Together with Children
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Together With Children is the blog of the Office of Child Advocacy.
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- Media Violence is Violence, Too
- Fragile Children in Fragile Families
- Home: A Safe Place for Children?
- The Vanishing Culture of Civility
- When Violence Supercedes Dialogue
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Safe Sanctuaries for Children
Recent headlines calls us to examine how safe children are in our churches
Wednesday, November 16
The recent allegations of child sex abuse involving a former Penn State coach have captured the headlines for days. Along with what appears to be a pattern of long-term abuse is a pattern of ignoring, discounting, or downplaying the evidence that something was very wrong in how a trusted role model was interacting with children. Soon enough, this scandal will be relegated to the back pages or the archives of our news sources. But lest we get caught up in finger pointing and outrage (as appropriate as these responses may be), we should take this opportunity to consider how safe our children and youth are in our congregations.
Of all places, our churches should be places of sanctuary for those vulnerable ones among us. This is an opportunity to make note of what steps we have taken to ensure that our own congregations are safe places for children and youth. If you do not already have a child protection policy in place, check www.pcusa.org/sexualmisconduct for resources. Be sure that everyone who interacts with children and youth has had a background check, and ask your pastor or church educator what kind of education programs are offered to both keep children safe and to raise awareness on this critically important issue.
- Posted at 4:07 p.m.
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