April 3, 2000
Child abuse hitting closer to home in Texas
___By Scott Collins
___Buckner News Service
___Linda Smelley has many memories of her family.
___She remembers graduating from high school with only one family member attending the ceremony. She remembers getting married and asking her brother to give her away. She remembers growing up in the welfare system and being embarrassed the time she was admitted to a hospital as a "welfare clinic patient."
___Smelley remembers the times local churches dropped off food and clothing at her home. And she remembers praying that none of the church members were parents of her friends.
___But the thing she remembers most is that her father left when she was a teenager.
___"I blamed my father for all our problems," Smelley said. "He was never there and never sent child support. We were neglected, and often abuse sets in because women take their stress out on their children. Screaming, hitting, throwing, swearing all the time. I used to pray someone would adopt me."
___Today Smelley, 59, is director of Buckner Family Place in Lufkin, a transitional housing program where the goal is to help at-risk single parents before abuse sets in. She believes Family Place would have been the perfect answer to her family's problems--if it had existed 40 years ago.
___Buckner Family Place, like dozens of private and state-sponsored initiatives, is part of a nationwide prevention movement aimed at stopping child abuse before it happens.
___And while prevention and intervention programs are taking hold, experts say Texas and other states face an uphill battle against child abuse. To that end, Buckner Children and Family Services and other non-profit organizations have joined the Texas Department of Protective and Regulatory Services, the Children's Trust Fund of Texas and Prevent Child Abuse Texas to promote April as Children Abuse Prevention Month.
___Abuse by the numbers
___Defining child abuse can be difficult, experts say. Obvious abuses such as incest and intentionally breaking a child's bones are easily detectable. But not all cases of abuse and neglect are so clear cut.
___The Texas attorney general's office defines physical abuse as injury that results in substantial harm to a child. Sexual abuse is defined as conduct harmful to a child's mental, emotional or physical welfare.
___Neglect, which officials say often has the greatest long-term impact on a child, means leaving a child in a situation where the child would be exposed to a substantial risk of physical or mental harm. Professional child-care workers also deal with instances of medical neglect, emotional abuse and outright abandonment.
___According to the National Committee to Prevent Child Abuse, more than 3 million children nationwide were reported as possible victims of abuse and neglect in 1998. Of those cases that could be confirmed:
___54 percent involved neglect.
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___In 1998, deaths from child abuse and neglect in Texas jumped 71 percent above the previous years' averages. The number of children dying from abuse in 1998 was 176, where the annual average had been about 100 for most the 1990s. The most current statistics available for 1999 show that through the first six months of the year, 72 Texas youngsters died from mistreatment.
___A 1995 Gallup Poll found as many as 49 children per 1,000 suffer physical abuse and 19 per 1,000 suffer sexual abuse each year. And a recent study of 1,000 inner-city youths in Rochester, N.Y., found mistreated youths were 25 percent more likely to be involved in violence and delinquency and 34 percent more likely to use drugs.
___According to U.S. Justice Department estimates, childhood abuse increases the odds of criminal behavior overall by 40 percent. Furthermore, research shows a clear cycle of violence and abuse--those who are abusers oftentimes were abused themselves as children.
Abuse must be reported
___The law requires any person who believes a child is being abused, neglected or exploited to report the circumstances to the Texas Department of Protective and Regulatory Services Abuse Hotline. A person making a report is immune from civil or criminal liability, and the name of the person making the report is kept confidential. Any person suspecting abuse and not reporting it can be held liable for a Class B misdemeanor.
___Child Protective Services staff consider the following factors in determining whether the situation involves substantial risk of harm to a child:
___Extent and severity of the injury.
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___The Texas Abuse Hotline is staffed 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The toll-free number is (800) 252-5400.
___Child abuse is a growing problem in the United States, said Peter Goldberg, president of the Alliance for Children and Families, a non-profit membership association representing child and family serving organizations nationwide.
___"Although the nation's crime rate fell by more than 21 percent from 1993 to 1997, reports of child abuse and neglect grew by 8 percent, and confirmed cases grew by 4 percent during this same period," he noted.
___Even with a booming economy and large government budget surpluses, the situation for children in the United States is not getting any better, according to a report released in late March by the Children's Defense Fund.
___The report, "The State of America's Children: Yearbook 2000," notes the poverty rate for children is soaring, with an increase of more than 3.7 million in the number of children without enough to eat. The report also states that about 850,000 children and youths are homeless, and a record number of 547,000 children were in foster care last year, a 35 percent increase since 1990.
___The problem has become so blatant that media outlets around the state have taken notice. In an editorial series appearing in the Dallas Morning News, editors called on Texas state officials to step up to the plate with additional funding to supplement what the newspaper referred to as Child Protective Services' "inadequate budget."
___One editorial noted an emergency appropriation of $8.9 million passed in 1999 by the Texas Legislature to allow Child Protective Services to hire 220 new investigators and caseworkers is "only a start in addressing the agency's chronic underfunding."
___A theological problem
___For Ken Hall, president and CEO of Buckner Baptist Benevolences, the issue of child abuse is about more than numbers and state funding.
___"From a theological point of view, you have to understand the character of God and you have to understand that pain and suffering go to the heart of God's love for people," Hall said. "Jesus made some very blunt statements about the need to care for children. He said that for anyone who would do harm to a child, it would be better if a millstone were tied around that person's neck and thrown in the sea.
