A girl under the age of 12 was violated by an adult male named James Patten. In this case, Patten is just a regular guy, a custodian in fact. The girl tells her mother about the abuse right after it happened. This is a good thing. It is what I would expect my children to do given the same circumstances. What happens next is what I do not understand. The girl's mother goes to her pastor for advice. The pastor is a decent man and does the right thing; he advised her to report the abuse. What I don't understand is why the mother went to a pastor before reporting the crime and seeking medical attention for her child? If the pastor had said "pray about it", what then? My assumption is that James Patten would not be in jail awaiting trail on sexual battery charges.
Can somebody tell me how a pastor figures into this?
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