I was motivated to write this series of articles after reading the awful news concerning Pennsylvania and the number of institutional child sexual abuse cases that have taken place over several decades. I’m sure many of you read those same articles and were as heartbroken as I was.

Institutional child sexual abuse takes place any time a leader, employee, volunteer, or any adult serving within the coverage of an organization molests a child who has been placed under the care of that organization.

What frustrates me the most about these Pennsylvania tragedies, is knowing that diligent visibility would have kept nearly all of it from happening. If you didn’t read last week’s article on Diligent Visibility, you can find it online at http://www.webbweekly.com.

Someone could rightly ask, “Is diligent visibility always necessary? Isn’t there anyone we can trust?”

It’s a very important question, and one we better take seriously. Have you ever noticed that it is usually trusted adults who are found guilty of institutional child sexual abuse? These are people who have submitted all of the background checks and have excellent references. After a tragedy, how often have you heard someone say, “That’s the last person I would have suspected of doing something like that?” Exactly. None of us would place our children under the care of an organization unless we trusted the organization and the people who serve there. Unfortunately, that trust becomes a necessary component for abuse to happen. Let me explain.

Trust allows for unguarded situations. We assume that because someone has proven to be trustworthy that they will always be trustworthy. That is not necessarily the case. We human beings change. Life can be very difficult and filled with crisis and stress, causing us to become weak and open to even ridiculous temptations. I have witnessed it again and again — people committing very regrettable acts during a time of prolonged stress.

Don’t believe me? Friends, I could give you dozens of examples. The news is busy every day with trusted people who utilized the trust placed in them to commit terrible acts.

Please understand, I’m not giving them an excuse — I’m simply stating reality. There is no excuse for abusing a child. But good people don’t just do terrible things on a whim. There is a process that leads toward a tragedy. Every situation is unique, and every tragic story has its subtle nuances, but take it from someone who has been there to pick up the pieces, even good people can be vulnerable to committing terrible acts when life has fallen off the rails — and trust provides the necessary opportunities for abuse to happen.

Every person I have counseled who has abused a child never imagined that they could commit such an act. They trusted themselves to enter into unguarded situations — and quite often with good intentions. So many of these stories begin with someone who was truly trying to help or serve children. However, offering themselves such trust was a grave mistake.

The people I respect most are the people who don’t expect me to place my trust in them. I am more than a little skeptical of anyone who says, “You’ll just have to trust me on that.” Nope. The people I respect are the people who go out of their way to do everything above board — the people who operate in the light and aggressively seek open accountability. Those are my kind of people.

As a pastor and leader of an organization, I would never ask a parent to trust me to be alone with their child. I would never ask a husband to trust me to be alone with his wife. I would never ask a single lady to trust me to be alone with her. I would never ask the board to trust me to handle the church funds and offerings. I don’t want their trust in any of these areas. Instead, I diligently provide them with visibility. Keeping everything out in the open has kept all of us safe. Such a simple principle to live by.

So let me ask you about the organizations your children are involved in — are they providing that kind of visibility and accountability, or do they expect you just to trust them? Listen, I understand the need for background check requirements — such measures do keep convicted offenders from having organizational access to our children. But mark my words, background checks and mandated reporting will never protect our children from the first-time offender or the offender that has never been caught. Until we wake up to that reality and take diligent visibility seriously, our children will continue to be at risk.

If you are involved with an organization that does not have policies in place that actually protect children and the adults who serve them, then start asking questions. This is far too important to leave to chance. Our kids are counting on us to get this right — and to get it right every time.