Southern Baptists face push for public checklist of sex abusers

A blistering report on the Southern Baptist Convention’s mishandling of intercourse abuse allegations is elevating 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 Information System” was one of many key suggestions in a report launched Sunday by Guidepost Solutions, an independent agency contracted by the SBC’s Government Committee after delegates to last year’s nationwide meeting pressed for an investigation by outsiders.

The proposed database is expected to be certainly one of several suggestions offered to hundreds of delegates attending this year’s national assembly, scheduled for June 14-15 in Anaheim, California.

“These recommendations shall be open to questions, debate and comments on the meeting ground,” 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 shedding membership steadily in recent times, 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 Executive Committee, “solely to be met, time and time once more, with resistance, stonewalling, and even outright hostility from some within the EC.”

“Our investigation revealed that, for a few years, a few senior EC leaders, together with outdoors counsel, largely managed the EC’s response to those stories of abuse ... and were singularly targeted on avoiding legal responsibility,” the report said.

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

Studying the Guidepost report, Gaines said he was struck by repeated examples of a callous disregard for survivors, as well as leaders prioritizing protection of the SBC from legal responsibility over abuse prevention.

“We’re at a fork within the road,” Gaines said. “I believe this report offered the data that we needed for there to be a groundswell of help to take the fitting actions.”

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

“I think that’s one of the first things 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 urgent the SBC since 2006 to create a publicly accessible database of identified abusers. She was heartened that Guidepost was recommending such a system, but stated questions remain about its implementation.

“What is absolutely crucial is that the local church cannot perform as the default or presumed starting place for a survivor to attempt to obtain an investigation of clergy intercourse abuse,” she mentioned by way of email. “If the native church is deemed to be a requisite first stop for survivors to pursue motion, then many survivors’ voices shall be choked in their throats before sound is ever uttered.”

Among the Guidepost report’s findings was that the Government Committee saved a secret checklist of a whole bunch of SBC-affiliated clergy and other personnel recognized as sex abusers. Brown said the committee, at a particular assembly Tuesday, should comply with launch this checklist.

“I urge you to make public everything of your list of pastors & ministers accused of sexual abuse, in whatever kind it’s been saved for lo these a few years,” Brown tweeted. “Put up. It. Now.”

The final selections about recommendations to submit to the Anaheim delegates will probably be made by the SBC’s Sexual Abuse Task Drive, 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 were deeply concerning,” he said. “Our principal job was to empower Guidepost to do their job, and so they have achieved a very exceptional job within the final nine months to take a look at events that occurred over 20 years.”

In the next week or so, the task pressure will carry forth formal motions in “exact language,” which might be made public and offered 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 force’s suggestions primarily based on Guidepost’s report may be summarized in two phrases – prevention and care.

“Our principal aim ought to be preventing sexual abuse,” he said. “And if abuse does happen, how can we look after survivors in a significantly better pastoral means? How can we higher communicate 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 who is fair-minded will look at what’s in that report and demand that things be higher,” Frank stated. “SBC is an enormous family with 48,000 church buildings. There is perhaps some disagreement on the best way to make things better. However I’m confident that we’ll work by means of the difficulties.”

Along with sex abuse, the agenda for the meeting in Anaheim contains election of a new SBC president to succeed Litton.

One of the 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 said 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 achieved,” he added. “We’ve gotten the report, however I believe everybody in the survivor neighborhood that I’ve heard from has said studies are one factor, but we’ll see if this household of churches has the braveness and resolve to take action.”

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, together with a number of during which alleged perpetrators remained in ministry.

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