Story by Elizabeth Anderson
Liliana* is a Generation X Seventh-day Adventist who attends church with her three daughters. The way she worships today has been shaped by a series of violations during her tween years.
"I was molested by an elder at the church," she told the Visitor staff. "My mother trusted [that] when I was in church, I was fine, andI was safe. And that absolutely was not the case."
Praying and Preying
That sense of trust church members tend to place in others can be attractive for good reasons and nefarious ones.
“Predators love church because there’s an auto- matic feeling of trust,” says Erica Jones, Women’s Ministries assistant director for the North American Division (NAD).