Southern Baptists face push for public record 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 first 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 many key recommendations in a report released Sunday by Guidepost Solutions, an unbiased agency contracted by the SBC’s Executive Committee after delegates to last yr’s national meeting pressed for an investigation by outsiders.

The proposed database is anticipated to be one in all several suggestions introduced to 1000's of delegates attending this 12 months’s nationwide assembly, scheduled for June 14-15 in Anaheim, California.

“These suggestions will likely be open to questions, debate and feedback on the meeting flooring,” 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 in recent times, whereas being wracked by inside 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 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 had been singularly centered on avoiding liability,” the report stated.

The movement for an impartial investigation was put ahead eventually year’s national assembly 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 protection of the SBC from legal responsibility over abuse prevention.

“We’re at a fork within the highway,” Gaines stated. “I feel this report supplied the data that we would have liked for there to be a groundswell of assist to take the suitable actions.”

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

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

Lawyer and writer 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 known abusers. She was heartened that Guidepost was recommending such a system, but stated questions stay about its implementation.

“What is completely critical is that the local church cannot operate because the default or presumed starting place for a survivor to try to acquire an investigation of clergy intercourse abuse,” she stated through email. “If the local church is deemed to be a requisite first stop for survivors to pursue motion, then many survivors’ voices might be choked of their throats earlier than sound is ever uttered.”

Among the Guidepost report’s findings was that the Government Committee saved a secret checklist of tons of of SBC-affiliated clergy and other personnel recognized as sex abusers. Brown said the committee, at a particular meeting Tuesday, should agree to release this checklist.

“I urge you to make public the whole thing 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. “Put up. It. Now.”

The ultimate selections about recommendations 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, mentioned Pastor Bruce Frank, who led the group.

“We saw patterns and issues that have been deeply regarding,” he said. “Our foremost job was to empower Guidepost to do their job, and so they have completed a truly outstanding job in the last nine months to take a look at occasions that occurred over 20 years.”

Within the next week or so, the duty pressure will bring forth formal motions in “exact language,” which will likely be made public and introduced to the delegates in Anaheim for a vote, said Frank, lead pastor of Biltmore Baptist Church in Arden, North Carolina.

Frank mentioned the crux of the task force’s suggestions primarily based on Guidepost’s report will be summarized in two words – prevention and care.

“Our principal purpose needs to be stopping sexual abuse,” he stated. “And if abuse does happen, how can we take care of survivors in a significantly better pastoral means? How can we better talk 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 person who is fair-minded will have a look at what’s in that report and demand that issues be better,” Frank said. “SBC is a giant family with 48,000 church buildings. There might be some disagreement on the way to make things better. However I’m assured 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 many leading contenders is Bart Barber, a pastor from Farmersville, Texas, who expressed dismay at the mean-spirited behaviors attributed to some SBC officials within 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 executed,” he added. “We’ve gotten the report, but I feel everybody in the survivor neighborhood that I’ve heard from has said stories are one thing, but we’ll see if this family of churches 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 Specific-News documenting hundreds of circumstances in Southern Baptist church buildings, together with several wherein alleged perpetrators remained in ministry.

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