Music minister that ensnared Speaker Philip Gunn in child molestation controversy pleads guilty

This morning in Hinds County Circuit Court, former music minister John Langworthy pled guilty to five counts of felony gratification of lust.  Langworthy was the music minister of Morrison Heights Baptist Church in Clinton, where Speaker Philip Gunn (R - Clinton) serves as an elder.  The plea will save Speaker Philip Gunn (R - Clinton) from being compelled to testify at Langworthy's trial, and will spare Langworthy any prison time.

During the investigation of Langworthy's crimes, Speaker Gunn advised his fellow church elders not to cooperate with police as they attempted to determine whether or not Langworthy had, in fact, molested young boys.  Going further, Gunn allegedly attempted to quiet the individuals who first made law enforcement aware of Langworthy's molestations.

Meanwhile, over the last few years, Gunn was the main author of legislation to make illegal what he did in this case.

Speaker Philip Gunn writes bill to make what he is doing in child sex abuse case illegal

File this one under "H" for hypocrite.

Speaker Philip Gunn (R-Clinton) has introduced "The Mississippi Child Protection Act of 2012" today, which is almost identical to bills he has filed in the past. In that bill, Gunn seeks to make it illegal to not report suspected child sex abuse to authorities within 48 hours of gaining knowledge of it.

Why is that hypocritical? Well, Gunn became aware sometime in the last 18 months of allegations that the children's music minister at his church, Morrison Heights Baptist in Clinton, had molested young boys. According to some, Gunn then went on to try to quiet those reporting the alleged crimes. He then went even further, instructing the members of his deacon committee (of which he is chairman) to not cooperate with law enforcement investigating the now-indicted abuse cases against the minister.

That would be illegal under Gunn's legislation, which in pertinent part reads as follows:

(d) "Mandatory reporter" means any of the following individuals performing their occupational duties: health care practitioner, member of the clergy, teaching or child care provider, police officer or law enforcement officials, or commercial film or photographic print processor.

...

(f) "Member of the clergy" means any priest, rabbi, or duly-ordained deacon or minister, except that the clergy member is not required to report a confidential communication that is protected as a function of the church, but shall then encourage that person to come forward and report the allegations to the proper authorities.

...

(3) Mandatory reporter requirements. A mandatory reporter shall report every instance of alleged or suspected sexual abuse. The mandatory reporter may not use the reporter's own discretion in deciding what cases should or should not be reported to the appropriate law enforcement or relevant state agency.

(4) Mandatory reporting procedure. If a mandatory reporter has cause to believe that a child has been subjected to sexual abuse, the mandatory reporter shall make a report no later than the forty-eighth hour after the abuse has been brought to the reporter's attention if the reporter suspects sexual abuse. A mandatory reporter may not delegate the responsibility to report sexual abuse to any other person but shall make the report personally. The mandatory reporter shall make a report to the local law enforcement agency, the Mississippi Department of Public Safety or the Mississippi Department of Human Services.

...

(6) Failure to report. Any mandatory reporter who has reason to believe that a child's physical or mental health or welfare has been adversely affected due to sexual abuse and willfully does not report such sexual abuse as provided by this section, upon conviction thereof, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor punishable as provided in Section 43-21-353(7).

Interestingly, this legislation has been a pet issue of Gunn's over the years. He filed legislation almost identical to this in 2010 (Section 3) and 2009 (Section 3).  Tellingly, though, not in 2011, which would have been around the time the children's music minister supposedly confided in him and the other deacons about the molestations.

Philip Gunn and child sex abuse: Do as I say, not as I do

In 2009 and 2010, Rep. Philip Gunn (R-Clinton) authored legislation he called the "Mississippi Child Protection Act."  In it, he would require members of the clergy to report suspected child sex abuse.  Here's what the legislation would require:

A mandatory reporter shall report every instance of alleged or suspected sexual abuse. The mandatory reporter may not use his or her discretion in deciding what cases should or should not be reported to the appropriate law enforcement or relevant state agency.

In his bills, a "duly ordained deacon" is a member of the clergy, and members of the clergy are mandatory reporters. Also, failure to report alleged or suspected sexual abuse within 48 hours of learning of it would be a crime.

