- [Heather] Clara and JohnHinton 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 child up
for a Christian husband.
That's all I ever wantedwas a Christian husband,
and I wanted to be aChristian wife and mother.
- [Heather] John becamepastor of the Church of Christ
and they went on to have alarge family, 11 children.
He was very relaxed andvery 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.
- [Heather] 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 the pews here,
and hearing him preach, and hearing
the passion behind it, and he just knew
his Bible really well, andI just remember thinking
I want to be standing up there one day.
I want to be making adifference in the world one day.
- [Heather] Both dreams would come 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?
- [Heather] Another time,one of their daughters
found him locked in hisoffice looking at pornography.
He later said he was doing sermon prep,
but one of his victims was growing up,
and at age 20 realized notonly had Hinton abused her,
he was likely abusing others.
That victim was Hinton'syoungest daughter.
- I saw this picture of my dad touching me
in an inappropriate way, butit was one of those things
that I would try to play it off like
oh, he wouldn't actually do that to me.
Maybe it was an accident, maybe I'm not
remembering something correctly, or yeah,
I just kept trying to brush it off.
- [Heather] But when he askedher to help him babysit,
she could no longer brush it off.
- One of the kids had said
that she loved spendingthe night at his house,
and she had asked him thatday, "Are we spending the night
at your house tonight, Mr. John,
and can we sleep in your bed?"
- [Heather] Alex began to research,
and discovered her matcheda profile of an abuser,
and she matched a profile of a victim.
But should she tell?
After weeks of indecision,she went to her mom.
- At that moment,
it was like
a million light bulbs went off
because so many little fragments of
things that happened
all along the years--
- [Heather] It became clearthat they must tell Jimmy,
son, brother, and currentpastor of the church.
Alex made an appointment to meet him.
- It just takes the breath away from you,
and I looked up and she was crying,
and I started to cry.
I said, "I believe you."
And I think she needed to hear that,
and the way I describeit is I really think
that was the Holy Spiritputting those words
on my lips in that moment,
because I really thinkshe had to hear that.
- That very weekend, Jimmy had to
officiate a church weddingwith his father present.
He found it excruciatingto keep this news secret,
but the next decision,whether to report his dad
to authorities, came much easier.
You had so much to lose by reporting him.
- Yes, I had everything to lose.
- So, why was that asnap decision for you?
- Because I had to know.
I had to know the truth, and reporting it
and having it investigatedby professionals
was the only way that we weregonna find out the truth.
- [Heather] 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 to see him again,
but seven years later, is still
working through what happened.
Jimmy remembers the community's early,
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 answer it,
and I would be polite,but then after awhile
I just 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."
- [Heather] Alex has traveleda road that is not uncommon
for abuse victims of spiritual leaders.
She stopped attending church,
and has no desire to go back to her faith.
- I don't like the idea of Godas a fatherly being, clearly.
You know, if that's who heis, 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, "The devil got
inside our family and none of us saw it,"
but today, Hinton, hismother, and his sister
are seeing much more clearly,
and they want other familiesand churches to know
that sometimes someoneclose to you is an abuser.
Today the Church ofChrist 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 up to a kid,
pull a kid in, and initiatethat physical contact.
And I think that's reallyimportant because abusers
very subtly initiate physical contact,
and that's how they begin what people call
the grooming process.
- [Heather] 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 uphappening over the time period
is the people around them,
the people 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 as sort of the perpetrator,
the one causing the problems.
- [Heather] Tchividjiansays churches will be
best prepared to preventabuse and respond to it
if they've taken thetime to create a policy.
Such plans help churchmembers know what to report
and to whom, and theyhelp leaders respond.
Clara and Jimmy now co-host a podcast
designed to share what they've learned.
They want others to knowhow easy it is to be fooled.
- What's interesting in a sad, sad way
is he preached about such things,
about being 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 most evil,
vile men that ever was.
- That is a very hard story to look at,
but we have to look at it.
If there is sexual abuse going on,
children are being targeted,children are being groomed,
we have to do whatever it takes
in order to protect them.
The independent investigationis absolutely key to this.
If it's an internal investigation,
then there's going to beall kinds of loyalty issues,
all kinds of what happens,
are we putting the church at risk?
All of those things willbe on someone's mind,
so if there's an allegation, by all means,
get an independent investigation.
But most importantly, we need to take care
of those who have been abused,
and they need special care.
If you or someone you love has been
a victim of sexual abuse, we invite you to
go to our website, CBNNews.com,
for a list of organizationsyou can contact for help.
That includes the NationalSexual Assault Hotline,
which will connect you withtrained counselors in your area.
Do that, if you've been avictim, please reach out.
Please get the help thatyou need to go forward.
How do you move on from this kind of
just horrible tragedy?
And going forward from the church,
we can't turn away from it.
We have to look at it, we have to get that
independent investigation, we have to
deal with the perpetrators, and we have to
bring comfort to the vic--
