.
Rev. Stan Olson, executive director for the division on ministry, said the call for Childs' removal will not alter the target date.
"We continue to have complete confidence in Dr. Childs and the task force," he said, adding that Childs will remain in his post. "The task force has important work to do."
The concerns about Childs stem from his tenure as dean of Trinity Lutheran Seminary in Columbus, where Thomas was ordained in 1997. Hohn said Childs failed to prevent Thomas from becoming a minister despite letters from Thomas' supervisors saying Thomas exhibited odd behavior.
Last winter, Thomas, a former minister in Marshall, Texas, was convicted of sexual assault and indecency with a child. At the time, he already was in federal prison on child pornography charges.
"The circumstances of Rev. Childs' involvement in that matter are not accurately portrayed and do not call into question his fine leadership of the ELCA studies on sexuality," said a statement released by the church.
Supporters of the sexuality study said they were shocked that SNAP, a group best known for its support of victims of sexual abuse by Catholic clergy, would weigh in on a Lutheran issue.
David Clohessy, SNAP's national director, said the group is for victims of all denominations. The organization also was on hand in Minneapolis in August when allegations of misconduct surfaced against Bishop-elect V. Gene Robinson, the Episcopal Church's first openly gay bishop. Robinson was exonerated of the allegations.
"For the task force to be effective we believe it has to be viewed as independent and above reproach," Clohessy said. "We believe that would be virtually impossible with Childs at the head of it."
Daphne Burt, a Lutheran pastor and member of the Lutheran Alliance for Full Participation, a Lutheran coalition for gay rights, said she hopes the task force is able to complete its work.
"I would hope a resolution would come swiftly and justly with mercy and grace ... and that the work of the sexuality task force not be adversely affected," she said. "That's really my deepest yearning whatever the facts turn out to be."