As we are all well aware, Rep. Gunn is an "elder" at Morrison Heights Baptist Church in Clinton. In early 2011, Rep. Gunn heard John Langworthy confess to multiple acts of sex abuse against young boys in Mississippi and Texas. Not only did Rep. Gunn fail to report the admitted sexual abuse, he instructed the other elders not to cooperate with prosecutors investigating the crimes. And not only did Rep. Gunn refuse to ask the admitted pedophile to resign as a minister of the church, he approached the people who did the right thing in this mess, and, in their mind at least, attempted to quiet them.

By the way, just so we're all clear, it's not as if current law prevents Gunn from reporting what he learned about John Langworthy.  It just doesn't make it a crime not to.

Interestingly enough, Gunn did not author a "Mississippi Child Protection Act" in 2011.

Prominent Baptists weigh in on culture of silence in sex abuse cases

In the last week, several leading Baptists have discussed the role of churches in concealing sex abuse.  In articles and comments to the media, many of these Baptists have referenced the developing Langworthy/Morrison Heights/Gunn story.    

Bob Allen, the managing editor of the Associated Baptist Press has followed this story closely.  In his November 22 article, Allen notes that churches are typically not the first reporters of sexual abuse.  Allen cites the situation at Morrison Heights as an example:

Much more recently, police in Clinton and Jackson, Miss., launched an investigation after John Langworthy confessed to “sexual indiscretions” committed decades earlier with younger males. A few weeks earlier Langworthy had resigned as longtime associate pastor of music and ministries of Morrison Heights Baptist Church in Clinton. He now faces eight felony charges and is scheduled to stand trial April 2.

Church elders conducted their own investigation and resisted sharing what they learned with law enforcement, citing clergy-penitent privilege. After Langworthy’s confession, it became public that he was fired in 1989 over abuse allegations at Prestonwood Baptist Church in Dallas, but church leaders including future SBC president Jack Graham failed to report it to the police as required by law.

Graham has not commented publicly on the revelation. Greg Besler, senior pastor of Morrison Heights Baptist Church, was guest preacher for chapel at Southern Seminary on Oct. 25, one week after Langworthy pleaded not guilty in court. 

Allen points out that, “In light of the recent Penn State scandal, Southern Baptist Theological Seminary President Albert Mohler and Ethics and Religious Liberty head Richard Land have made public comments that it is imperative for Christians who suspect abuse to go immediately to the police.”

In his Wednesday article “Church leader questioned about handling of sexual abuse allegation”, Allen explores Philip Gunn’s involvement in the Langworthy matter and closes the piece with this quote from Dr. Mohler, “We all know more than we knew before, and we are all responsible for that knowledge.  The costs of acting wrongly in such a situation, or acting inadequately, are written across today’s headlines and the moral conscience of the nation.  The tragedy of Penn State is teaching the entire nation a lesson it dare not fail to learn.”

In another Wednesday article, the Louisville Courier-Journal’s Peter Smith explored the call of numerous Baptist leaders for the immediate reporting of all information pertaining to sexual abuse to law enforcement. 

In an op-ed piece by Christa Brown that was recently published by the Associated Baptist Press, Brown says that preaching about reporting is not enough:

Just as internal reporting is not enough, neither is it enough for denominational authorities to simply preach to local churches about reporting to the police. To pretend otherwise is an abdication of institutional responsibility and an abandonment of moral responsibility.

In the real world, Southern Baptist churches are rarely the first party to report child sex abuse by clergy to the police. The fact that churches typically don’t report their pastors is what often allows the limitations period to run so that criminal prosecution becomes impossible.

This reality must be dealt with, and preaching about it isn’t enough. There must be institutional consequences for church leaders who don’t report child sex abuse and for churches that engage in keep-it-quiet cover-ups.

And no one -- no one -- should be above scrutiny.

This means that even high honchos such as former Southern Baptist president Jack Graham should be subjected to scrutiny. With Graham at the helm, leaders of the 27,000-member Prestonwood Baptist Church failed to report child sex abuse allegations against one of its ministers, allowing the man to move on to other churches and placing other kids at risk. That minister now faces child sex charges in Mississippi.

