- [Narrator] Clara andJohn Hinton married in 1970

at the small Christiancollege where they met,

and two years later,they moved east to start

their dream ministry.

- We were kids when we movedto Somerset, Pennsylvania.

We were 22 years old.

I had prayed from a young childup for a Christian husband.

That's all I ever wantedwas a Christian husband,

and I wanted to be aChristian wife and mother.

- [Narrator] John becamepastor of the Church of Christ

and they went on to have alarge family, 11 children.

- He was very relaxedand very calm, very kind.

He was great with the kids.

He was their go-to person.

He was my spiritual leader.

We would spend many hourstalking about God and our faith.

- [Narrator] She, and manyothers, considered John

to be a super-dad.

Their fifth son, Jimmy, adored his dad,

and as he grew older, beganto appreciate his ministry.

- I remember sitting in thepews here and hearing him preach

and hearing the passion behind it.

He just knew his Bible really well.

And I just rememberthinkin', I wanna be standing

up there one day.

I wanna be makin' a differencein the world one day.

- [Narrator] Both dreamswould become true,

but not in the way Jimmy had hoped.

Even as Clara and Jimmyperceived an ideal family,

John Hinton kept a double life hidden

that neither ever suspected.

Although Clara did struggle to understand

some of his behavior.

- He would just do off-the-wall things.

For instance, he would be preaching

and do really weird, weird things.

He threw a lit firecracker inthe auditorium one morning,

and like, why do you do this stuff?

- [Narrator] Another time,one of their daughters found

him locked in his officelooking at pornography.

He later said he was doing sermon prep.

But one of his victims wasgrowing up, and at age 20,

realized not only had Hinton abused her,

he was likely abusing others.

That victim was Hinton'syoungest daughter.

- I saw this picture ofmy dad touching me in

an inappropriate way, butit was one of those things

that I would like tryto play it off like, oh,

he wouldn't actually do that to me.

Maybe it was an accident.

Maybe I'm not rememberingsomething correctly.

Yeah, I just kept trying to brush it off.

- [Narrator] But when heasked her to help him babysit,

she could no longer brush it off.

- One of the kids had said thatshe loved spending the night

at his house, and shehad asked him that day,

are we spending the night atyour house tonight, Mr. John?

And can we sleep in your bed?

- [Narrator] Alex began toresearch and discovered her dad

matched the profile of anabuser, and she matched

the profile of a victim.

But should she tell?

After weeks of indecision,she went to her mom.

- At that moment, it waslike a million light bulbs

went off, because so manylittle fragments of things

that happened all along the years.

- [Narrator] It became clearthat they must tell Jimmy,

son, brother, and currentpastor of the church.

Alex made an appointment to meet him.

- It just takes your breath away from you,

and I looked up and she wascrying and I started to cry.

I said, I believe you.

And I think she needed to hear that.

And the way I describe it is,I really think that was the

Holy Spirit putting those wordson my lips in that moment.

Because I really thinkshe had to hear that.

- [Narrator] That veryweekend, Jimmy had to officiate

a church wedding with his father present.

He found it excruciatingto keep this new secret.

But the next decision,whether to report his dad

to authorities, came much easier.

- You had so much to lose by reporting.

- Yeah, I had everything to lose.

- So why was that a snap decision for you?

- Because I had to know,I had to know the truth.

And reporting it, andhaving it investigated

by professionals was theonly way that we were gonna

find out the truth.

- [Narrator] Police chargedHinton with 200 counts,

including rape of a child, andindecent assault of a child.

His sentence, a minimumof 30 years behind bars.

His family never expects tosee him again, but seven years

later is still workingthrough what happened.

Jimmy remembers the community'searly misplaced sympathy

for his dad.

- When he got arrested, they would ask me,

how's your dad doing?

How's your dad doing?

And at first I would answerit and I would be polite,

but then after awhile, Ijust thought, not one person

has asked how my dad's victims are doing.

And so I started to answer people.

I'd say, well, he's doing fine.

It's his victims who aren't doing well.

- [Narrator] Alex has traveleda road that is not uncommon

for abuse victims of spiritual leaders.

She stopped attending churchand has no desire to go back

to her faith.

- I don't like the idea of Godas a fatherly being, clearly.

If that's who He is,He wasn't there for me.

If my dad was supposedto be someone who was

spreading His word, that'snot the case at all.

- As Jimmy Hinton has said, thedevil got inside our family,

and none of us saw it.

But today, Hinton, his mother,and his sister are seeing

much more clearly, and theywant other families and churches

to know that sometimes someoneclose to you is an abuser.

- [Narrator] Today, the Churchof Christ has new measures

to protect kids.

Each classroom has a lockto keep empty rooms empty.

And church policy protects children

from potentially unwanted contact.

- None of us can walk upto a kid, pull a kid in,

and initiate that physical contact.

And I think that's reallyimportant, because abusers

very subtly initiate physicalcontact, and that's how

they begin what peoplecall the grooming process.

- [Narrator] Boz Tchividjianfounded the non-profit, Grace,

to help churches think through abuse.

Many, he says, are quickto believe abusers.

- What you'll often seeis an abuser responding

to an allegation in a waythat spins a narrative

that they're the actual victim.

And then what ends up happeningover the time period is

the people around them, thepeople that are naturally,

would gravitate towardswanting to support them anyway,

buy into that narrative.

And now, the abuser is the victim.

The victim now is seen assort of the perpetrator,

the one causing the problems.

- [Narrator] Tchividjian sayschurches will be best prepared

to prevent abuse and respondto it if they've taken the time

to create a policy.

Such plans help churchmembers know what to report

and to whom, and theyhelp leaders respond.

Clara and Jimmy now co-hosta podcast designed to share

what they've learned.

They want others to knowhow easy it is to be fooled.

- What's interesting in asad, sad way is he preached

about such things, aboutbeing harmful to children.

And he was this great dad.

It was like he's two people.

He was this wonderful, loving, kind man,

and he was one of the mostevil, vile men that ever was.