TX--Admitted abuser is now a therapist

Admitted abuser is now a therapist

Group blasts church officials for “inaction”

Victims urge mega-church to “do aggressive outreach”

Unusual Protestant case has attracted national attention

Pastor & elders embrace admitted child pornography watcher

But, in bizarre move, they discipline his wife for seeking an annulment

Wrongdoer reportedly is a now a licensed professional counselor in TX

WHAT

As congregants enter and leave church services, clergy sex abuse victims and their supporters will hand out leaflets about a clergy abuse and cover up case in which

--a church worker admitted having child porn,

--his supervisors kept quiet about the crimes and

--“disciplined” his wife for trying to trying to end their marriage.

The victims will

--blast church officials for their “recklessness, callousness and deceit,”

--urge them to explain and apologize for their “hurtful actions,” and

--prod anyone else who may have “seen, suspected or suffered” the predators’ crimes or church cover ups to “call police, expose wrongdoers, get help, protect others and start healing.”

WHEN

Sunday, May 31st at 11:00 a.m.  

WHERE

In front of The Village Church, Dallas Northway Campus at 3877 Walnut Hill Lane (corner of Hedgeway) in Dallas, TX

WHO

Two-four members of a support group for clergy sex abuse victims called SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, including two Dallas women who are the organization’s local leaders

WHY

A missionary from The Village Church (TVC) admitted viewing and having sexual images of children. In February, a church group corroborated this.

http://www.scribd.com/doc/266004526/SIM-statement-on-outcome-of-the-investigation-of-Jordan-Root

http://www.scribd.com/doc/265890317/SIM-director-of-personnel-letter

But, in a move that has created a firestorm of protest in Christian circles and on the Internet, church officials embraced him and disciplined his wife for moving to have their marriage annulled.

http://www.christiantoday.com/article/church.disciplines.wife.for.wanting.to.divorce.husband.who.admitted.paedophile.leanings/54480.htm

The offender is Jordan Root who did church work in East Asia. SNAP worries that Root may have hurt kids in there. His wife is Karen Hinkley. On Sunday, TVC pastor Matt Chandler has said he will apologize to her.

But SNAP says that an apology “does nothing to protect the vulnerable or heal those already hurt because of the crimes of Root and the actions of TVC staff.” The group believes “that kids are at risk now because Root walks free, living and working among unsuspecting families (and) that there are kids he has hurt who are suffering in silence, shame and self-blame.”

TVC staff should use their vast resources to alert parents, police, prosecutors and the public about Root’s crimes, SNAP says, and to aggressively seek out youngsters he has assaulted. The church has a moral and civic duty to help law enforcement investigation and prosecute Root, so that other kids may be spared devastating harm, the organization maintains.

The victims’ group is also urging anyone “who may have seen, suspected or suffered crimes by Root or cover ups by TVC to call police, expose wrongdoing, protect kids and start healing.”

SNAP is also deeply skeptical of claims by TVC officials that they have “without exception” reported suspicions and knowledge of child sex crimes to law enforcement.” The group is also “deeply grateful to Karen Hinkley, the brave woman who is exposing possible child sex crimes in the church.”

From 2011 until 2014, according to Internet sources, Jordan Root was a therapist at Timberlawn Mental Health System is at 4600 Samuell Blvd in Dallas (214-381-7181).

As best SNAP can tell, he remains a licensed professional counselor in TX.

http://www.zoominfo.com/p/Jordan-Root/1974480503

Root also worked at the First Baptist Church’s summer camp (May-August 2008), Dolfin Swim School, (September 2008-July 2010), In Class Learning Differences Aid (September-December 2010), a practicum counselor at Dallas Life (with families and children; January-August 2011), as a private children's swim instructor (June-September 2011), a mental health technician at Timberlawn Mental Health Services, (November 2011-March 2012), and as a therapist on the child and adolescent unit at Timberlawn Mental Health Services (March 2012-May 2014).

Between roughly 2003 and 2007, he also did babysitting work and volunteer youth ministry in Cedarville OH, Albany NY and Dallas. From 2008-2011, he did informal children's ministry work with refugee children in at Vickery Meadows and lived in the Santa Fe Trails apartment complex, both in Dallas.

TVC’s public relations director is Kent Rabalais and its Campus Pastor is Steve Hardin.

http://thewartburgwatch.com/2015/05/25/part-1-jordan-root-is-a-confessed-internet-child-sex-abuser-should-the-village-church-trust-him/

CONTACT

Amy Smith 281-748-4050, [email protected], [email protected], David Clohessy of St. Louis (314-566-9790 cell, [email protected], Barbara Dorris (314-503-0003 cell, [email protected])