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 elevating the prospect that the denomination, for the first 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 the key recommendations in a report released Sunday by Guidepost Options, an unbiased firm contracted by the SBC’s Executive Committee after delegates to last yr’s national meeting pressed for an investigation by outsiders.

The proposed database is predicted to be one of a number of suggestions offered to 1000's of delegates attending this 12 months’s nationwide meeting, scheduled for June 14-15 in Anaheim, California.

“Those recommendations might be open to questions, debate and feedback on the assembly ground,” mentioned SBC President Ed Litton.

He expressed hope that the surprising findings in 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 inside divisions over race and gender roles.

The Guidepost report stated survivors of abuse by SBC clergy repeatedly shared allegations with the Executive 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 exterior counsel, largely controlled the EC’s response to those studies of abuse ... and were singularly focused on avoiding liability,” the report said.

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

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

“We’re at a fork in the road,” Gaines said. “I feel this report provided the information that we would have liked for there to be a groundswell of assist to take the precise actions.”

Specifically, Gaines said 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 identified abusers. She was heartened that Guidepost was recommending such a system, but stated questions remain about its implementation.

“What is totally critical is that the native church cannot operate as the default or presumed beginning place for a survivor to try to get hold of an investigation of clergy intercourse abuse,” she said via 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 earlier than sound is ever uttered.”

Among the many Guidepost report’s findings was that the Govt Committee kept a secret record of a whole lot of SBC-affiliated clergy and different personnel recognized as sex abusers. Brown said the committee, at a particular meeting Tuesday, ought to conform to launch this list.

“I urge you to make public the whole thing of your record of pastors & ministers accused of sexual abuse, in whatever kind it’s been saved for lo these many years,” Brown tweeted. “Publish. It. Now.”

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

“We noticed patterns and issues that had been deeply regarding,” he said. “Our principal job was to empower Guidepost to do their job, and they have carried out a very exceptional job in the last 9 months to have a look at occasions that occurred over 20 years.”

Within the subsequent week or so, the task drive will convey forth formal motions in “precise language,” which shall 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 task pressure’s recommendations primarily based on Guidepost’s report can be summarized in two phrases – prevention and care.

“Our essential objective must be preventing sexual abuse,” he mentioned. “And if abuse does occur, how do we look after survivors in a much better pastoral means? How can we higher communicate 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 who is fair-minded will look at what’s in that report and demand that issues be higher,” Frank mentioned. “SBC is an enormous household with 48,000 churches. There may be some disagreement on the right way to make issues higher. But I’m confident that we’ll work through the difficulties.”

Along with intercourse abuse, the agenda for the assembly 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 on the mean-spirited behaviors attributed to some SBC officials 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 sailing into uncharted waters.”

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

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

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