A small evangelical Christian denomination called Sovereign Grace Ministries was already grappling with fractured leadership, outside scrutiny of its policies and public criticism from former members when a new round of problems emerged.
A lawsuit last fall brought by former members accused church officials of covering up allegations of child sexual abuse committed by its members. Then a onetime member of the church's former flagship congregation was indicted in December on charges that he molested multiple boys in the 1980s while involved in youth ministries.
The church hasn't yet answered the specific accusations, but has signaled that it may lean on the First Amendment — a defense that religious institutions have used repeatedly and with some limited success in the last decade to inoculate themselves from sex abuse claims.
"Rightful liberty is unobstructed action according to our will within limits drawn around us by the equal rights of others. I do not add 'within the limits of the law' because law is often but the tyrant's will, and always so when it violates the rights of the individual." Thomas Jefferson
RIGHT'S RIGHT 
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Wed Feb 20, 2013 11:43 pm
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