The Southern Baptist Convention should follow the example of Penn State and engage a team of independent outside professionals to conduct an internal investigation of how and why allegations of child sex crimes were kept quiet at one of its most prominent and powerful churches. How did the system allow for such an abysmal failure, and how should the system be restructured to make such failures less likely?

After dealing with Prestonwood, the SBC should then use the team to establish an independent denominational review board with the power to receive, assess and track clergy abuse allegations, and to investigate other accounts of church cover-ups.

Accountability systems are essential for child safety, and accountability systems require outsiders.

Brown is the author of This Little Light: Beyond a Baptist Preacher Predator and His Gang, and the blogger over at Stop Baptist Predators.

WJTV lead story: Philip Gunn tried to quiet those with sex abuse information

The plot thickens in the child sex abuse matter involving Republican Speaker nominee Philip Gunn (R-Clinton). Jackson, Mississippi CBS affiliate WJTV led their evening reports last night with the story below that includes interviews with Amy Smith and Sherry LeFils, referenced in yesterday's post. (Smith commented as well.) In those interviews, Smith and LeFils state that they felt Gunn was attempting to get them to be quiet about the sex abuse.

Despite their attempts to reach him, Gunn has not returned WJTV's calls. Here's the story:

Gunn instructs church officials to keep quiet about sex abuse, claims “priest privilege”

Lost in many of the news articles hailing Philip Gunn’s triumphal entry as Speaker of the House are the sex abuse allegations leveled at Gunn’s former minister, John Langworthy.  In the months following the arrest of the former Morrison Heights Baptist Church music minister, Gunn has served as the church’s attorney, spokesperson, and elder.  This would seem enough hats for a man who is also mounting a speaker’s campaign but last week, Gunn added another, clergyman. 

In an article published Tuesday and updated over the weekend, Ross Adams of WJTV reported that Gunn has instructed elders at the Clinton, Mississippi church not to discuss what they learned during a recent church initiated interview with Langworthy.  When asked if this was the proper course of action for a person who has championed mandatory reporting of all alleged sexual abuse, Gunn bristled, “What I’m telling you is that the elders are bound by privilege under the law there’s a legal privilege that attaches.”

The privilege Gunn is referring to comes from Mississippi Rule of Evidence 505 which is otherwise known as the “Priest-Penitent Privilege”.  The heart of the rule is found in subsection b which reads, “A person has a privilege to refuse to disclose and prevent another from disclosing a confidential communication by the person to a clergyman in his professional character as a spiritual adviser.” 

The first problem with Gunn’s invocation of this rule is that the rules of evidence deal with the admission of items at trial and should not be used to shield individuals from providing information to the proper authorities when a child has been victimized or is in danger.  Second, by his comments, Gunn has effectively elevated his, and his fellow elder’s, status to that of “clergyman”. 

The Rules of Evidence define “clergyman” as “a minister, priest, rabbi or other similar functionary of a church, religious organization, or religious denomination”.  The comment section provides further guidance for determining whether a person should be considered a clergyman.  It says in part, “It is fair to say that the term refers to clergy who are regularly engaged in activities of established denominations.  It is not broad enough to include all sorts of ‘self-denominated ministers’”.  Webster’s defines “clergyman” as “a member of the clergy”.

Mississippi courts have addressed the question of whether communications to elders or deacons fall under the protections of 505.  In a 2007 case, Banks v. State, an inmate claimed the privilege for conversations he had with a church deacon who participated in prison ministry.  The Mississippi Supreme Court concluded that the deacon was “not acting in the role of minister within the plain meaning of the rule”.

Towards the end of the WJTV story, Adams reports that the Hinds County District Attorney’s office is considering issuing a subpoena to compel Gunn and others to disclose the details of their private discussions with Langworthy.  Given Gunn's improper application of 505 in criminal investigations and the narrow application of the privilege to members of the clergy, here’s betting that the court agrees that this conversation and any others that the accused might have had with self-denominated ministers at Morrison Heights warrant review.