Survivor-Centered Approaches to Liability Insurance
by the Rev. Heather Ghormley
Author Disclaimer: I am a rector at a church in the ACNA. I have no direct knowledge of the meetings associated with the PRT or the BC of the UMW. I am not a part of ACNAtoo, whatever that means, but I am deeply committed to rebuilding trust in the ACNA through transparency and a cruciform approach to ministry. I am not licensed to provide legal counsel, but as this webpage has become a place for considering and discussing these issues, I submit the following reflection in the hope to contribute in some small way to those discussions.
It begins with admitting something went wrong. When someone in your ministry or church comes forward with a story that amounts to a claim of abuse or misconduct by one of your staff, volunteers or other participants it feels like the earth is crumbling under your feet.
You do ministry because you want to bless people. You wake up every day hoping to help people grow in their trust of God and others. Now you are hearing that despite all your efforts, something has happened that may cause irreparable damage to all you’ve built.
Your instinct may be to protect your ministry by downplaying this story, minimizing what has happened and encouraging the person who has come forward to either rethink her or his story or to simply quietly forgive the person who failed. If that doesn’t work, you might next think of calling a lawyer. After all, you have that liability insurance policy for a reason. It’s time, you may think, to go “shields up” against these accusations. But brothers and sisters in Gospel ministry, do not take that course.
The 3 Questions
Instead of going “shields up,” ask yourself these three vulnerable questions:
Is there anything I know my organization/ministry could have done better or an area where we as an organization failed which contributed to the occurrence at hand?
What resources are available from within our organization/ministry to help the survivors deal with what has happened? (Hint: your liability insurance may be one of them!)
What outside resources might assist survivors and help keep my organization/ministry (and/or me) better prepared and accountable in the future?
These may not seem like legally savvy first questions. They are, in certain ways, opposite to the “innocent until proven guilty” mantra we Americans all treasure, and these questions seem to open organizations up to public scrutiny. However, if your goal as a Christian organization is to help people encounter and learn to trust God, then perhaps instead of protecting your rights and reputation, your go-to mantra should be, “in humility consider others as more important than yourselves,” or “greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life (or credibility, or reputation, or ministry) for one’s friends.”
After all, we’re in the business of building the reputation of Jesus, not of our ministries, and Jesus never pushed aside the hurt or marginalized to protect religious institutions.
Of course fact-finding investigations are part of walking in the light. It’s always important to hear both sides and gather information. The accused need pastoral support as well. So by all means, seek the truth. But, avoid seeking the truth for the sake of protecting your organization. Instead, bring that which is in the darkness out into the light. For it is when we walk in the light that we walk with God and help others do the same.
Responding to misconduct claims with a posture of loving vulnerability will result in some surprisingly different courses of action. While admitting possible wrongs and centering the needs of those claiming harm may seem legally and socially dangerous, it is actually the most relationally healing approach. And it often saves time, money, reputations, and even souls.
A Response of Loving Vulnerability
Let me give an example of this kind of response. Our church runs an immigration legal aid clinic. Over the past 8 years we have helped hundreds of low-income immigrants file immigration petitions with the US government. Our goal is to extend the tangible love of Christ to our immigrant neighbors by offering low-cost, high-quality legal assistance.
Our ministry is what is called a Department of Justice Accredited site. That means that our church and those doing the legal work have gone through an accreditation process with the government. Though we have trained and certified legal representatives, they are not lawyers. Over the years our work has been highly successful (as many DOJ clinics are). We’ve helped people gain a sense of stability, reunited families, and helped a number of people find a way out of very dangerous situations. It’s fulfilling, exciting work and I believe in the good that it does. But once, a few years ago, something went wrong.
We were helping a client with a really complicated case. Because of the nature of her case, it had taken her years to trust anyone with her story and get some help. She trusted us. She told her story and we went to work (hard work, I might add) trying to help her.
At first, things went well. Her case was approved and we celebrated. But then came the shocking climax. A law had changed. We’d gotten some bad advice and filed something out of order. Even though we’d proven her case, because of our mistake she was being deported. We cried. A lot.
Then we asked those three questions:
Is there anything we know we could have done better to avoid this situation?
Answer: YES! Though we truly believed we were doing the right thing, we missed something. We made a legal mistake.What resources are available from within our organization to help this person?
Answer: we have legal liability insurance. We can admit our mistake and help this client make a claim against us. That way she will be able to afford the help she is going to need.What outside resources might assist this person and help keep my organization accountable?
Answer: our client could hire another, more expensive lawyer who could help her file an appeal on the basis of being a victim of legal malpractice (by us–ouch). If she won that appeal, our client could remain in the United States and even eventually apply for US citizenship.
So we searched around for the best immigration lawyer we could find and got a quote. Then, after owning our mistake and trouble-shooting solutions, we called our client and said the following,
We messed up your case, and we are devastated with grief.
We own our mistake and will help you file a claim against us. It can pay your future legal fees as well as any damages you incur up to $1,000,000.
If you want, we have found an attorney who is willing to take your case. Of course you are also free to hire whomever you want. Whatever you choose, we are eager to make this right.
When we broke the situation down for our client, crying as we explained, she started comforting us. At first she was very hesitant to file a claim against a church-based ministry, but we insisted. This is why we have insurance, we explained. We always try to do our best, but we are not perfect and we want to make this right. Eventually, our client opted to work with the lawyer we found for her. Our insurance paid for everything. It took a few years, but she won her case. Even better, she is still a dear friend of our church and ministry. She even still recommends us! Rather than our mistake adding to her trauma, our approach helped her experience her worth. And it made us better servants, as well.
Do I wish we’d never made that mistake? Of course! Am I endlessly grateful for insurance? You bet! And can our legal-aid representatives still look that precious woman in the eye without a sense of shame? Praise God, they can.
Of course, not every case of misconduct is so straight-forward. The hurts that happen in ministries are not always mistakes. Those accused of negligence or abuse do not always agree with their accusers. But even in these circumstances, churches can choose to find pastoral responses. If someone accuses your ministry of misconduct, either what they are saying is true or that person is badly in need of support and attention. Either way, your ministry may have ways to improve, internal resources to help, and external resources to help. Instead of taking the defensive stance, find ways to serve. Such a posture may not only save your organization, it might just help people catch the aroma of Christ.
A note on types of insurance: Legal-aid clinics have a different kind of insurance policy than churches. In regards to the sexual abuse claims the ACNA is facing, relevant policies are usually something more like “sexual acts liability coverage.” While that coverage typically does not pay legal fees for survivors, it often does cover outside counseling services for survivors. Call your insurance company today to see if your church has this coverage.
Heather Ghormley is the founding pastor at Tree of Life Anglican Church in Mishawaka, IN.