Southern Baptists face push for public checklist of sex abusers

A blistering report on the Southern Baptist Conference’s mishandling of sex abuse allegations is raising 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 Info System” was one of the key suggestions in a report released Sunday by Guidepost Options, an independent firm contracted by the SBC’s Executive Committee after delegates to last yr’s national assembly pressed for an investigation by outsiders.

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

“These recommendations shall be open to questions, debate and comments on the meeting flooring,” said SBC President Ed Litton.

He expressed hope that the shocking findings in the Guidepost report will deliver “lasting change” to the SBC, America’s largest Protestant denomination. It has been losing membership steadily lately, whereas 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 Govt Committee, “only to be met, time and time again, with resistance, stonewalling, and even outright hostility from some inside the EC.”

“Our investigation revealed that, for many years, just a few senior EC leaders, together with outdoors counsel, largely managed the EC’s response to these studies of abuse ... and had been singularly targeted on avoiding legal responsibility,” the report said.

The motion for an impartial investigation was put forward finally year’s nationwide meeting by the Rev. Grant Gaines, senior pastor of Belle Aire Baptist Church in Murfreesboro, Tennessee.

Studying the Guidepost report, Gaines stated 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 in the street,” Gaines stated. “I feel this report offered the information that we would have liked for there to be a groundswell of help to take the precise actions.”

Particularly, Gaines stated he helps the proposal to create a system that alerts communities to known offenders.

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

Lawyer and author 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 stated questions stay about its implementation.

“What is absolutely important is that the local church cannot function as the default or presumed beginning place for a survivor to attempt to acquire an investigation of clergy intercourse abuse,” she said by way of e mail. “If the local church is deemed to be a requisite first cease for survivors to pursue motion, then many survivors’ voices shall be choked in their throats earlier than sound is ever uttered.”

Among the Guidepost report’s findings was that the Government Committee stored a secret listing of a whole lot of SBC-affiliated clergy and different personnel identified as sex abusers. Brown said the committee, at a special meeting Tuesday, ought to comply with release this listing.

“I urge you to make public the whole thing of your listing of pastors & ministers accused of sexual abuse, in no matter type it’s been kept for lo these many years,” Brown tweeted. “Publish. It. Now.”

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

“We noticed patterns and things that were deeply concerning,” he said. “Our main job was to empower Guidepost to do their job, and so they have completed a truly outstanding job within the last nine months to have a look at occasions that occurred over 20 years.”

In the next week or so, the duty power will bring forth formal motions in “precise language,” which will likely 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 mentioned the crux of the duty drive’s suggestions based mostly on Guidepost’s report could be summarized in two words – prevention and care.

“Our fundamental goal ought to be preventing sexual abuse,” he mentioned. “And if abuse does happen, how can we look after survivors in a significantly better pastoral manner? How can we better communicate to make sure (abusers) don’t go from one church to another?”

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

“Any person who is fair-minded will take a look at what’s in that report and demand that things be better,” Frank mentioned. “SBC is a big household with 48,000 churches. There may be some disagreement on learn how to make issues better. However I’m confident that we’ll work by way 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 many leading contenders is Bart Barber, a pastor from Farmersville, Texas, who expressed dismay on the mean-spirited behaviors attributed to some SBC officers in the Guidepost report.

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

“The work’s not achieved,” he added. “We’ve gotten the report, however I feel everyone within the survivor group that I’ve heard from has mentioned stories are one factor, however we’ll see if this household of churches has the courage and resolve to take action.”

The intercourse abuse scandal was thrust into the highlight in 2019 by a landmark report from the Houston Chronicle and San Antonio Express-Information documenting a whole bunch of circumstances in Southern Baptist churches, together with a number of by which alleged perpetrators remained in ministry.

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