Southern Baptists face push for public list of intercourse abusers

A blistering report on the Southern Baptist Conference’s mishandling of intercourse abuse allegations is elevating the prospect that the denomination, for the first time, will create a publicly accessible database of pastors and other church personnel recognized to be abusers.

The creation of an “Offender Data System” was one of the key suggestions in a report released Sunday by Guidepost Options, an independent agency contracted by the SBC’s Executive Committee after delegates to last yr’s nationwide meeting pressed for an investigation by outsiders.

The proposed database is expected to be one in all a number of recommendations introduced to 1000's of delegates attending this year’s nationwide assembly, scheduled for June 14-15 in Anaheim, California.

“Those suggestions will likely be open to questions, debate and comments on the meeting ground,” stated SBC President Ed Litton.

He expressed hope that the shocking findings in the Guidepost report will carry “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 mentioned survivors of abuse by SBC clergy repeatedly shared allegations with the Govt Committee, “only to be met, time and time once more, with resistance, stonewalling, and even outright hostility from some inside the EC.”

“Our investigation revealed that, for many years, a couple of senior EC leaders, together with outside counsel, largely controlled the EC’s response to those studies of abuse ... and have been singularly targeted on avoiding legal responsibility,” the report mentioned.

The motion for an unbiased investigation was put forward ultimately yr’s national meeting 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 legal responsibility over abuse prevention.

“We’re at a fork in the highway,” Gaines said. “I feel this report provided the information that we needed for there to be a groundswell of support to take the best actions.”

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

“I feel that’s one of the first issues we should 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 mentioned questions stay about its implementation.

“What is absolutely vital is that the local church can not function because the default or presumed beginning place for a survivor to try to get hold of 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 will probably be choked of their throats before sound is ever uttered.”

Among the Guidepost report’s findings was that the Executive Committee kept a secret checklist of a whole bunch of SBC-affiliated clergy and different personnel identified as sex abusers. Brown stated the committee, at a particular assembly Tuesday, ought to comply with release this list.

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

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

“We saw patterns and issues that have been deeply regarding,” he mentioned. “Our foremost job was to empower Guidepost to do their job, and so they have finished a very remarkable job within the final nine months to look at events that occurred over 20 years.”

In the next week or so, the task power will convey forth formal motions in “precise language,” which might 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 mentioned the crux of the task power’s suggestions based mostly on Guidepost’s report will be summarized in two words – prevention and care.

“Our predominant aim ought to be preventing sexual abuse,” he said. “And if abuse does occur, how do we care for survivors in a significantly 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 person who is fair-minded will take a look at what’s in that report and demand that things be higher,” Frank mentioned. “SBC is a big family with 48,000 church buildings. There is perhaps some disagreement on how one can make things higher. However I’m assured that we’ll work through the difficulties.”

Along with sex 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 at the mean-spirited behaviors attributed to some SBC officials within the Guidepost report.

If elected, Barber stated in a broadcast interview Monday, “I’m praying that God will give me the wisdom to know what to do.... We’re sailing into uncharted waters.”

“The work’s not accomplished,” he added. “We’ve gotten the report, however I think everyone within the survivor group that I’ve heard from has stated reports are one thing, but we’ll see if this family of church buildings has the braveness and resolve to take motion.”

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

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