Southern Baptists face push for public checklist 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 many key recommendations in a report launched Sunday by Guidepost Solutions, an impartial firm contracted by the SBC’s Executive Committee after delegates to final 12 months’s nationwide assembly pressed for an investigation by outsiders.

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

“These recommendations can be open to questions, debate and feedback on the assembly floor,” said SBC President Ed Litton.

He expressed hope that the surprising findings in the Guidepost report will convey “lasting change” to the SBC, America’s largest Protestant denomination. It has been dropping membership steadily in recent years, 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 Govt 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, just a few senior EC leaders, together with outdoors counsel, largely controlled the EC’s response to those studies of abuse ... and were singularly centered on avoiding legal responsibility,” the report stated.

The movement for an independent investigation was put ahead at last yr’s nationwide 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 liability over abuse prevention.

“We’re at a fork in the street,” Gaines stated. “I believe this report supplied the information that we needed for there to be a groundswell of help to take the precise actions.”

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

“I feel that’s one of the first things we should do,” he mentioned.

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 mentioned questions stay about its implementation.

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

Among the Guidepost report’s findings was that the Govt Committee kept a secret checklist of lots of of SBC-affiliated clergy and different personnel recognized as sex abusers. Brown mentioned the committee, at a special meeting Tuesday, should agree to release this checklist.

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

The ultimate selections about suggestions to undergo the Anaheim delegates shall 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, mentioned Pastor Bruce Frank, who led the group.

“We saw patterns and issues that had been deeply concerning,” he said. “Our major job was to empower Guidepost to do their job, they usually have carried out a very outstanding job in the final 9 months to look at events that occurred over 20 years.”

Within the next week or so, the duty force will deliver forth formal motions in “precise language,” which might be made public and presented to the delegates in Anaheim for a vote, stated Frank, lead pastor of Biltmore Baptist Church in Arden, North Carolina.

Frank said the crux of the task drive’s recommendations primarily based on Guidepost’s report could be summarized in two phrases – prevention and care.

“Our essential goal must be stopping sexual abuse,” he stated. “And if abuse does happen, how can we take care of survivors in a much better pastoral manner? How can we better communicate 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 who is fair-minded will take a look at what’s in that report and demand that issues be better,” Frank said. “SBC is an enormous household with 48,000 church buildings. There is likely to be some disagreement on how you can make issues better. However I’m assured that we’ll work by means of the difficulties.”

In addition to intercourse abuse, the agenda for the assembly in Anaheim contains election of a brand new SBC president to succeed Litton.

One of the main 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 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 finished,” he added. “We’ve gotten the report, however I believe everybody in the survivor community that I’ve heard from has stated studies are one thing, but we’ll see if this household of churches has the braveness and resolve to take action.”

The sex abuse scandal was thrust into the spotlight in 2019 by a landmark report from the Houston Chronicle and San Antonio Specific-News documenting lots of of cases in Southern Baptist churches, together with several in which alleged perpetrators remained in ministry.

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