Southern Baptists face push for public record of intercourse abusers

A blistering report on the Southern Baptist Conference’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 Info System” was one of many key suggestions in a report released Sunday by Guidepost Solutions, an unbiased firm contracted by the SBC’s Government Committee after delegates to final yr’s national assembly pressed for an investigation by outsiders.

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

“These suggestions will be open to questions, debate and comments on the assembly floor,” stated SBC President Ed Litton.

He expressed hope that the surprising 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 times, while being wracked by inner divisions over race and gender roles.

The Guidepost report mentioned survivors of abuse by SBC clergy repeatedly shared allegations with the Government Committee, “only to be met, time and time again, with resistance, stonewalling, and even outright hostility from some inside the EC.”

“Our investigation revealed that, for many years, just a few senior EC leaders, along with exterior counsel, largely controlled the EC’s response to those experiences of abuse ... and had been singularly focused on avoiding legal responsibility,” the report said.

The movement for an unbiased investigation was put forward finally yr’s nationwide assembly 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 in the road,” Gaines stated. “I believe this report provided the knowledge that we would have liked for there to be a groundswell of assist to take the suitable actions.”

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

“I think that’s one of the 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 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 said questions remain about its implementation.

“What is totally essential is that the native church cannot function because the default or presumed beginning place for a survivor to try to get hold of an investigation of clergy intercourse abuse,” she stated via email. “If the native church is deemed to be a requisite first cease for survivors to pursue action, then many survivors’ voices will probably be choked in their throats before sound is ever uttered.”

Among the many Guidepost report’s findings was that the Executive Committee kept a secret listing of a whole bunch of SBC-affiliated clergy and different personnel recognized as sex abusers. Brown said the committee, at a particular assembly Tuesday, ought to comply with launch this listing.

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

The final selections about recommendations to submit to the Anaheim delegates will probably be made by the SBC’s Sexual Abuse Process Pressure, comprising seven members and two advisors. Its work over the past year has been an emotional journey, stated Pastor Bruce Frank, who led the group.

“We saw patterns and things that had been deeply regarding,” he mentioned. “Our principal job was to empower Guidepost to do their job, they usually have carried out a really outstanding job in the last 9 months to take a look at occasions that occurred over 20 years.”

In the next week or so, the duty power will carry forth formal motions in “exact language,” which might 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 mentioned the crux of the duty power’s suggestions primarily based on Guidepost’s report could be summarized in two phrases – prevention and care.

“Our most important objective needs to be stopping sexual abuse,” he stated. “And if abuse does happen, how will we take care of survivors in a much better pastoral manner? How can we better communicate 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 one that is fair-minded will look at what’s in that report and demand that issues be higher,” Frank said. “SBC is a giant household with 48,000 church buildings. There is likely to be some disagreement on the right way to make issues better. But I’m assured that we’ll work by way of the difficulties.”

Along with intercourse abuse, the agenda for the meeting in Anaheim consists of 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 on the mean-spirited behaviors attributed to some SBC officials within the Guidepost report.

If elected, Barber stated 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, however I feel everyone within the survivor group that I’ve heard from has mentioned reports are one factor, but we’ll see if this household of church buildings has the braveness 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 lots of of cases in Southern Baptist church buildings, together with a number of by which alleged perpetrators remained in ministry.

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