Southern Baptists face push for public checklist of intercourse abusers

A blistering report on the Southern Baptist Conference’s mishandling of intercourse abuse allegations is raising 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 suggestions in a report launched Sunday by Guidepost Solutions, an unbiased agency contracted by the SBC’s Govt Committee after delegates to last 12 months’s nationwide assembly pressed for an investigation by outsiders.

The proposed database is predicted to be one in all a number of suggestions introduced to hundreds of delegates attending this 12 months’s nationwide meeting, scheduled for June 14-15 in Anaheim, California.

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

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

The Guidepost report stated 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 within the EC.”

“Our investigation revealed that, for a few years, a couple of senior EC leaders, along with exterior counsel, largely controlled the EC’s response to those stories of abuse ... and had been singularly targeted on avoiding liability,” the report mentioned.

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

Studying the Guidepost report, Gaines mentioned 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 within the street,” Gaines mentioned. “I think this report offered the knowledge that we wanted for there to be a groundswell of assist to take the precise actions.”

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

“I believe that’s one of many first issues we should do,” he said.

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 recognized abusers. She was heartened that Guidepost was recommending such a system, but said questions stay about its implementation.

“What is absolutely crucial is that the native church can't perform because the default or presumed starting place for a survivor to attempt to acquire an investigation of clergy intercourse abuse,” she mentioned by way of e-mail. “If the local church is deemed to be a requisite first stop 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 Executive Committee saved a secret list of lots of of SBC-affiliated clergy and different personnel identified as sex abusers. Brown mentioned the committee, at a special meeting Tuesday, should agree to release this checklist.

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

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

“We saw patterns and issues that had been deeply concerning,” he mentioned. “Our fundamental job was to empower Guidepost to do their job, and they have accomplished a really exceptional job within the final nine months to look at events that occurred over 20 years.”

Within the subsequent week or so, the duty drive will carry forth formal motions in “exact language,” which can be made public and introduced to the delegates in Anaheim for a vote, mentioned Frank, lead pastor of Biltmore Baptist Church in Arden, North Carolina.

Frank said the crux of the duty force’s recommendations based on Guidepost’s report may be summarized in two phrases – prevention and care.

“Our foremost aim must be preventing sexual abuse,” he mentioned. “And if abuse does happen, how can we take care of survivors in a much better pastoral approach? How can we higher talk 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 said. “SBC is a big family with 48,000 churches. There might be some disagreement on learn how to make things higher. But I’m confident that we’ll work via the difficulties.”

In addition to sex abuse, the agenda for the assembly in Anaheim includes election of a new SBC president to succeed Litton.

One of the main contenders is Bart Barber, a pastor from Farmersville, Texas, who expressed dismay at the mean-spirited behaviors attributed to some SBC officers within 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 executed,” he added. “We’ve gotten the report, but I feel everybody in the survivor neighborhood that I’ve heard from has mentioned studies are one factor, however we’ll see if this household of churches has the braveness and resolve to take motion.”

The intercourse abuse scandal was thrust into the spotlight in 2019 by a landmark report from the Houston Chronicle and San Antonio Specific-Information documenting a whole lot of cases in Southern Baptist church buildings, together with several during which alleged perpetrators remained in ministry.

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