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 elevating the prospect that the denomination, for the primary time, will create a publicly accessible database of pastors and different church personnel identified to be abusers.

The creation of an “Offender Info System” was one of the key recommendations in a report launched Sunday by Guidepost Solutions, an independent agency contracted by the SBC’s Govt Committee after delegates to final year’s nationwide assembly pressed for an investigation by outsiders.

The proposed database is expected to be considered one of a number of suggestions offered to 1000's of delegates attending this 12 months’s national assembly, scheduled for June 14-15 in Anaheim, California.

“These recommendations will probably be open to questions, debate and comments on the meeting ground,” said SBC President Ed Litton.

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

The Guidepost report mentioned survivors of abuse by SBC clergy repeatedly shared allegations with the Govt Committee, “only 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 number of senior EC leaders, together with outside counsel, largely managed the EC’s response to these reviews of abuse ... and had been singularly focused on avoiding legal responsibility,” the report stated.

The movement for an impartial investigation was put forward finally year’s nationwide meeting by the Rev. Grant Gaines, senior pastor of Belle Aire Baptist Church in Murfreesboro, Tennessee.

Reading the Guidepost report, Gaines said he was struck by repeated examples of a callous disregard for survivors, in addition to leaders prioritizing protection of the SBC from liability over abuse prevention.

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

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

“I believe that’s one of many first things we should 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 identified abusers. She was heartened that Guidepost was recommending such a system, however said questions stay about its implementation.

“What is completely important is that the local church can not function because the default or presumed starting place for a survivor to attempt to acquire an investigation of clergy intercourse abuse,” she stated via email. “If the local church is deemed to be a requisite first cease for survivors to pursue motion, then many survivors’ voices shall be choked of their throats before sound is ever uttered.”

Among the Guidepost report’s findings was that the Executive Committee kept a secret record of hundreds of SBC-affiliated clergy and different personnel identified as intercourse abusers. Brown mentioned the committee, at a particular meeting Tuesday, ought to conform to launch this checklist.

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

The final selections about suggestions to submit to the Anaheim delegates can be made by the SBC’s Sexual Abuse Process 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 things that were deeply regarding,” he stated. “Our major job was to empower Guidepost to do their job, and they have carried out a really outstanding job in the last 9 months to look at occasions that occurred over 20 years.”

Within the next week or so, the duty power will carry forth formal motions in “precise language,” which might 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 duty drive’s suggestions based on Guidepost’s report could be summarized in two words – prevention and care.

“Our important purpose needs to be stopping sexual abuse,” he said. “And if abuse does occur, how do we look after survivors in a a lot better pastoral method? How can we better communicate to ensure (abusers) don’t go from one church to another?”

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

“Any one that is fair-minded will take a look at what’s in that report and demand that things be higher,” Frank stated. “SBC is an enormous family with 48,000 churches. There might be some disagreement on how you can make things better. But I’m assured that we’ll work by the difficulties.”

In addition to intercourse 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 at the mean-spirited behaviors attributed to some SBC officials in the Guidepost report.

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

“The work’s not achieved,” he added. “We’ve gotten the report, but I think everybody in the survivor group that I’ve heard from has mentioned experiences are one factor, but we’ll see if this household of church buildings has the braveness and resolve to take motion.”

The intercourse abuse scandal was thrust into the highlight in 2019 by a landmark report from the Houston Chronicle and San Antonio Categorical-Information documenting tons of of cases in Southern Baptist church buildings, including a number of in which alleged perpetrators remained in ministry.

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