___"So I think there's a theological aspect of just the nature of God and the desire of God to protect against human suffering."
___Christians have an obligation to respond to the problem of abuse and neglect, Hall said.
___"Once the church is aware of the need, we have a responsibility to care and to do something," he declared. "When you look at the extent of human need, God specifically states to us that we are to be responsible for 'the least of these.'
___"I think the church, unless it's willing to address the issue of child abuse, really will not be fulfilling the mandate of Christ. I believe the mandate to meet human need is part of the Great Commission. I don't think you can separate missions from meeting human need."
___New directions
___For decades, Texas Baptists have identified their child care agencies as places of refuge for "orphan" children.
___And while those Baptist-affiliated agencies still provide residential care for children, they also have moved more aggressively into prevention and intervention programs. These days, most of the children living at the Baptist residential facilities across Texas are there because of some form of abuse, neglect or abandonment.
___Goldberg said organizations like Buckner, which is a member of the alliance, are moving in the right direction by developing programs of prevention.
___"It's important to note that child abuse is often an indicator of other problems such as substance abuse, poverty and economic strain," he said. "So, as we continue to address these other issues, our hope is that child abuse will decline."
___Don Forrester believes the ministry offered through agencies such as Buckner makes a major difference for the children and families served.
___"We need to be a resource for children who have been abused and neglected," said Forrester, who began his career more than 30 years ago with Child Protective Services and now works at Buckner. "It is really difficult to help children process the concept of a loving heavenly Father when their only experience with a father is the opposite.
___"What an opportunity to minister and provide nurture and support. Hopefully the opportunity to establish relationships and role model Christian care can help promote healing and serve as a different role model that children will one day draw from when they have the responsibility for parenting their own children."
___Experts agree the need for residential care for children always will be there. But they also emphasize the growth in recent years of foster care as an alternative.
___The number of children in Buckner-sponsored foster homes has nearly doubled in the last two years. But officials there say they are still forced to turn down nine children for every one they can place.
___Adding to the urgency is the desire among politicians to realign the state's foster care system, making it completely private. That means non-profit agencies like the Baptist organizations eventually may be asked to provide more foster homes.
___If that happens, officials at religious-affiliated child care organizations say they will be scrambling to find enough homes to accommodate the growing number of children who need foster care placement.
___Amy Kiker, a Buckner foster care caseworker in Lubbock, said the consistency available to children through a strong, well-trained foster home goes a long way in helping abused and neglected children overcome their problems.
___"I think it's really important that Buckner is here and that it's consistent and that we are a family that doesn't change," Kiker said, "because there's nothing consistent in their lives.
___"Sometimes you have to step back in this job and you wonder why you're here," she said. "I've considered going back into teaching, but I don't know that I could leave these kids because they have become my kids."
___What would Jesus do?
___Because the problem of child abuse hits at the heart of God, Hall believes it is an issue churches should be more aware of and in tune with. A former pastor, Hall knows of many Baptist churches in Texas that are "aggressively doing things to minister in the area of abuse and neglect."
___"After-school care programs and quality day care programs where churches are actually engaging the families are ways churches can make a difference," he said.
___But on the whole, "it's too easy to address human need from the pulpit and leave it there," he warned. "Actually, the best way to address human need is to be involved in lives. Part of our problem is too often we think that by addressing it from the pulpit, we've done something. In reality, until it becomes lived out in the lives of people, the sermon has no application."
___While times have changed and Baptist child care agencies have changed, those organizations remain the primary resource for Baptist churches and pastors looking for help.
___"There's seldom a week goes by that I don't receive a call from a Baptist pastor talking about a family in stress, usually a child," Hall said.
___He is quick to point out that the law requires anyone suspecting abuse must report that abuse to authorities, usually Child Protective Services. Buckner always makes certain churches know that when they call, Hall said.
___"Most of our direct referrals about abuse or neglect will come from Child Protective Services," Hall said. "But oftentimes, we get indirect referrals from a godly neighbor, a concerned citizen, an interested school teacher, a pastor or a Sunday School teacher."
___When those calls come to Buckner, caseworkers and administrators walk the caller through the process of reporting to the proper authorities.
Texas Baptist contacts
___These Baptist General Convention of Texas agencies provide resources and care for children and families:
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___"We'll walk you through the process and help you make sure you fulfill the legal requirements, but we will also put the caller in a position to be a ministering agent long-term in the life of the family or child," Hall said. "State social workers like for it to go through agencies such as Buckner because then the community gets engaged in providing a support system to the children. Often, Buckner is able to keep the church involved in ministering to the child or the family."
___Many pastors, church staff members and directors of missions use Buckner's services on a regular basis. Buckner continues working with those individuals to help the child after the placement is made.
___"For most Christians, when they read the New Testament, there is no way to separate ministry to people in social stress from sharing the good news of Jesus," Hall said. "What Buckner does for people in abuse and neglect situations is to share that the best way to find life in this world is to receive Jesus as your Lord and Savior and to be an overcomer regarding the tragedies of your life.
___"We help on both ends," he added. "They hear the story of Jesus, and they know that we are ministering to them because of Christ. So the gospel has relevance."
___That commitment to show the love of Christ is why Linda Smelley does what she does.
___"I just want to be there with the lonely, abused kids," she said, "saying the right words to give them hope and introducing them to Jesus."
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