To the Editor:

How far will pastors go to avoid reporting child sexual abuse? This is the question raised by Wednesday’s article, “St. Lawrence County legislature discusses state legislation to make clergy mandated reporters.”

Is Rick Sinclair of Christian Fellowship Center so threatened by the CARE Act that he must resort to using his son-in-law, Ben Hull, to cast doubt in the St Lawrence County Board of Legislators?

My CFCtoo colleagues and I have been to Albany multiple times to advocate for this bill. We have spoken with dozens of legislators and gained the support of prominent religious leaders and organizations. I know the contents of the bill.

So let me set the record straight: the CARE Act does not infringe on religious liberty or freedom of speech. It simply tells pastors that they are required to report known and suspected child abuse and neglect.

If a faith leader thinks that reporting child abuse is incompatible with their faith, the community has a right to be concerned. Children should not be sacrificed on the altar of religious liberty.

Attorney Stephen Button’s arguments concerning the CARE Act are misleading. The CARE Act specifically includes a carve-out for clergy-penitent privilege; New York Catholic leaders have gone on record stating that they support mandated reporting as long as the confessional is protected.

Sean Ferguson’s case illustrates why New York needs to pass the CARE Act. Despite heinous acts of sexual abuse, he was given only 6 years of probation. Because Ferguson and his wife refused to let their daughters testify and because of the 6-year delay in reporting the abuse, Ferguson’s homeschooled victims are constantly exposed to their predatory father.

This is not about a hypothetical case in which a child molester wants to make a deathbed confession; this is about real victims in our community who were betrayed by the people who should have protected them–their pastors.

Faith leaders have a moral and biblical obligation to protect vulnerable children. Clergy should not need a law to protect children from predators, but unfortunately, there are too many cases in which clergy do not report child sexual abuse. The CARE Act is a necessary step toward addressing the moral failure of pastors who declare that there is no biblical mandate to report a crime.

The CARE Act will pass. And when it does, I plan to stand behind Governor Hochul when she signs it into law.

Abbi Nye
formerly of Potsdam