Southern Baptists face push for public checklist 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 primary time, will create a publicly accessible database of pastors and other church personnel known to be abusers.

The creation of an “Offender Data System” was one of the key suggestions in a report launched Sunday by Guidepost Solutions, an impartial firm contracted by the SBC’s Executive Committee after delegates to last 12 months’s national meeting pressed for an investigation by outsiders.

The proposed database is anticipated to be one in all a number of suggestions offered to thousands of delegates attending this yr’s national meeting, scheduled for June 14-15 in Anaheim, California.

“Those recommendations can be open to questions, debate and comments on the assembly ground,” said SBC President Ed Litton.

He expressed hope that the shocking findings in the Guidepost report will convey “lasting change” to the SBC, America’s largest Protestant denomination. It has been shedding membership steadily in recent years, while 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 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 a few years, a couple of senior EC leaders, together with outside counsel, largely controlled the EC’s response to these experiences of abuse ... and have been singularly focused on avoiding legal responsibility,” the report said.

The motion for an independent investigation was put ahead finally year’s nationwide assembly by the Rev. Grant Gaines, senior pastor of Belle Aire Baptist Church in Murfreesboro, Tennessee.

Studying the Guidepost report, Gaines stated 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 information that we needed for there to be a groundswell of help to take the fitting actions.”

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

“I think that’s one of many first issues we must always do,” he mentioned.

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, however said questions stay about its implementation.

“What is absolutely crucial is that the native church can't function because the default or presumed starting place for a survivor to attempt to get hold of an investigation of clergy intercourse abuse,” she said via e-mail. “If the local church is deemed to be a requisite first stop for survivors to pursue action, then many survivors’ voices shall be choked of their throats before sound is ever uttered.”

Among the Guidepost report’s findings was that the Govt Committee kept a secret list of a whole lot of SBC-affiliated clergy and different personnel identified as sex abusers. Brown mentioned the committee, at a special meeting Tuesday, should comply with release this list.

“I urge you to make public the entirety of your record of pastors & ministers accused of sexual abuse, in no matter type it’s been kept for lo these many years,” Brown tweeted. “Put up. It. Now.”

The ultimate decisions about suggestions to submit to the Anaheim delegates will likely be made by the SBC’s Sexual Abuse Job Power, comprising seven members and two advisors. Its work over the previous year has been an emotional journey, said Pastor Bruce Frank, who led the group.

“We saw patterns and issues that were deeply concerning,” he said. “Our most important job was to empower Guidepost to do their job, and so they have performed a truly remarkable job in the last 9 months to look at events that occurred over 20 years.”

Within the subsequent week or so, the duty force will bring forth formal motions in “precise language,” which can 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 mentioned the crux of the duty force’s recommendations primarily based on Guidepost’s report could be summarized in two phrases – prevention and care.

“Our predominant purpose should be preventing sexual abuse,” he mentioned. “And if abuse does occur, how will we look after survivors in a significantly better pastoral means? How can we higher 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 person who is fair-minded will take a look at what’s in that report and demand that things be higher,” Frank said. “SBC is a big household with 48,000 church buildings. There is likely to be some disagreement on easy methods to make things higher. But I’m confident that we’ll work by the difficulties.”

Along with sex abuse, the agenda for the assembly in Anaheim consists of 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 on the mean-spirited behaviors attributed to some SBC officials in 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 believe everyone in the survivor community that I’ve heard from has mentioned reviews are one factor, but we’ll see if this family of churches has the braveness and resolve to take action.”

The intercourse abuse scandal was thrust into the spotlight in 2019 by a landmark report from the Houston Chronicle and San Antonio Express-Information documenting hundreds of instances in Southern Baptist churches, together with a number of during which alleged perpetrators remained in ministry.

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