Faith-based organisations in Barbados are being asked to play a more active role in protecting children from child abuse in places of worship.
According to child care officer with the Child Care Board (CCB), Racquel Harewood, while Barbados has made significant progress on this issue, there are still some challenges.
The officer, who conducted research on child abuse in faith-based communities, said that while there is little data to show how prevalent these cases are within the Caribbean, there are case-to-case reports of the crime occurring in islands such as Jamaica, the US Virgin Islands, and even Barbados.
A common thread in many cases is of clergymen using the faith and their status as trusted individuals within the community to lure their victims.
“Specifically in the case of Barbados, the perpetrator would have asked a favour of this victim and because this person was constantly in contact with this child, they would have built a rapport with this person and then asking them to do this favour for them, which later unfortunately led to them being sexually assaulted.
“It didn’t seem weird to them and they had no reservations about assisting this person because of the relationship that they had,” Harewood said.
Her presentation was part of the CCB’s annual workshop in which officers engaged stakeholders with the intent of sensitising them to the ins and outs of child abuse, touching on where it is necessary to report and where it must be prevented.
This year, the board engaged with members of faith-based organisations as they examined child abuse in places of worship, under the theme Behind the Cloth: Examining Child Abuse in Faith-Based Organisations.
Harewood addressed the causes of child abuse in religious spaces, how these situations can occur and the challenges for victims who come forward.
“When you look at religion in a cultural and a historical context, for the longest while, we have been a religious society. We have always placed religion on a pedestal and it’s always been a country that likes fellowship,” she said.
“So, by virtue of putting religion on such a high pedestal, we place the persons in charge of these religious settings, in place of these religious agencies and churches, in high regard and sometimes religious leaders often hold unquestioned authority. Because of their positions, it discourages questioning or reporting abuse, because persons may not want to go against this person in this high or prestigious position.”
Harewood added that in some religious settings where external regulation and background checks were minimal, abusers continued to commit heinous acts because of a lack of accountability.
Looking into instances of grooming within the church, Harewood said that some abusers tend to use scriptures or church practices to groom children who view them as parental or authority figures.
“Sometimes persons use this to their advantage to say, well, remember the Bible verse Ephesians 6:1, remember what it says [“Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right”] and it gives children or victims the perception that they can’t speak out against this person because it’s going against the word.
“Persons use the word to their advantage and their trust in spiritual figures increases their vulnerability,” she said, while noting that these factors often lead to many instances being unreported.
“Some close-knit religious communities sometimes discourage outside scrutiny, and auditing. And because they discourage this outside exploration or this scrutiny, it’s easier for them to control the narratives and suppress reports. So some persons like to deal with these matters in-house, try to discuss it, maybe among other church members, elders, any person that is associated with the church and the victim,” she said.
Faith-based leaders were urged to recognise where something seems amiss, how to investigate and take precise action.
Some of the initiatives involved training in how to spot abuse, set up safeguarding policies and enact child protection protocols, especially in settings like junior church where children are separated from parents.
Harewood also recommended that children be educated about all categories of child abuse, including neglect, as it was important to arm them with knowledge to know what is happening.
“I always say, teaching a child about sex does not mean you’re encouraging them to have it. Teaching a child about abuse is not exposing them to things that are traumatic because regardless of if we give them this information or not, they’re going to get it from somewhere. I prefer them to get it from a source that is reliable and knowledgeable on the topic of child abuse,” she said.
“Even if you want to look at the idea of having someone with a social work or a psychology background at your beck and call when it relates to being in a religious setting, that even if you have a child that comes to you and says, ‘Well, today this happened and I would like to talk to somebody about it’, that they have that sounding board, that they can speak to someone about what took place and the best steps going forward to assist them in this matter.”
