Youth and children’s workers getting background checks

  In 2008 Lifeway Christian Resources began offering Southern Baptist churches a discounted rate for screening services to do background checks on potential employees or volunteers.
  After 450 churches responded with over 5,000 background checks, BackgroundChecks.com found that almost 14% of those screened had a criminal history. Eighty of those with criminal records involved serious felonies, and 600 had committed crimes that would legally prohibit them from working with children or youth, especially in a church setting.
  Matthew Robbins, representative of BackgroundChecks.com, said, “It is unfortunate that everyone must be checked out before they are given trust or confidence, but child protection statistics tell a gruesome story that needs to change.”
  Statistics indicate that 1 in 12 children age 2 to 17 is the victim of a sexual attack. Wayne Rodgers, associate pastor of First Baptist Church in Estero, Florida, said, “Children are our precious commodity. They’ve been entrusted to us, and we have to protect them at any cost.”
  www.christianpost.com, 8/13/09