Southern Baptists face push for public listing of intercourse abusers

A blistering report on the Southern Baptist Conference’s mishandling of sex abuse allegations is elevating the prospect that the denomination, for the first time, will create a publicly accessible database of pastors and other church personnel identified to be abusers.

The creation of an “Offender Data System” was one of many key suggestions in a report released Sunday by Guidepost Options, an unbiased agency contracted by the SBC’s Govt Committee after delegates to last yr’s nationwide assembly pressed for an investigation by outsiders.

The proposed database is expected to be one among several suggestions introduced to hundreds of delegates attending this year’s nationwide assembly, scheduled for June 14-15 in Anaheim, California.

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

He expressed hope that the surprising findings in the Guidepost report will convey “lasting change” to the SBC, America’s largest Protestant denomination. It has been dropping membership steadily lately, 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 inside the EC.”

“Our investigation revealed that, for many years, a number of senior EC leaders, along with outdoors counsel, largely controlled the EC’s response to these reports of abuse ... and were singularly targeted on avoiding legal responsibility,” the report mentioned.

The motion for an unbiased investigation was put ahead finally year’s nationwide 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, as well as leaders prioritizing protection of the SBC from liability over abuse prevention.

“We’re at a fork in the highway,” Gaines stated. “I feel this report provided the knowledge that we needed for there to be a groundswell of help to take the right actions.”

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

“I feel that’s one of many first issues 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 pressing 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 remain about its implementation.

“What is absolutely vital is that the native church can not perform because the default or presumed starting place for a survivor to try to receive an investigation of clergy sex abuse,” she stated through e-mail. “If the native church is deemed to be a requisite first cease for survivors to pursue action, then many survivors’ voices will likely be choked in their throats earlier than sound is ever uttered.”

Among the many Guidepost report’s findings was that the Government Committee saved a secret checklist of a whole bunch of SBC-affiliated clergy and different personnel recognized as intercourse abusers. Brown said the committee, at a special meeting Tuesday, ought to comply with launch this listing.

“I urge you to make public everything of your record of pastors & ministers accused of sexual abuse, in no matter form it’s been stored for lo these many years,” Brown tweeted. “Post. It. Now.”

The final choices about suggestions to undergo the Anaheim delegates shall be made by the SBC’s Sexual Abuse Process Drive, 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 noticed patterns and issues that had been deeply concerning,” he stated. “Our primary job was to empower Guidepost to do their job, and they have done a truly exceptional job in the last nine months to have a look at events that occurred over 20 years.”

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

Frank stated the crux of the duty force’s recommendations based mostly on Guidepost’s report can be summarized in two words – prevention and care.

“Our fundamental aim must be preventing sexual abuse,” he said. “And if abuse does occur, how do we take care of survivors in a much better pastoral means? 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 take a look at what’s in that report and demand that things be higher,” Frank mentioned. “SBC is an enormous family with 48,000 church buildings. There is likely to be some disagreement on the right way to make issues better. But I’m confident that we’ll work via the difficulties.”

In addition to intercourse abuse, the agenda for the assembly in Anaheim consists of 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 on the mean-spirited behaviors attributed to some SBC officers in 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 crusing into uncharted waters.”

“The work’s not finished,” he added. “We’ve gotten the report, however I think everybody within the survivor group that I’ve heard from has said reports are one thing, but we’ll see if this family of churches has the courage and resolve to take action.”

The intercourse abuse scandal was thrust into the highlight in 2019 by a landmark report from the Houston Chronicle and San Antonio Categorical-News documenting tons of of circumstances in Southern Baptist churches, including several through which alleged perpetrators remained in ministry.

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