Southern Baptists face push for public record of intercourse abusers

A blistering report on the Southern Baptist Convention’s mishandling of sex abuse allegations is raising the prospect that the denomination, for the primary time, will create a publicly accessible database of pastors and other church personnel known to be abusers.

The creation of an “Offender Information System” was one of the key suggestions in a report released Sunday by Guidepost Solutions, an independent agency contracted by the SBC’s Executive Committee after delegates to last 12 months’s nationwide assembly pressed for an investigation by outsiders.

The proposed database is predicted to be one in every of a number of recommendations offered to thousands of delegates attending this 12 months’s national assembly, scheduled for June 14-15 in Anaheim, California.

“Those suggestions will be open to questions, debate and feedback on the assembly flooring,” mentioned SBC President Ed Litton.

He expressed hope that the stunning findings within the Guidepost report will carry “lasting change” to the SBC, America’s largest Protestant denomination. It has been dropping membership steadily in recent times, whereas being wracked by internal divisions over race and gender roles.

The Guidepost report said survivors of abuse by SBC clergy repeatedly shared allegations with the Executive 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, just a few senior EC leaders, along with outside counsel, largely managed the EC’s response to those studies of abuse ... and had been singularly focused on avoiding legal responsibility,” the report said.

The movement for an independent investigation was put forward finally yr’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 protection of the SBC from liability over abuse prevention.

“We’re at a fork in the road,” Gaines said. “I feel this report supplied the information that we needed for there to be a groundswell of assist to take the right actions.”

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

“I believe that’s one of many first things we should 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 pressing the SBC since 2006 to create a publicly accessible database of recognized abusers. She was heartened that Guidepost was recommending such a system, but mentioned questions stay about its implementation.

“What is absolutely vital is that the local church can't operate as the default or presumed beginning place for a survivor to try to acquire an investigation of clergy sex abuse,” she said by way of e-mail. “If the native church is deemed to be a requisite first stop for survivors to pursue action, then many survivors’ voices can be choked of their throats before sound is ever uttered.”

Among the many Guidepost report’s findings was that the Govt Committee kept a secret checklist of lots of of SBC-affiliated clergy and other personnel identified as sex abusers. Brown said the committee, at a particular assembly Tuesday, should comply with release this list.

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

The final decisions about recommendations to submit to the Anaheim delegates can be made by the SBC’s Sexual Abuse Activity Force, comprising seven members and two advisors. Its work over the previous 12 months has been an emotional journey, mentioned Pastor Bruce Frank, who led the group.

“We saw patterns and issues that had been deeply regarding,” he stated. “Our main job was to empower Guidepost to do their job, they usually have carried out a really outstanding job in the last nine months to look at events that occurred over 20 years.”

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

Frank mentioned the crux of the duty drive’s recommendations based on Guidepost’s report can be summarized in two words – prevention and care.

“Our main aim needs to be stopping sexual abuse,” he stated. “And if abuse does happen, how can we care for survivors in a a lot better pastoral manner? How can we better communicate to verify (abusers) don’t go from one church to another?”

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

“Any one who is fair-minded will have a look at what’s in that report and demand that issues be better,” Frank stated. “SBC is a big family with 48,000 church buildings. There is likely to be some disagreement on learn how to make things better. But I’m assured that we’ll work via the difficulties.”

Along with sex abuse, the agenda for the assembly in Anaheim consists of election of a brand 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 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 performed,” he added. “We’ve gotten the report, but I think everyone in the survivor group that I’ve heard from has said reviews are one factor, but we’ll see if this household of church buildings has the braveness and resolve to take action.”

The intercourse abuse scandal was thrust into the spotlight in 2019 by a landmark report from the Houston Chronicle and San Antonio Express-Information documenting lots of of cases in Southern Baptist church buildings, together with several through which alleged perpetrators remained in ministry.

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