BACKGROUND CHECKS...AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH

"...for the LORD seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the LORD looketh on the heart." (from I Samuel 16:7)

The City of Newton, Massachusetts is reeling this morning due to the arrest of two city employees who had allegedly been involved in serious criminal sexual behavior. Each involves employees who were around children on their jobs. One was a popular elementary school teacher. The other was a library worker. The library worker did not usually work directly with children, but since children frequent the library, he was certainly around them. Mayor Setti Warren is distressed. The City conducts careful background checks of all of its employees, and will continue to do so. So, HOW did this happen and how COULD it happen?

The answer is that there's an inconvenient truth about background checks, such as the CORI checks (criminal record background checks) often done and often required as conditions of employment in Massachusetts: There are still a number of offenders including sexual offenders who can slip through them. Despite all the "sex offender registration laws" and all the rest of it, none of these things can guarantee safety or security. In fact, they can give us a false sense of security.

This is meant in no way as a slap against Mayor Setti Warren. He is a liberal Democrat and politically we are on the opposite side of most issues. But Setti Warren is a nice guy and a very smart man. He is competent. Yet, he's now learning the inconvenient truth I'm writing about here.

The little church I pastored got quite a taste of this in 2000. Tom D., a prominent and much loved Member of the church, was arrested and convicted of child molestation that year. Thank God, the victim was not someone from our church. Tom D. had led a double life for years. Tom D. came into our little church, First Assembly of God of Framingham, in 1989. He had just been hired as a Counselor and prominent staff member at The Bridge House, "New England Aftercare Ministries". (I was a Board Member of New England Aftercare at the time. Their Executive Director was my good friend, the Rev. Jim Spence.) Tom came highly recommended by his Assemblies of God pastor from southeastern Connecticut. Tom passed a thorough criminal background check. A good teacher, and intense speaker, he seemed to be a good fit for The Bridge House staff. And, our little church was thrilled to have Tom D. as a Member.

Over the years, Tom D. served as a Deacon and as a Sunday School teacher. He became an Ordained minister, NOT through the Assemblies of God, but through the Evangelical Church Alliance. From time to time, I had Tom preach at our church. Tom had a much different persona that I do. Tall and heavyset, he looked like a football player. His style was very "macho". He also played keyboard during our worship services. Tom would often give "Prophecies" during the services. "Am I not the Lord?! Am I not doing a new thing in your midst?!" he would begin. He preached like a football coach trying to fire up a losing team during halftime.

"We're gonna TAKE ON THE DEVIL!!" he would shout.

To many of the blue-collar men at our church, Tom D. was a huge hero. To many of these same guys, I suspected I was kind of a disappointment...not particularly macho, and not always completely sure of myself. I suspected SOME thought, "Why can't Bob Baril be more like TOM? Why couldn't TOM be our pastor?!"

Not everyone felt that way. Many of the women did not like him. Tom did not seem to like women very much. He was divorced and had kids, but said very little about his past. One time a pastor friend of mine (at a ministers' meeting) asked Tom, "Tom, you have any children?"

Tom looked like a wild man, glared at him and yelled, "YEAH!!!!"

One guy at our church named Bill S. did not like Tom. After Tom's arrest, he reminded me that he once came to me and said that Tom reminded him of a child molester and that I'd flatly dismissed the comment. I had to dig way back in my memory banks, but I finally DID remember that. At the time, Tom was loved and admired by so many. AND he had passed a criminal background check. AND Jim Spence loved and supported him. So such a thing was UNTHINKABLE to me.

In late September of 2000, Tom D. was arrested. He had been having a sexual relationship with an under aged boy. His computer at The Bridge House was confiscated and authorities discovered he'd been going to all sorts of unsavory websites. Jim Spence was devastated. Tom was fired immediately. The following Sunday, Jim Spence and I sat with our congregation during the service and frankly told what had happened to Tom. We each apologized for putting this guy forth as a leader, when he was obviously not what he appeared to be. This could not have happened at a worse time for me. I buried each of my parents during mid-2000. My father died of cancer on an Alzheimer's unit in June of 2000 and my mother died of bone cancer in August of 2000. For their final year of life, I was consumed with their crises and frankly just going through the motions of being a pastor. In September of 2000, I was emotionally tired and spent. I really needed the church to be like Aaron and Hur with Moses. But now, the church, for the most part, was devastated. Some were devastated because they loved Tom so much. Others were devastated because I'd let them down as pastor.

Over the next eighteen months, almost all of the key families in the church left. In my heart, I feared the church would die a long, slow death. I struggled and struggled to keep the church alive and to make it grow. I tried anything and everything. The mistake I made (looking back) is that I tried to carry and fix the church on my own, and try as I did, I just couldn't. It was closed by the Assemblies of God in 2010, and at that time I was the one who was devastated.

There are all sorts of seminars about the importance of churches doing background checks on their people, especially those who work with children. I'm all for those, but sometimes they don't work. Tom had no official criminal background.

However:

I admit, there were always some things about Tom D. that did not quite add up. He had been a police officer in Connecticut in his distant past. He LOVED to talk about being a cop. It's obvious that he'd LOVED being a cop. My experience is that guys who love being cops don't just suddenly leave the force to become bus drivers and work in transmission shops. But Tom did. He left the force, moved to Florida, and became a bus driver and later worked in a transmission shop. Somehow, years later he came back to southern Connecticut and became involved in a church and in prison ministry. I now believe Tom was caught in child molestation when he was a cop. I firmly believe there was a cover up. It was probably at that time that his wife divorced him. That is why he never talked about his ex-wife or kid, and why he'd react with such hostility when asked about them. Tom had probably agreed to leave the force and move out of the area and then all charges would go away.

Unfortunately, the experience with Tom sort of validates my son Jon's philosophy of "trust no one". Jon, indeed, tends to keep to himself and really does NOT trust anyone. On the other hand is Claire G. whom I've written about on this blog in the past. Claire G. once told me she took every person at face value. She always expected and believed the very best about all people, and therefore could be easily taken advantage of, and she sometimes was.

I guess we all have to function in life somewhere in the middle.

The bottom line, is if you think CORI checks will protect you and that you can guarantee protection from unsavory characters...well, think again.