Southern Baptists face push for public listing 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 primary 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 launched Sunday by Guidepost Solutions, an unbiased firm 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 expected to be one in every of a number of recommendations presented to thousands of delegates attending this year’s national meeting, scheduled for June 14-15 in Anaheim, California.

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

He expressed hope that the shocking findings in the Guidepost report will deliver “lasting change” to the SBC, America’s largest Protestant denomination. It has been dropping membership steadily lately, whereas being wracked by internal 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 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 studies of abuse ... and were singularly centered on avoiding legal responsibility,” the report stated.

The movement for an impartial investigation was put ahead ultimately 12 months’s national meeting by the Rev. Grant Gaines, senior pastor of Belle Aire Baptist Church in Murfreesboro, Tennessee.

Studying 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 in the street,” Gaines stated. “I believe this report offered the data that we would have liked for there to be a groundswell of assist to take the suitable actions.”

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

“I feel that’s one of many first issues we must always do,” he mentioned.

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 totally critical is that the native church can't operate because the default or presumed starting place for a survivor to attempt to acquire an investigation of clergy sex abuse,” she stated by way of e-mail. “If the local church is deemed to be a requisite first cease for survivors to pursue action, then many survivors’ voices will probably 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 tons of of SBC-affiliated clergy and other personnel recognized as sex abusers. Brown said the committee, at a special meeting Tuesday, ought to agree to release this record.

“I urge you to make public the whole thing of your record of pastors & ministers accused of sexual abuse, in no matter kind it’s been saved for lo these a few years,” Brown tweeted. “Publish. It. Now.”

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

“We saw patterns and issues that have been deeply regarding,” he stated. “Our principal job was to empower Guidepost to do their job, and they have finished a really remarkable job in the last nine months to have a look at events that occurred over 20 years.”

In the subsequent week or so, the task drive will bring forth formal motions in “precise language,” which can 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 said the crux of the duty force’s recommendations based mostly on Guidepost’s report could be summarized in two phrases – prevention and care.

“Our major aim needs to be stopping sexual abuse,” he said. “And if abuse does happen, how do we look after 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 that is fair-minded will look at what’s in that report and demand that things be higher,” Frank said. “SBC is a giant family with 48,000 church buildings. There might be some disagreement on easy methods to make issues higher. But I’m confident that we’ll work via the difficulties.”

In addition to intercourse abuse, the agenda for the assembly 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 on 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 wisdom to know what to do.... We’re crusing into uncharted waters.”

“The work’s not done,” he added. “We’ve gotten the report, however I feel all people in the survivor community that I’ve heard from has said studies are one factor, but we’ll see if this family of churches has the courage and resolve to take action.”

The sex abuse scandal was thrust into the spotlight 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 a number of during which alleged perpetrators remained in ministry.

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