Across a decade, there have been a handful of critical cases of sexual abuse, violations of trust and rights and gross misconduct by clergy and leading members of the free churches’ congregations, including several covered by national media and TV-documentaries. In response and to protect the members and the individual congregants from future abuse, the General Secretary and Chairman of the Danish Free Churches (FriKirkeNet) – the nationwide organization with more than 120 members consisting of a wide network of free churches – decided on a new and radical strategy of transparency and accountability. Building on Christian principles and taking the horrible experiences seriously, the General Secretary opened for collaboration with watch groups and children’s rights associations, opened for conferences on Church abuse, made clear principles and new rules on oversight and accountability, and inaugurated an impartial group for whistleblowers.
This paper investigates FriKirkeNet’s religious and soft law responses to the crises of abuse, violations and misconduct. The paper will compare the initiatives and measures in light of similar issues in Denmark and internationally, and will critically analyse and assess these against the religious and social impact theory that FriKirkeNet assumes. Simply put, the paper will see if FriKirkeNet’s efforts have effect, and so, why, and whether there are lessons to be promoted as part of a wider push to toil religious abuse, violations and misconduct.