Southern Baptists face push for public listing of sex abusers

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

The creation of an “Offender Info System” was one of many key suggestions in a report released Sunday by Guidepost Options, an impartial firm contracted by the SBC’s Executive Committee after delegates to last year’s national assembly pressed for an investigation by outsiders.

The proposed database is anticipated to be certainly one of a number of suggestions offered to hundreds of delegates attending this yr’s national meeting, scheduled for June 14-15 in Anaheim, California.

“These suggestions will likely be open to questions, debate and comments on the assembly floor,” stated SBC President Ed Litton.

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

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

“Our investigation revealed that, for many years, just a few senior EC leaders, together with outside counsel, largely managed the EC’s response to those reviews of abuse ... and had been singularly centered on avoiding legal responsibility,” the report stated.

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

Reading the Guidepost report, Gaines stated he was struck by repeated examples of a callous disregard for survivors, as well as leaders prioritizing protection of the SBC from legal responsibility over abuse prevention.

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

Particularly, Gaines said he supports the proposal to create a system that alerts communities to identified offenders.

“I feel that’s one of many first issues we should always do,” he said.

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 remain about its implementation.

“What is totally vital is that the local church cannot perform as the default or presumed beginning place for a survivor to try to acquire an investigation of clergy intercourse abuse,” she mentioned 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 will likely be choked of their throats before sound is ever uttered.”

Among the Guidepost report’s findings was that the Govt Committee kept a secret checklist of hundreds of SBC-affiliated clergy and other personnel recognized as intercourse abusers. Brown said the committee, at a special meeting Tuesday, should comply with launch this checklist.

“I urge you to make public everything of your record of pastors & ministers accused of sexual abuse, in whatever kind it’s been stored for lo these a few years,” Brown tweeted. “Post. It. Now.”

The final selections about suggestions to submit to the Anaheim delegates shall be made by the SBC’s Sexual Abuse Job Pressure, comprising seven members and two advisors. Its work over the previous 12 months has been an emotional journey, stated Pastor Bruce Frank, who led the group.

“We saw patterns and issues that have been deeply concerning,” he said. “Our fundamental job was to empower Guidepost to do their job, and so they have carried out a truly remarkable job in the final nine months to look at occasions that occurred over 20 years.”

In the subsequent week or so, the duty force will bring forth formal motions in “exact language,” which will likely be made public and offered to the delegates in Anaheim for a vote, stated Frank, lead pastor of Biltmore Baptist Church in Arden, North Carolina.

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

“Our essential aim ought to be preventing sexual abuse,” he stated. “And if abuse does occur, how can we take care of survivors in a a lot 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 that is fair-minded will look at what’s in that report and demand that issues be higher,” Frank said. “SBC is an enormous household with 48,000 church buildings. There may be some disagreement on how to make issues better. However I’m confident that we’ll work by means of the difficulties.”

Along with sex 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 in the Guidepost report.

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

“The work’s not completed,” he added. “We’ve gotten the report, but I believe all people within the survivor community that I’ve heard from has stated experiences are one thing, however we’ll see if this household of church buildings has the courage 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 Specific-Information documenting a whole bunch of cases in Southern Baptist churches, including a number of in which alleged perpetrators remained in ministry.

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