New Hampshire Baptist Minister, Elders Found Guilty of Failing to Report Abuse

IMO, reporting possible illegal activity is not an encroachment of gov’t into churches. And that goes for any kind of illegal activity, not just sexual molestation. The church does not have Scriptural mandate or permission to be a law unto itself. The only exception I can think of is if behavior in direct contradiction to Scripture was being required by law.

I am not defending this case in any way, but what about when the mandatory reporting law and how it is interpreted means that a minister can be prosecuted for “alleged abuse” of spanking. I understand the mandatory reporting laws and agree with the principle, the problem is that the different states laws are so general, that it makes it difficult to draw the lines clearly. For example, a poor family in the church is struggling. The kids go without food for a several days. The pastor hears of this and gets some food to the family. But by law, that could be interpreted as failing to report child neglect. Or a family homeschools; the family is doing a horrible job. In the eyes of many states, that is child neglect. So a pastor who doesn’t report that they haven’t been at school runs the risk of being slapped with a felony while the family gets a slap on the wrist. I am not complaining about mandatory reporting laws and I have absolutely no qualms about reporting immediately sexual and clear physical abuse immediately. I think the laws in the states need some tweaking. As a side note whatever comes from this, ministers ought to report sexual abuse not because they can get into trouble, but because it is the right thing to do.

my two cents