The Alabama Legislature has passed a bill that would make it a felony for clergy to have sexual interactions with anyone younger than 19.
House Bill 125, sponsored by State Rep. Leigh Hulsey, R-Helena, creates the crime of unlawful sex acts committed by clergy, which includes church leaders, staff members and volunteers. The bill is modeled on Alabama’s law prohibiting teachers from having sexual relationships with students.
Sen. Roger Smitherman, D-Birmingham, sponsored the Senate version of the bill which received final passage. If Gov. Kay Ivey signs the bill into law, it will take effect immediately.
“It’s a shame that it has come to this point of evil but sadly it has,” Greg Davis, president and CEO of the Alabama Baptist State Convention, told The Alabama Baptist this week. “We are confident Gov. Ivey will sign HB 125 into law soon, sending a serious warning to any pastor or youth or children’s minister that would groom a young person under their authority in church settings.”
Hulsey said she was inspired to write the bill after hearing from multiple constituents about their experiences in the church.
“In the state of Alabama, consent for sexual activity is 16 years of age,” Hulsey told AL.com in February. “Our law explicitly waives that as a defense for teachers, but it does not anywhere else, such as where people are underneath the trust or authority of someone like you would find yourself in a church Sunday school class.”
In a recent interview with AL.com, Hueytown resident Ivey Victoria Laine Jeter said she filed a police report alleging that her former youth pastor had abused his authority with her to engage in sexual activity.
“When he started grooming me, I was like 12 to 13 years old,” Jeter said. “Sexual stuff did not happen till age of consent, which is when I was 16. There was like a 20-year age difference. He’s 40-something now.”
But the report didn’t go anywhere, she said, because police told her no laws had been broken.
“If he was a teacher, he would have been arrested,” Jeter said. “Age of consent doesn’t matter if you’re a teacher. If you’re abusing your power, that’s where you get in trouble, if you’re on the staff of a school.”
The bill says any clergy who engages in sexual intercourse with an individual younger than 19 would be charged with a Class B felony. Any sexual contact or distribution of obscene material to a child would be a Class C felony.
