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 launched Sunday by Guidepost Solutions, an impartial agency contracted by the SBC’s Govt Committee after delegates to final 12 months’s nationwide meeting pressed for an investigation by outsiders.

The proposed database is anticipated to be certainly one of several suggestions presented to hundreds of delegates attending this year’s nationwide meeting, scheduled for June 14-15 in Anaheim, California.

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

He expressed hope that the stunning findings in the Guidepost report will bring “lasting change” to the SBC, America’s largest Protestant denomination. It has been dropping membership steadily lately, while 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 Govt 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 many years, a couple of senior EC leaders, together with outdoors counsel, largely managed the EC’s response to those reports of abuse ... and have been singularly targeted on avoiding legal responsibility,” the report said.

The motion for an impartial investigation was put ahead eventually 12 months’s nationwide meeting 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 safety of the SBC from liability over abuse prevention.

“We’re at a fork in the street,” Gaines mentioned. “I believe this report offered the knowledge that we needed for there to be a groundswell of help to take the proper actions.”

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

“I believe that’s one of the first things we must always do,” he stated.

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 recognized abusers. She was heartened that Guidepost was recommending such a system, but mentioned questions remain about its implementation.

“What is totally important is that the local church can't operate as the default or presumed starting place for a survivor to try to receive an investigation of clergy intercourse abuse,” she stated through electronic mail. “If the local church is deemed to be a requisite first cease for survivors to pursue action, then many survivors’ voices might be choked of their throats before sound is ever uttered.”

Among the many Guidepost report’s findings was that the Executive Committee kept a secret checklist of lots of of SBC-affiliated clergy and other personnel identified as intercourse abusers. Brown said the committee, at a special assembly Tuesday, should agree to launch this checklist.

“I urge you to make public the whole thing of your record of pastors & ministers accused of sexual abuse, in whatever kind it’s been kept for lo these many years,” Brown tweeted. “Publish. It. Now.”

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

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

Within the subsequent week or so, the duty force will bring forth formal motions in “precise language,” which will likely be made public and offered to the delegates in Anaheim for a vote, mentioned Frank, lead pastor of Biltmore Baptist Church in Arden, North Carolina.

Frank stated the crux of the task power’s suggestions based mostly on Guidepost’s report could be summarized in two words – prevention and care.

“Our main objective needs to be stopping sexual abuse,” he said. “And if abuse does occur, how can we take care of survivors in a a lot better pastoral method? How can we higher communicate to ensure (abusers) don’t go from one church to a different?”

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

“Any person who is fair-minded will look at what’s in that report and demand that issues be better,” Frank mentioned. “SBC is a big household with 48,000 churches. There might be some disagreement on learn how to make things better. However I’m confident that we’ll work by way of the difficulties.”

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

One of the leading contenders is Bart Barber, a pastor from Farmersville, Texas, who expressed dismay at 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 sailing into uncharted waters.”

“The work’s not accomplished,” he added. “We’ve gotten the report, but I feel everyone within the survivor community that I’ve heard from has stated experiences 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 highlight in 2019 by a landmark report from the Houston Chronicle and San Antonio Express-News documenting a whole lot of cases in Southern Baptist church buildings, together with several in which alleged perpetrators remained in ministry.

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