'SafeWorship Registry' Provides Increased Child Safety From Predatory Clergy

SEATTLE - Aug. 27, 2013 - PRLog -- Soon, parents won’t need to sift through often skewed information on the Internet to determine if their child is safe in the care of trusted religious leaders. Starting this January, anyone will be able to access Americans United For Safer Religions’, “SafeWorship Registry” - an online and phone-based, nationwide directory, which publishes and maintains standardized social safety ratings on every licensed clergy and religious institution in America.

In 2005, CBN.com (http://www.cbn.com/spirituallife/churchandministry/childabuse_glover05.aspx) published an article to Christian leaders authored by guest columnist, Voyle A. Glover, Esq. It addressed the escalated dangers of clergy-child sex abuse within Christian churches. He wrote that “Church leaders have made the same mistakes that got the Roman Catholic bishops into so much trouble. Incidents were concealed. Law enforcement agencies were stonewalled. Safeguards were lacking. Misconduct was not subjected to church discipline.” Fastforward almost a decade later and incidents of children being molested by trusted clergymen (http://stopbaptistpredators.org/article08/southern_baptis...) are still increasing, still being concealed by religious authority. Safeguards which prevent such atrocious behavior from reoccuring are still lacking and law enforcement agencies are still being stonewalled.

StopBaptistPredators.org reported that in 2008 the Southern Baptist Convention rejected a similar database proposal. Ranking sixth on Time Magazine's (http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,2880...) published list of underreported news stories for that year, the article included several reasons for the rejection. None of which trumped the safety of children and society.

A few months ago, Exodus International, a mostly Christian funded organization for over the past 30 years, shut down its organization and apologized to humanity for the religious practice of trying to turn gay teenagers straight. Last week, Governor Chris Christie followed California in instituting a statwide banning of gay-conversion therapy in New Jersey. Gov. Christie emphasized what same-gender-attracted Christians have known all along. Such dangerous practices can cause critical mental health risks in those who undergo such treatments.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PT4C9mCsKzI



K. Godfrey Easter, a controversial religious writer and seasoned nonprofit business management professsional, recently launched the Americans United For Safer Religions Initiative from his ministry’s website, ACTSandBEYOND.org. “Children are the most valuable commodities in human society. The last place parents should ever feel worried for their child's safety is at church,” commented Easter. "America and our organized religions should support this much needed safety initiative, yesterday."

The SafeWorship Registry will provide, unbiased, win-win benefits for religious institutions and clergy rated as socially safe. They can upload promotional videos and advertisements that provide printable maps and driving directions to ministry functions. Governments and businesses will feel more confident that their financial investments in a ministry's future was wisely made. Parents can rest easier knowing that their child is safer from preaching predators; women, from religious rapists, and LGBT believers, from the zealous, but mentally hazardous teachings of licensed clergy.

Directory ratings will easily indicate whether organizations or leaders are socially safe, unsafe, or recovering from an unsafe history. Sub indicators will also reflect if key religious organizations and figures have been accused, indicted or convicted of any sexual, civil, or criminal misconduct, with clickable links for more comprehensive research. The registry will also rate each ministry as affirming or non-affirming toward gay and lesbian people, while gauging the social impact it has on the local communities it serves.

Since 2002, Easter’s website, ACTSandBEYOND.org, and his Facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/safeworship) have chronicled mounting evidence of the hazards of clergy-child sex abuse and other forms of religious injustice in America. Both sites jointly raise public awareness of religious social injustice by prominently displaying religious leaders who have been accused, indicted or convicted of criminal offences, ranging from child sex abuse to rape and even murder.

When trusted preachers commit untrustworthy, hypocritical and often harmful sins against humanity, it not only affects them and their shattered congregations. The affects can be far reaching. These acts can injure entire communities or discredit and threaten the demise of the entire fath-based institution.