Southern Baptists face push for public record of intercourse abusers

A blistering report on the Southern Baptist Conference’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 other church personnel recognized to be abusers.

The creation of an “Offender Info System” was one of many key suggestions in a report launched Sunday by Guidepost Options, an unbiased agency contracted by the SBC’s Government Committee after delegates to last year’s national meeting pressed for an investigation by outsiders.

The proposed database is predicted to be certainly one of several suggestions introduced to hundreds of delegates attending this yr’s nationwide assembly, scheduled for June 14-15 in Anaheim, California.

“Those suggestions can be open to questions, debate and comments on the assembly ground,” said SBC President Ed Litton.

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

The Guidepost report stated survivors of abuse by SBC clergy repeatedly shared allegations with the Executive Committee, “solely 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 few senior EC leaders, along with exterior counsel, largely controlled the EC’s response to those stories of abuse ... and had been singularly targeted on avoiding liability,” the report said.

The motion for an independent investigation was put ahead eventually yr’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, in addition to leaders prioritizing safety of the SBC from legal responsibility over abuse prevention.

“We’re at a fork within the street,” Gaines mentioned. “I think this report provided the knowledge that we would have liked for there to be a groundswell of assist to take the suitable actions.”

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

“I think that’s one of the first issues we must always do,” he said.

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 said questions stay about its implementation.

“What is totally essential is that the local church can't perform as the default or presumed starting place for a survivor to attempt to acquire an investigation of clergy sex abuse,” she mentioned through email. “If the native church is deemed to be a requisite first stop for survivors to pursue motion, then many survivors’ voices might be choked in their throats before sound is ever uttered.”

Among the many Guidepost report’s findings was that the Government Committee saved a secret listing of lots of of SBC-affiliated clergy and other personnel identified as sex abusers. Brown said the committee, at a particular assembly Tuesday, ought to conform to launch this listing.

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

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

“We noticed patterns and issues that were deeply concerning,” he mentioned. “Our important job was to empower Guidepost to do their job, and so they have accomplished a truly remarkable job in the last 9 months to take a look at occasions that occurred over 20 years.”

In the next week or so, the task drive will bring forth formal motions in “exact language,” which shall 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 stated the crux of the duty drive’s recommendations primarily based on Guidepost’s report could be summarized in two words – prevention and care.

“Our fundamental objective needs to be preventing sexual abuse,” he said. “And if abuse does happen, how do we take care of survivors in a much better pastoral way? 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 look at what’s in that report and demand that issues be better,” Frank stated. “SBC is a giant household with 48,000 church buildings. There may be some disagreement on tips on how to make issues better. 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 new SBC president to succeed Litton.

One of the main 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 said 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 accomplished,” he added. “We’ve gotten the report, but I think everybody within the survivor group that I’ve heard from has said reports are one thing, however we’ll see if this household of church buildings has the courage and resolve to take action.”

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 a whole lot of cases in Southern Baptist churches, including a number of by which alleged perpetrators remained in ministry.

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