Southern Baptists face push for public list of intercourse 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 different church personnel identified to be abusers.

The creation of an “Offender Data System” was one of the key recommendations in a report released Sunday by Guidepost Options, an unbiased agency contracted by the SBC’s Government Committee after delegates to final 12 months’s nationwide meeting pressed for an investigation by outsiders.

The proposed database is expected to be one among several suggestions presented to 1000's of delegates attending this year’s nationwide assembly, scheduled for June 14-15 in Anaheim, California.

“Those suggestions might be open to questions, debate and feedback on the assembly flooring,” said SBC President Ed Litton.

He expressed hope that the stunning findings in the Guidepost report will bring “lasting change” to the SBC, America’s largest Protestant denomination. It has been shedding 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 Government 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 outside counsel, largely managed the EC’s response to these experiences of abuse ... and had been singularly targeted on avoiding liability,” the report said.

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

Studying 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 within the road,” Gaines stated. “I feel this report offered the knowledge that we wanted for there to be a groundswell of assist to take the appropriate actions.”

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

“I think that’s one of the first things we must 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 pressing the SBC since 2006 to create a publicly accessible database of recognized abusers. She was heartened that Guidepost was recommending such a system, however mentioned questions remain about its implementation.

“What is completely important is that the local church can't function because the default or presumed starting place for a survivor to try to obtain an investigation of clergy intercourse abuse,” she stated by way of e mail. “If the local church is deemed to be a requisite first cease for survivors to pursue motion, 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 stored a secret checklist of a whole bunch of SBC-affiliated clergy and other personnel identified as intercourse abusers. Brown stated the committee, at a particular meeting Tuesday, should comply with launch this listing.

“I urge you to make public the entirety of your checklist of pastors & ministers accused of sexual abuse, in whatever form it’s been kept for lo these a few years,” Brown tweeted. “Publish. It. Now.”

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

“We noticed patterns and things that had been deeply concerning,” he mentioned. “Our principal job was to empower Guidepost to do their job, and so they have completed a really outstanding job in the final 9 months to look at events that occurred over 20 years.”

Within the next week or so, the task drive will bring forth formal motions in “exact language,” which will probably 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 recommendations based on Guidepost’s report might be summarized in two words – prevention and care.

“Our most important objective must be stopping sexual abuse,” he said. “And if abuse does happen, how do we care for survivors in a significantly better pastoral way? 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 things be better,” Frank said. “SBC is an enormous family with 48,000 church buildings. There is likely to be some disagreement on how to make things higher. But I’m assured that we’ll work by means of the difficulties.”

Along with sex abuse, the agenda for the assembly in Anaheim contains election of a brand new SBC president to succeed Litton.

One of many 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 wisdom to know what to do.... We’re crusing into uncharted waters.”

“The work’s not done,” he added. “We’ve gotten the report, but I believe all people within the survivor neighborhood that I’ve heard from has stated studies are one thing, however we’ll see if this family of church buildings 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-News documenting lots of of cases in Southern Baptist church buildings, including a number of wherein alleged perpetrators remained in ministry.

___

Related Press faith protection receives assist via the AP’s collaboration with The Dialog US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely answerable for this content.