Southern Baptists face push for public list of sex 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 different church personnel recognized to be abusers.

The creation of an “Offender Information System” was one of many key suggestions in a report released Sunday by Guidepost Options, an independent firm contracted by the SBC’s Executive Committee after delegates to last year’s national assembly pressed for an investigation by outsiders.

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

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

He expressed hope that the shocking findings within the Guidepost report will bring “lasting change” to the SBC, America’s largest Protestant denomination. It has been losing membership steadily lately, 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 Government Committee, “solely to be met, time and time again, with resistance, stonewalling, and even outright hostility from some throughout the EC.”

“Our investigation revealed that, for a few years, a couple of senior EC leaders, together with outside counsel, largely managed the EC’s response to those studies of abuse ... and have been singularly focused on avoiding liability,” the report said.

The movement for an independent investigation was put ahead finally year’s national meeting by the Rev. Grant Gaines, senior pastor of Belle Aire Baptist Church in Murfreesboro, Tennessee.

Studying the Guidepost report, Gaines mentioned 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 mentioned. “I think this report offered the knowledge that we would have liked for there to be a groundswell of assist to take the proper actions.”

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

“I believe that’s one of many first things we should always 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 pressing the SBC since 2006 to create a publicly accessible database of known abusers. She was heartened that Guidepost was recommending such a system, but said questions stay about its implementation.

“What is absolutely critical is that the native church can't perform as the default or presumed beginning place for a survivor to try to acquire an investigation of clergy sex abuse,” she said by way of email. “If the native church is deemed to be a requisite first stop for survivors to pursue action, then many survivors’ voices can be choked in their throats earlier than sound is ever uttered.”

Among the Guidepost report’s findings was that the Government Committee kept a secret checklist of a whole lot of SBC-affiliated clergy and other personnel recognized as intercourse abusers. Brown stated the committee, at a special assembly Tuesday, ought to agree to release this checklist.

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

The ultimate decisions about recommendations to submit to the Anaheim delegates might be made by the SBC’s Sexual Abuse Process Drive, comprising seven members and two advisors. Its work over the previous 12 months has been an emotional journey, said Pastor Bruce Frank, who led the group.

“We noticed patterns and issues that had been deeply regarding,” he said. “Our principal job was to empower Guidepost to do their job, they usually have done a really exceptional job within the last nine months to look at events that occurred over 20 years.”

Within the subsequent week or so, the duty force will convey forth formal motions in “exact language,” which can 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 mentioned the crux of the task pressure’s recommendations based mostly on Guidepost’s report might be summarized in two words – prevention and care.

“Our principal purpose should be stopping sexual abuse,” he said. “And if abuse does occur, how can we look after survivors in a much better pastoral approach? How can we higher talk to verify (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 higher,” Frank stated. “SBC is a big family with 48,000 church buildings. There might be some disagreement on how one can make issues higher. But I’m confident that we’ll work through the difficulties.”

Along with sex abuse, the agenda for the assembly 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 on the mean-spirited behaviors attributed to some SBC officers in 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 neighborhood that I’ve heard from has mentioned stories 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 highlight in 2019 by a landmark report from the Houston Chronicle and San Antonio Express-News documenting a whole lot of instances in Southern Baptist church buildings, including a number of through which alleged perpetrators remained in ministry.

___

Associated Press faith coverage receives help by the AP’s collaboration with The Dialog US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely answerable for this content.