When a Child-Serving Organization Fosters a Culture of Impunity, More Kids Get Hurt

When I first saw the news about an Illinois Baptist Children’s Home counselor being charged with child sex crimes, my immediate thought was… Is that the same Illinois Baptist Children’s Home that did such awful stuff a couple decades ago?

So, I looked it up. And when I saw this picture, I immediately recalled the logo with the child’s handprint.

In 2003, the organization’s former Executive Director, Doug Devore, wrote a letter to a judge, urging leniency in the sentencing of a Southern Baptist pastor named Les Mason, who had pled guilty on child sex charges.

Devore urged that Mason should face no prison time, stating: “It would serve nothing to imprison him.”

He wrote the letter on Baptist Children’s Home letterhead, with a logo containing a child’s handprint. That logo had haunted me and stayed in my head.

So, the guy at the top of a Baptist organization that’s supposedly focused on serving children basically used his position to sell out support for children in favor of trying to protect a child- molesting crony from prison.

I thought it was a pretty awful thing a couple decades ago… and I still do. (Here’s where I previously wrote about the case back in 2007.)

But the story gets worse.

The Illinois Baptist Children’s Home operates under the umbrella of the Illinois Baptist State Association, which is affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention. You might imagine that some higher-ups at the Illinois Baptist State Association would have called Devore to task for that letter, or would have imposed some consequence.

But you would be wrong.

In the Southern Baptist culture of impunity, the person who was called to task wasn’t Devore, but was instead the editor of the Illinois Baptist newspaper, Michael Leathers, who had dared to publish the news about the child molestation charges against pastor Les Mason.

Leathers was forced to resign. The higher-ups didn’t want the newspaper reporting such matters.

It tells you something about the priorities of Southern Baptists, eh? Leathers didn’t tow the line on keeping quiet about clergy sex abuse, and so he had to resign. Devore stood up for the pastor-molester, and Devore kept his job at the head of Illinois Baptist Children’s Home.

The guy who did the right thing got fired; the guy who did the appalling thing faced no consequence. This is what happens in the SBC — far too often.

Despite Devore’s effort, Mason was sentenced to seven years in prison. Obviously, the judge cared a great deal more about children than did Devore, the guy whose very job was to serve children and families.

And just imagine… if Devore would do that, what kind of culture was he fostering – for years – within that organization?

Implicitly, in sending that letter, his conduct sent a message that child sex abuse is no big deal – not even a matter of enough consequence to merit imprisonment.

And it wasn’t just Devore. Other Southern Baptist deacons, ministers, and pastors also sent letters to the judge urging leniency for Mason. They too were part of the Southern Baptist culture of impunity.

What happens when a child-serving organization fosters a culture of impunity? When they act as though clergy sex abuse is just “a mistake?”

I’ll tell you what happens… I’ve seen it again and again within the Southern Baptist Convention.

The culture persists, the patterns repeat, more child predators infiltrate, and more kids get hurt.

For more on the recalcitrance of the Southern Baptist Convention in addressing clergy sex abuse, check out my book, Baptistland: A Memoir of Abuse, Betrayal, and Transformation. It’s currently on sale.