Southern Baptists face push for public checklist of intercourse abusers

A blistering report on the Southern Baptist Conference’s mishandling of sex abuse allegations is elevating 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 Information System” was one of the key recommendations in a report released Sunday by Guidepost Solutions, an impartial firm contracted by the SBC’s Executive Committee after delegates to final 12 months’s national meeting pressed for an investigation by outsiders.

The proposed database is anticipated to be one in every of several recommendations introduced to thousands of delegates attending this yr’s national meeting, scheduled for June 14-15 in Anaheim, California.

“These recommendations shall be open to questions, debate and comments on the assembly ground,” said SBC President Ed Litton.

He expressed hope that the surprising findings in the Guidepost report will deliver “lasting change” to the SBC, America’s largest Protestant denomination. It has been losing membership steadily lately, 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, along with exterior counsel, largely controlled the EC’s response to these experiences of abuse ... and had been singularly targeted on avoiding liability,” the report stated.

The movement for an impartial investigation was put forward at last year’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 road,” Gaines mentioned. “I think this report offered the information that we wanted for there to be a groundswell of help to take the right actions.”

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

“I believe that’s one of the first issues 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 identified abusers. She was heartened that Guidepost was recommending such a system, however stated questions remain about its implementation.

“What is absolutely critical is that the native church can not operate because the default or presumed beginning place for a survivor to try to obtain an investigation of clergy intercourse abuse,” she stated through electronic mail. “If the local church is deemed to be a requisite first cease for survivors to pursue action, then many survivors’ voices might be choked in their throats earlier than sound is ever uttered.”

Among the many Guidepost report’s findings was that the Government Committee stored a secret checklist of a whole bunch of SBC-affiliated clergy and different personnel recognized as sex abusers. Brown said the committee, at a particular assembly Tuesday, ought to comply with release this record.

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

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

“We noticed patterns and things that had been deeply regarding,” he said. “Our fundamental job was to empower Guidepost to do their job, and so they have accomplished a very outstanding job in the final nine months to have a look at occasions that occurred over 20 years.”

Within the next week or so, the duty drive will bring forth formal motions in “precise language,” which shall be made public and introduced to the delegates in Anaheim for a vote, mentioned Frank, lead pastor of Biltmore Baptist Church in Arden, North Carolina.

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

“Our important objective ought to be preventing sexual abuse,” he mentioned. “And if abuse does happen, how can we look after survivors in a much better pastoral approach? How can we better talk to ensure (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 have a look at what’s in that report and demand that things be better,” Frank mentioned. “SBC is an enormous family with 48,000 churches. There is perhaps some disagreement on how one can make things better. But I’m confident that we’ll work through the difficulties.”

In addition to intercourse abuse, the agenda for the meeting in Anaheim includes election of a brand 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 officers within the Guidepost report.

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

“The work’s not finished,” he added. “We’ve gotten the report, but I believe everybody in the survivor community that I’ve heard from has said stories are one thing, however we’ll see if this household of churches has the braveness and resolve to take motion.”

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

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