NASHVILLE, Tenn. — The three companies that insure the majority of Protestant churches in America say they typically receive upward of 260 reports each year of people under 18 being sexually abused by clergy members, church staffers, volunteers or congregation members.
The figures offer a glimpse into what has long been an extremely difficult phenomenon to pin down — the frequency of sex abuse in Protestant congregations.
Religious groups and victims' supporters have been keenly interested in the figure ever since the Roman Catholic sex-abuse crisis hit five years ago. The church has revealed there have been 13,000 credible accusations against Catholic clerics since 1950.
Protestant numbers have been harder to come by and are sketchier because the denominations are less centralized than the Catholic Church. Many congregations are independent, which makes reporting even more difficult.
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About the only numbers available come from three insurance companies: Church Mutual Insurance Co., GuideOne Insurance Co. and Brotherhood Mutual Insurance Co. Together, they insure 165,495 churches and worship centers for liability against child sex abuse and other sexual misconduct, mostly Protestant congregations but a few other faiths as well. They also insure more than 5,500 religious schools, camps and other organizations.
The insurance firms did not supply the AP with supporting documentation.
The largest company, Church Mutual, reported an average of 1,001 sex-abuse cases a year involving minors over the past decade. GuideOne, which has about half the clients of Church Mutual, said it has received an average of 160 reports of sex abuse against minors every year for the past two decades. Brotherhood Mutual does not specify which victims are younger than 18, so it's impossible to accurately add its figures to the total cases.
Abuse reports don't always mean the accused was guilty, and they don't necessarily result in financial awards or settlements.
