Southern Baptists face push for public checklist of sex abusers

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

The creation of an “Offender Info System” was one of the key recommendations in a report released Sunday by Guidepost Solutions, an impartial firm contracted by the SBC’s Executive Committee after delegates to last yr’s nationwide meeting pressed for an investigation by outsiders.

The proposed database is expected to be considered one of several recommendations introduced to hundreds of delegates attending this year’s national assembly, scheduled for June 14-15 in Anaheim, California.

“Those recommendations will be open to questions, debate and feedback on the assembly floor,” stated SBC President Ed Litton.

He expressed hope that the stunning findings in the Guidepost report will convey “lasting change” to the SBC, America’s largest Protestant denomination. It has been losing membership steadily in recent times, while being wracked by internal 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 again, with resistance, stonewalling, and even outright hostility from some within the EC.”

“Our investigation revealed that, for a few years, a number of senior EC leaders, together with outdoors counsel, largely managed the EC’s response to these experiences of abuse ... and were singularly focused on avoiding liability,” the report mentioned.

The movement for an unbiased investigation was put forward eventually 12 months’s nationwide 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, as well as leaders prioritizing protection of the SBC from legal responsibility over abuse prevention.

“We’re at a fork within the road,” Gaines said. “I think this report offered the knowledge that we needed for there to be a groundswell of help to take the proper actions.”

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

“I believe 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 known abusers. She was heartened that Guidepost was recommending such a system, but said questions remain about its implementation.

“What is totally important is that the local church can't operate because the default or presumed beginning place for a survivor to try to get hold of an investigation of clergy sex abuse,” she said through email. “If the local church is deemed to be a requisite first stop for survivors to pursue action, then many survivors’ voices will probably be choked in their throats earlier than sound is ever uttered.”

Among the Guidepost report’s findings was that the Government Committee kept a secret record of hundreds of SBC-affiliated clergy and different personnel recognized as intercourse abusers. Brown stated the committee, at a special meeting Tuesday, ought to comply with launch this list.

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

The ultimate selections about recommendations to submit to the Anaheim delegates might be made by the SBC’s Sexual Abuse Process 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 things that had been deeply concerning,” he mentioned. “Our important job was to empower Guidepost to do their job, and they have accomplished a very remarkable job in the final 9 months to take a look at occasions that occurred over 20 years.”

In the subsequent week or so, the task power will convey forth formal motions in “precise language,” which might 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 stated the crux of the task power’s suggestions based mostly on Guidepost’s report will be summarized in two phrases – prevention and care.

“Our essential purpose must be preventing sexual abuse,” he stated. “And if abuse does happen, how do we look after survivors in a a lot better pastoral means? How can we higher talk to verify (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 mentioned. “SBC is a giant family with 48,000 churches. There could be some disagreement on easy methods to make things higher. But I’m assured that we’ll work by the difficulties.”

In addition to intercourse abuse, the agenda for the meeting in Anaheim consists of 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 officials within the Guidepost report.

If elected, Barber mentioned 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, however I feel all people within the survivor group that I’ve heard from has said reports are one factor, however we’ll see if this family of churches has the courage and resolve to take motion.”

The intercourse abuse scandal was thrust into the spotlight in 2019 by a landmark report from the Houston Chronicle and San Antonio Categorical-Information documenting a whole lot of instances in Southern Baptist church buildings, together with a number of during which alleged perpetrators remained in ministry.

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