Southern Baptists face push for public record of intercourse abusers

A blistering report on the Southern Baptist Conference’s mishandling of sex abuse allegations is elevating the prospect that the denomination, for the first time, will create a publicly accessible database of pastors and different church personnel identified to be abusers.

The creation of an “Offender Information System” was one of many key suggestions in a report launched Sunday by Guidepost Options, an independent firm contracted by the SBC’s Executive Committee after delegates to final yr’s nationwide assembly pressed for an investigation by outsiders.

The proposed database is anticipated to be one among a number of suggestions introduced to thousands of delegates attending this 12 months’s nationwide assembly, scheduled for June 14-15 in Anaheim, California.

“These suggestions might be open to questions, debate and comments on the meeting flooring,” mentioned SBC President Ed Litton.

He expressed hope that the stunning findings within the Guidepost report will deliver “lasting change” to the SBC, America’s largest Protestant denomination. It has been shedding membership steadily lately, while being wracked by inner divisions over race and gender roles.

The Guidepost report stated survivors of abuse by SBC clergy repeatedly shared allegations with the Government Committee, “only to be met, time and time once more, with resistance, stonewalling, and even outright hostility from some within the EC.”

“Our investigation revealed that, for a few years, a few senior EC leaders, along with exterior counsel, largely controlled the EC’s response to these reports of abuse ... and were singularly centered on avoiding legal responsibility,” the report mentioned.

The movement for an independent investigation was put forward eventually year’s national assembly by the Rev. Grant Gaines, senior pastor of Belle Aire Baptist Church in Murfreesboro, Tennessee.

Reading the Guidepost report, Gaines said he was struck by repeated examples of a callous disregard for survivors, in addition to leaders prioritizing safety of the SBC from legal responsibility over abuse prevention.

“We’re at a fork within the highway,” Gaines stated. “I think this report provided the knowledge that we wanted for there to be a groundswell of support to take the right actions.”

Specifically, Gaines mentioned he helps the proposal to create a system that alerts communities to recognized offenders.

“I think that’s one of many first things we should always do,” he mentioned.

Lawyer and writer Christa Brown, who says she was sexually abused as a teen by the youth minister at her SBC church, has been urgent the SBC since 2006 to create a publicly accessible database of recognized abusers. She was heartened that Guidepost was recommending such a system, however said questions stay about its implementation.

“What is absolutely essential is that the native church can not function because the default or presumed beginning place for a survivor to attempt to obtain an investigation of clergy intercourse abuse,” she mentioned by way of email. “If the native church is deemed to be a requisite first cease for survivors to pursue action, then many survivors’ voices will be choked in their throats before sound is ever uttered.”

Among the many Guidepost report’s findings was that the Government Committee saved a secret list of hundreds of SBC-affiliated clergy and other personnel identified as intercourse abusers. Brown mentioned the committee, at a particular meeting Tuesday, should conform to launch this listing.

“I urge you to make public everything of your record of pastors & ministers accused of sexual abuse, in no matter kind it’s been kept for lo these many years,” Brown tweeted. “Post. It. Now.”

The final choices about recommendations to submit to the Anaheim delegates will be made by the SBC’s Sexual Abuse Task Drive, comprising seven members and two advisors. Its work over the previous year has been an emotional journey, said Pastor Bruce Frank, who led the group.

“We saw patterns and things that were deeply regarding,” he stated. “Our principal job was to empower Guidepost to do their job, and they have executed a really remarkable job in the final 9 months to have a look at occasions that occurred over 20 years.”

In the subsequent week or so, the task force will convey forth formal motions in “precise language,” which can be made public and presented to the delegates in Anaheim for a vote, said Frank, lead pastor of Biltmore Baptist Church in Arden, North Carolina.

Frank said the crux of the duty power’s recommendations based on Guidepost’s report will be summarized in two phrases – prevention and care.

“Our main goal must be preventing sexual abuse,” he stated. “And if abuse does happen, how will we take care of survivors in a much better pastoral way? How can we better talk to make sure (abusers) don’t go from one church to a different?”

His hope is that this report serves as “a catalyst for change.”

“Any one who is fair-minded will take a look at what’s in that report and demand that issues be better,” Frank stated. “SBC is an enormous household with 48,000 church buildings. There might be some disagreement on methods to make things better. But I’m confident that we’ll work by means of the difficulties.”

In addition to intercourse abuse, the agenda for the meeting in Anaheim contains election of a new SBC president to succeed Litton.

One of the leading contenders is Bart Barber, a pastor from Farmersville, Texas, who expressed dismay at the mean-spirited behaviors attributed to some SBC officers within the Guidepost report.

If elected, Barber said in a broadcast interview Monday, “I’m praying that God will give me the knowledge to know what to do.... We’re crusing into uncharted waters.”

“The work’s not achieved,” he added. “We’ve gotten the report, but I feel everybody in the survivor group that I’ve heard from has mentioned stories are one thing, however we’ll see if this family of churches has the braveness and resolve to take motion.”

The sex abuse scandal was thrust into the highlight in 2019 by a landmark report from the Houston Chronicle and San Antonio Categorical-News documenting a whole lot of circumstances in Southern Baptist churches, together with several during which alleged perpetrators remained in ministry.

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