Somerset Church of Christ Preacher Jimmy Hinton Speaks on Sexual Abuse in Churches After Father’s Conviction

Jimmy Hinton said he had no real choice when a woman confided in him in 2011 that his father, John Hinton, had sexually abused her when she was a young girl. John Hinton had spent 27 years as the preacher at the Somerset Church of Christ in Pennsylvania. Jimmy Hinton, who now preaches for the Somerset congregation in southwestern Pennsylvania, said he felt he had to act, even though it meant reporting his own father. That report led to an investigation, and the elder Hinton, now 69, pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting and taking nude photographs of four young girls, ages 4 to 7. He is serving a 30- to 60-year sentence at a state prison. Jimmy Hinton continues to work to raise awareness well beyond Somerset.

In an interview with The Christian Chronicle, Hinton described social media as a tool that can make survivors visible and help them feel validated. He said he had seen more survivor support groups form in the past two years, which he took as a sign that survivors were finding other avenues for help. He said survivors often care for one another because they feel abandoned and betrayed by the church, and that church leaders tend to minimize their pain and tell them to forgive and “move on.” Hinton said he knew of no studies on the question, but said a very large number of survivors he interacts with have left the traditional church and turned to online support groups.

Hinton said many victims are what he called “double survivors,” people who were sexually abused and then revictimized by church leaders, and who now feel betrayed by the church meant to protect them. He said he believed churches would continue to shrink until they learned to care for and defend abuse survivors, while social media groups would continue to grow. He said he uses social media to share his blogs, Bible verses, information about training and public support and prayers for survivors and their families, and that it has helped advocates stay connected in a field where, he said, there are not many people.

Hinton described sexual abuse as an epidemic and cited an estimate of 43 million survivors of childhood sexual abuse in the United States. He said he had been contacted by many survivors who described abusers in the Churches of Christ, and he said he knew of at least two pedophile rings in the Churches of Christ in which he believed children were trafficked among church leaders. He also described a growing trend of church leaders involved in sexting scandals with members. Citing figures he gave, he said investigations into improper teacher-student relationships rose 36 percent in Texas in the 2017 fiscal year over the previous year, and that abuse of minors was the top reason churches end up in court. Hinton said he had lost count of the reports he had personally made to the FBI, state police, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, U.S. Marshals and the Department of Homeland Security, most of them concerning the Churches of Christ.

Hinton also gave estimates from his own work. He said that of the dozens of Churches of Christ he had trained or consulted with, all had at least one known sex offender in their congregation, and that he estimated over 90 percent of churches, including Churches of Christ, have at least one child sexual abuser in their congregations. He said these figures did not account for offenders the churches did not know about. Hinton attributed the problem in part to deception. He said that after several years of studying pedophiles, he had learned they use a range of techniques to abuse children openly, and that he believed it was necessary for the church to understand how deception works in order to recognize abusers’ methods, which he said are often used while abusers are talking with others. Hinton said some of those methods resemble those used by magicians, and he added, “It’s frightening to know how much abuse is being perpetrated right in front of us.”

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