Southern Baptists face push for public list of intercourse abusers

A blistering report on the Southern Baptist Convention’s mishandling of sex abuse allegations is raising the prospect that the denomination, for the first time, will create a publicly accessible database of pastors and different church personnel identified to be abusers.

The creation of an “Offender Information System” was one of many key recommendations in a report launched Sunday by Guidepost Options, an unbiased firm contracted by the SBC’s Executive Committee after delegates to last 12 months’s national assembly pressed for an investigation by outsiders.

The proposed database is predicted to be considered one of several recommendations offered to 1000's of delegates attending this 12 months’s nationwide assembly, scheduled for June 14-15 in Anaheim, California.

“These recommendations can be open to questions, debate and comments on the meeting floor,” mentioned SBC President Ed Litton.

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

The Guidepost report stated survivors of abuse by SBC clergy repeatedly shared allegations with the Government Committee, “only to be met, time and time once more, 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 exterior counsel, largely controlled the EC’s response to those reports of abuse ... and had been singularly centered on avoiding legal responsibility,” the report said.

The motion for an independent investigation was put forward eventually 12 months’s nationwide assembly by the Rev. Grant Gaines, senior pastor of Belle Aire Baptist Church in Murfreesboro, Tennessee.

Reading the Guidepost report, Gaines mentioned 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 street,” Gaines said. “I think this report offered the knowledge that we wanted for there to be a groundswell of support to take the suitable actions.”

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

“I believe that’s one of many first things 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 stated questions remain about its implementation.

“What is totally vital is that the local church can't function as the default or presumed beginning place for a survivor to attempt to acquire an investigation of clergy sex abuse,” she mentioned via e mail. “If the native church is deemed to be a requisite first stop for survivors to pursue action, then many survivors’ voices will likely be choked of their throats earlier than sound is ever uttered.”

Among the many Guidepost report’s findings was that the Executive Committee saved a secret listing of a whole lot of SBC-affiliated clergy and other personnel identified as sex abusers. Brown stated the committee, at a special assembly Tuesday, ought to agree to release this record.

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

The final decisions about suggestions to undergo the Anaheim delegates might be made by the SBC’s Sexual Abuse Job Power, comprising seven members and two advisors. Its work over the past 12 months has been an emotional journey, mentioned Pastor Bruce Frank, who led the group.

“We noticed patterns and things that have been deeply regarding,” he stated. “Our important job was to empower Guidepost to do their job, and so they have carried out a truly outstanding job in the last 9 months to look at occasions that occurred over 20 years.”

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

“Our important purpose ought to be stopping sexual abuse,” he stated. “And if abuse does happen, how will we care for survivors in a significantly better pastoral method? How can we better communicate to verify (abusers) don’t go from one church to a different?”

His hope is that this report serves as “a catalyst for change.”

“Any one who is fair-minded will have a look at what’s in that report and demand that issues be better,” Frank stated. “SBC is a giant family with 48,000 churches. There may be some disagreement on easy methods to make issues higher. But I’m confident that we’ll work by way of the difficulties.”

In addition to sex abuse, the agenda for the meeting in Anaheim includes election of a brand new SBC president to succeed Litton.

One of the main contenders is Bart Barber, a pastor from Farmersville, Texas, who expressed dismay at the mean-spirited behaviors attributed to some SBC officials in the Guidepost report.

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

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

The sex abuse scandal was thrust into the spotlight in 2019 by a landmark report from the Houston Chronicle and San Antonio Express-Information documenting tons of of cases in Southern Baptist church buildings, together with several wherein alleged perpetrators remained in ministry.

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