As Sex Abuse Scandals Mount, A Mennonite Church Prepares to Punish Dissidents

On August 3, 2022, a nonprofit organization collaborating with current and former members of Church of God in Christ Mennonite, published a report showing that clergy at Church of God in Christ Mennonite congregations have repeatedly failed to report sexual abuse of minors. As pressure from current and former members mounts, internal documents show that the church now plans to “Strengthen the doctrinal practices that have been weakened with the passage of time.” Among those practices is what they call “Scriptural avoidance”, the shunning of former members.

On August 11, 2021, Leslie Toews of Clayton, Wisconsin was charged with second degree sexual assault of a child. According to court records, both the perpetrator and victim were members of a Church of God in Christ Mennonite congregation near Almena, Wisconsin. Ministers at the congregation told Detective Mary Dexter, of the Barron County Sheriff’s Department, that the victim came to them in 2017 and told them that Mr. Toews had sexually abused her for about a year when she was 13 years old. Sentencing hearing transcripts show that the perpetrator had young children at the time and that the abuse sometimes took place while they were present. Ministers at the Almena church admitted to Detective Dexter that, upon learning of the abuse, they met with the perpetrator, who confirmed that the allegations were true. However, over the ensuing four years they did not report the abuse to police. On March 4, 2022, after pleading guilty to 3rd degree sexual assault of a child, Mr Toews was sentenced to 18 months in state prison followed by 5 years of supervised release.

Mennonite Abuse Prevention is a small Virginia-based nonprofit that works to document sexual abuse in Mennonite communities. When MAP learned, in March 2022, of how the church leaders handled the Leslie Toews case, Church of God in Christ Mennonite was already on their radar. “[I had] already looked at the Texas and BC cases separately.”, wrote Jason Miller, MAP’s Research Director, in an email referencing two other cases where ministers within the denomination had failed to report sexual abuse of minors. “We typically don’t post cases of abuse by non-leaders, but because these four cases all involved failure to report, we thought it was important.”

The four cases referenced in the report took place at different congregations across the United States and Canada. In 2008, a judge reprimanded ministers for not reporting the abuse of a minor for years. “They have known about the sexual abuse of this young woman for 18 years and did nothing about it.” In 2010, Minister Staven Schmidt of El Campo, Texas pleaded guilty to charges stemming from failing to report the sexual abuse of a minor. Then, in 2016, a former member of the Bonners Ferry, Idaho congregation filed a lawsuit alleging that church leaders failed to report that he was being molested by his father. After they knew of the abuse, he alleged, they did not report it to police. This resulted in the abuse continuing for years. The church settled the lawsuit out of court in 2017. MAP’s investigation revealed that as a part of that settlement every congregation explored local mandatory reporter laws and declared that they would be in compliance going forward. However, that same year ministers at the Almena congregation learned of sexual abuse of a minor and did not report it to authorities.

As part of their investigation, MAP reached out to the Church Incorporation Board, who provided copies of official policy documents outlining how sexual abuse allegations are to be handled within the church. These documents show that members are required to report sexual abuse to clergy rather than to police. Ministers must then determine whether a crime has occurred and must report sexual abuse to relevant authorities. Incorporation board member Shawn Giesel said in an email discussion with MAP that he “does not know enough to comment on the Toews case”, and that the church takes sexual abuse very seriously. However, he acknowledged that he knows of no policy in place for disciplining ministers who do not follow church policies.

The MAP report is the latest in a string of controversies for the church. On May 29, 2021, Hannah Prosser, a former church member, published a memoir alleging that church leaders in Tennessee knew she was being physically abused by her father. “Multiple Holdeman Mennonites were aware of what was being done to me, yet no one reported it. Instead, I was made out to be mentally ill; a liar,” she wrote. In April, 2022 the church was rocked with the news that Nathaniel Peachey, a church leader in Fulton, Kentucky had been charged with 1st degree sexual abuse. “In the Peachey case, his leadership position and church membership were removed as soon as the allegations surfaced,” church leaders told MAP. However, they say the abuse was not reported to police until after the church had dealt with him internally.

Paragraph about response to the reports and investigations.

Paragraph about upcoming general conference and decision to increase shunning of people who dissent.

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