Southern Baptists face push for public record of sex abusers

A blistering report on the Southern Baptist Convention’s mishandling of sex 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 identified to be abusers.

The creation of an “Offender Data System” was one of the key recommendations in a report launched Sunday by Guidepost Options, an impartial agency contracted by the SBC’s Executive Committee after delegates to final yr’s national meeting pressed for an investigation by outsiders.

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

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

He expressed hope that the stunning findings within the Guidepost report will convey “lasting change” to the SBC, America’s largest Protestant denomination. It has been losing membership steadily in recent times, whereas being wracked by inner divisions over race and gender roles.

The Guidepost report said 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 throughout the EC.”

“Our investigation revealed that, for many years, a few senior EC leaders, along with outdoors counsel, largely controlled the EC’s response to these stories of abuse ... and had been singularly targeted on avoiding liability,” the report stated.

The movement for an independent investigation was put forward at last yr’s national 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, in addition to leaders prioritizing safety of the SBC from liability over abuse prevention.

“We’re at a fork in the street,” Gaines mentioned. “I feel this report supplied the information that we wanted for there to be a groundswell of support to take the right actions.”

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

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

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, however said questions stay about its implementation.

“What is completely critical is that the native church can't function as the default or presumed starting place for a survivor to attempt to get hold of an investigation of clergy sex abuse,” she stated through e-mail. “If the native church is deemed to be a requisite first stop for survivors to pursue motion, then many survivors’ voices will likely be choked of their throats before sound is ever uttered.”

Among the many Guidepost report’s findings was that the Government Committee stored a secret listing of hundreds of SBC-affiliated clergy and different personnel identified as sex abusers. Brown said the committee, at a particular assembly Tuesday, should comply with release this listing.

“I urge you to make public the whole lot of your record of pastors & ministers accused of sexual abuse, in no matter form it’s been stored for lo these many years,” Brown tweeted. “Post. It. Now.”

The ultimate decisions about suggestions to submit to the Anaheim delegates might be made by the SBC’s Sexual Abuse Activity Drive, comprising seven members and two advisors. Its work over the past year has been an emotional journey, mentioned Pastor Bruce Frank, who led the group.

“We noticed patterns and issues that had been deeply regarding,” he said. “Our fundamental job was to empower Guidepost to do their job, they usually have finished a truly exceptional job in the last nine months to look at occasions that occurred over 20 years.”

In the subsequent week or so, the task drive will deliver forth formal motions in “exact language,” which can 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 mentioned the crux of the duty force’s recommendations primarily based on Guidepost’s report might be summarized in two phrases – prevention and care.

“Our major objective needs to be preventing sexual abuse,” he mentioned. “And if abuse does occur, how do we look after survivors in a significantly better pastoral manner? How can we higher communicate to make sure (abusers) don’t go from one church to another?”

His hope is that this report serves as “a catalyst for change.”

“Any one that is fair-minded will take a look at what’s in that report and demand that issues be better,” Frank said. “SBC is a giant household with 48,000 churches. There might be some disagreement on easy methods to make things better. However I’m confident that we’ll work via the difficulties.”

Along with intercourse abuse, the agenda for the meeting in Anaheim includes 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 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 completed,” he added. “We’ve gotten the report, but I think all people in the survivor neighborhood that I’ve heard from has stated reports are one factor, but we’ll see if this family of churches has the braveness 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-Information documenting a whole bunch of circumstances in Southern Baptist churches, together with several in which alleged perpetrators remained in ministry.

___

Related Press religion coverage receives assist by the AP’s collaboration with The Dialog US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely accountable for this content.