Like the warning crescendo of an air raid siren, the news media disclose petrifying instances of sexual child abuse. Nor is a Christian community a safe place, as the disciplining of literally hundreds of priests for molesting altar boys demonstrates. But surely the Seventh-day Adventist church is a safe haven for our precious boys and girls. With shame and sadness we have to answer NO! And, to make matters worse, pastors, teachers and other trusted leaders in our churches are making themselves role models of child abuse.

It happened a few months ago with one of our widely known and most highly respected radio broadcasters in Southern California. It happened to the child of a pastor in Oregon, who eventually found it necessary to go to court in order to protect the child from a relative with devastating results for all involved.

And most recently the news media across the land have displayed the pictures and horror story of Ronald Ruskjer. Ruskjer, a Master of Divinity graduate from Andrews University and a recent teacher at Loma Linda University, along with his girlfriend, allegedly molested a three-year-old girl whom the girlfriend was babysitting. Both are in jail awaiting trial, under $2 million bond each. He was in the process of transferring to Andrews University in Michigan, as an associate professor in the School of Business. The public relations officer at Andrews informs Adventist Today that Ruskjer resigned October 10, saving the university the trouble of firing him.

For too long we have pretended that “it could not happen here.” But there is every reason to suspect that this unsurpassed evil is more widespread than any of us really know—in our own Adventist families and in our family of faith. All too often in the past we have protected the perpetrators and forced the innocent victims to pay the price of lifelong emotional wounds that never heal. Is it not time to remedy this gross injustice? We are not proposing a vindictive attitude toward the perpetrators. Far from it. They need the tender, loving ministry of the church, too, but let it be tough love.

Fortunately some are already leading out in the endeavor to do just that. The entire September 2, 1993, issue of the Adventist Review is commendably devoted to the problem and is must reading for every caring church member. The Oregon Conference has a taskforce actively at work on the problem. At its annual conference in Seattle in mid-October the Association of Adventist Women addressed the issue in a major way and made an extensive set of recommendations to the church.

But we would err to leave other people do what needs to be done. In order to eradicate this social, moral and spiritual cancer from our families and our church, we need the active involvement of every church member. To encourage this involvement, Adventist Today will address the issue in a major way in future issues. We invite every reader to become involved in a personal way in doing and supporting what needs to be done. Concerted effort eradicated such plagues as polio and smallpox; it can eradicate the plague of child molestation, too.