Southern Baptists face push for public listing of sex abusers

A blistering report on the Southern Baptist Convention’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 known to be abusers.

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

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

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

He expressed hope that the surprising findings within the Guidepost report will carry “lasting change” to the SBC, America’s largest Protestant denomination. It has been dropping 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 Executive Committee, “solely to be met, time and time again, with resistance, stonewalling, and even outright hostility from some throughout the EC.”

“Our investigation revealed that, for a few years, a number of senior EC leaders, along with exterior counsel, largely controlled the EC’s response to these studies of abuse ... and were singularly targeted on avoiding liability,” the report mentioned.

The movement for an unbiased investigation was put forward finally 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, in addition to leaders prioritizing safety of the SBC from liability over abuse prevention.

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

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

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

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 identified abusers. She was heartened that Guidepost was recommending such a system, however stated questions remain about its implementation.

“What is totally critical is that the local church cannot function because the default or presumed starting place for a survivor to try to acquire an investigation of clergy sex abuse,” she mentioned via email. “If the native church is deemed to be a requisite first cease for survivors to pursue action, then many survivors’ voices shall be choked in their throats before sound is ever uttered.”

Among the many Guidepost report’s findings was that the Executive Committee saved a secret record of hundreds of SBC-affiliated clergy and other personnel identified as intercourse abusers. Brown stated the committee, at a special assembly Tuesday, ought to conform to release this checklist.

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

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

“We noticed patterns and issues that were deeply concerning,” he stated. “Our important job was to empower Guidepost to do their job, and they have done a truly remarkable job in the last nine months to have a look at events that occurred over 20 years.”

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

“Our primary aim must be preventing sexual abuse,” he stated. “And if abuse does happen, how do we take care of survivors in a significantly better pastoral way? How can we higher 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 person 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 household with 48,000 churches. There is perhaps some disagreement on how to make things higher. But I’m confident that we’ll work through the difficulties.”

Along with sex abuse, the agenda for the meeting in Anaheim consists of 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 officials 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 crusing into uncharted waters.”

“The work’s not accomplished,” he added. “We’ve gotten the report, but I feel everybody within the survivor group that I’ve heard from has said experiences are one factor, but we’ll see if this household of church buildings has the courage 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 Categorical-News documenting lots of of circumstances in Southern Baptist churches, including several wherein alleged perpetrators remained in ministry.

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