Adventist Pastor Charged with Sexual Abuse of a Teen in Caribbean Nation of Trinidad and Tobago
by Adventist Today News Team
In a court hearing on Tuesday (July 23), Pastor Marlon Holder was presented with six charges of sexual assault on a 15-year-old girl in 2011, according to a report in the Express national newspaper. The report quotes Pastor Clyde Lewis, secretary-treasurer of the Tobago Mission of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, that Holder "resigned from the ministry on June 30, 2013, and the matter is now in the hands of the police."
The police detective testified that "the victim was formerly a member of his congregation and was 15 years old at the time" and that "the acts were committed at his former home" in another part of the island. Magistrate Nannette Forde-John ordered $100,000 bail but did not ask Holder to plead because an indictment is being considered by authorities.
The newspaper stated that Lewis was "questioned why the church took so long to deal with the situation" and reported that Lewis said "the hierarchy of the church did everything to support Holder." It quoted Lewis, "We arranged several counseling sessions with him hoping that he would mend his ways."
"The hierarchy of the Catholic Church in Europe and the United States is being severely criticized for using the approach of counseling to deal with sexual offenders in the clergy, instead of immediately reporting them to law enforcement" a retired Adventist administrator told Adventist Today. "You would think that our leaders would have learned this lesson by now."
The Family Ministries Department of the denomination's General Conference is clearly on record against any delay in reporting sexual abuse cases to authorities, as is the Working Policy of its North American Division. Adventist Today has reported cases in which this resulted in immediate law enforcement action in the United States.
It's very unfortunate and disgrace to the Church which claims to be the Remnant Church~
This is indeed an unfortunate and extremely sad situation. If the newspaper's article is currect then there are some very disturbing signs here. While the pastor received counseling, as stated by pastor Clyde Lewis, did the church also provide counseling for the victim and her family? Since counseling was provided for the pastor, this suggests that the church leaders had some evidence that the incident took place. If so, did they not realize that this is a criminal act that shoud have been reported to the police immediately?
I grew up in this church and I am yet to be convinced that cases like these are properly handled by the hierarchy of the church. I would like to suggest that our leaders receive proper guidance in dealing with these types of issues.
"We arranged several counseling sessions with him hoping that he would mend his ways."
What's going on here, it seems, is that the church is attempting to take a compassionate approach with the Pastor — that is, try to rehabilitate, rather than punish, him. There's something to be lauded in that. Unfortunately, it comes with two problems:
1) It's doing a disservice to the victim(s). Part of the healing process after sexual abuse is ensuring that the victim knows that the pastor will not repeat his actions, and that the church will not try to cover up the case in any way. "Hoping that he would mend his ways" is not strong enough. It's no guarantee of prevetion. Furthermore, churches rarely give the same amount of counseling to the victims than they do to their own pastors… and there's no reason to believe this case was any different.
2) By not reporting it to law enforcement, the church isn't allowing the matter to become an issue in the public discourse. The laity of these congregations have the right to know if there is a pastor who is committing sexual assault. It's doing a disservice to the pastor to try to delay or completely prevent a public accounting of the case. He'll only be fully rehaibilitated when there's no information gap between him and the people he's serving — when he can present himself fully, and not have to hide a piece of his past, from his congregants.
No member of any denomination should permit this kind of behavior to occur among church leadership. The best thing you can do for your church, if it attempts to delay reporting on a sexual abuse case, is to call its hierarchy to full accountability. The highest level of compassion, of support, for the clergy member, is to report the case fully, publicly, and immediately preserving the victim's identity if she, or he, so chooses.
There are three disturbing facts found in this article. First is addressing the abuser as Pastor Marlon Holder. A pastor is called to guide, guard, and protect. Once he breaks his commitment to protect and betrays the sacred trust granted to him and chooses to abuse, he is no longer a pastor. Continuing to call him Pastor negates his abuse of authority and ignores the issue of Clergy Sexual Abuse. Second, giving Marlon Holder the opportunity to resign misses the mark completely. He clearly abused his power and should have been fired and arrested immediately. Last, the support and counseling extended to Marlon appears to be the recourse for church leaders who prey upon their flock. Yet, little is mentioned about the victim in this story, who although may have been offered support and counsel, was deeply betrayed and abused and needs to be ministered to, much more than the abuser. Often times, the church rallies behind the church leader, who abused his position of power, while ignoring the grave damage committed against the victim. The church must wake up to the reality and truth of Clergy Sexual Abuse before we are torn apart, from the inside out.