Sex Abuse at Churches & Religious Institutions in South Carolina

The Catholic Church has received the most publicity and is subject to the most litigation for failing to protect children from sexual abuse. However, sexual abuse crosses religious faiths and organizations, including:

• The Catholic Church
• The Protestant Church
• The Episcopal Church
• The Church of Latter-Day Saints
• Seventh Day Adventist Churches
• Church of Scientology
• Other faiths and religions

The Catholic Church

In 2018, a Pennsylvania grand jury reported on large-scale sexual abuse and “decades of criminal offenses against minors by Catholic priests.” Advocates for child abuse victims claim that the Pope, archbishops, and bishops are not protecting the children. Just recently, Pope Francis removed former cardinal and archbishop, Theodore E. McCarrick, from his Washington, DC position due to a “long and widely rumored history of misconduct against priests, seminarians, and several minors.”

Reports of Catholic clergy abuse in America have been rumored for decades but rose to prominence in the 1980s. Then, in 2002, the Boston Globe did an explosive investigation into sexual abuse by the Church. The story became the subject of a movie, Spotlight, which won an Academy Award, and the journalists’ work resulted in the convictions of five priests. The archdiocese was required to pay $95 million to more than 550 victims and their families.

The archdioceses for the Catholic Church in other cities across the United States have settled similar claims for multi-millions of dollars.

Protestant churches

While the Catholic Church gains most of the headlines, it is not the only religious institution facing sexual assault accusations. Claims of sexual abuse have been brought against Protestant churches as well. In 2019, the Houston Chronicle first started reporting on sexual abuse in the Southern Baptist Convention. By their data, more than 700 victims have been abused over the last 20 years, and “roughly 380 Southern Baptist church leaders and volunteers have faced allegations of sexual misconduct.” In 2021, the Southern Baptist Convention’s Executive Committee released a 300+ page document outlining the depths of the abuse by members of the Convention, the extreme measures they took covering up the crimes and belittling victims.

The Episcopal Church

The Episcopal Church is a hierarchical religious organization, like the Catholic Church, with dioceses located around the country. The Episcopal Diocese of South Carolina is in Charleston. Bishops are responsible for the regional diocese, which means they are also responsible for the clergy they hire and retain. The Episcopal Church has also faced numerous lawsuits alleging clergy sexual misconduct within its ranks as well as with parishioners, coming to a head in 2018 at the church’s national convention. Some of these cases also involved the sexual abuse of children.

The Church of Latter-Day Saints

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (LDS) is a Christian faith also called the Mormon Church. A growing number of sexual abuse survivors are coming forward with allegations the church failed to protect them and/or their children. Multiple families are suing, and have sued, the church for failing to protect children from a sexual predator. Many victims and their families allege that many bishops in the LDS church failed to act on reports of sexual abuse and, in fact, covered it up or protected the abuser. Members of the Mormon church, as with many faiths, are taught to follow what their leader says, and often a victim is gaslit into believing the sexual abuse was his or her own fault.

Seventh-day Adventist Church

The Seventh-day Adventist Church was formed in 1863 in the United States. It is a Protestant Church with a global following: it “operates the second largest Christian school system in the world with more than 7,800 universities and colleges in more than 100 countries.” In October 2020, the Miracle Meadows Adventist School – a boarding school in Salem, West Virginia which claimed to help troubled children – agreed to pay $52 million to former students who were physically and sexually abused by members of the staff.

Though this is the largest case, it is not the only sexual abuse case involving the Seventh-day Adventist Church. There have been hundreds of victims over the years, many of whom were attending Adventist schools or youth programs, or were living in residential treatment facilities.

Recently, three plaintiffs have just filed a lawsuit in California alleging childhood sexual abuse by their psychiatrist. In 2018, a claim was filed by a 14-year-old girl in Chile alleging rape by a Church Monitor.

The Church of Scientology

The Church of Scientology has been the focus of multiple lawsuits and documentaries over the years, leading to disagreements about whether it is a religion, a money-making scheme, or a cult. In 2019, Business Insider reported that the Church was facing multiple lawsuits, “each accusing the mysterious organization of a dizzying array of abuses, including human trafficking, forced labor, and child sexual assault and exploitation.” More recently, four women have sued the Church alleging that it covered up sexual assault allegations against Danny Masterson, the star of That 70s Show and The Ranch.

Other faiths and religions

Other religious organizations have also faced claims of sexual assault and abuse. In February 2020, USA TODAY reported on “whether the Jehovah's Witnesses repeatedly failed to report child sexual abuse allegations to authorities in what is believed to be the first wide-scale examination by a U.S. law enforcement agency.” Similar investigations and lawsuits are currently ongoing in England, as well.

Allegations have also been made against Yeshiva University High, a Jewish institution in New York, and Harbhajan Singh Khalsa Yogiji, the late yogi who introduced Americans to Kundalini yoga. Successful lawsuits have been won against imams from The Islamic Center of Irving in Texas and the Institute for Islamic Education, in Illinois.