Southern Baptists face push for public list of sex abusers

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

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

The proposed database is anticipated to be one in every of a number of recommendations presented to 1000's of delegates attending this 12 months’s nationwide meeting, scheduled for June 14-15 in Anaheim, California.

“These recommendations will likely be open to questions, debate and feedback on the assembly flooring,” mentioned SBC President Ed Litton.

He expressed hope that the stunning findings in the Guidepost report will deliver “lasting change” to the SBC, America’s largest Protestant denomination. It has been shedding 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 Executive Committee, “only to be met, time and time once more, with resistance, stonewalling, and even outright hostility from some inside the EC.”

“Our investigation revealed that, for many years, a couple of senior EC leaders, along with outdoors counsel, largely managed the EC’s response to these experiences of abuse ... and have been singularly targeted on avoiding liability,” the report stated.

The movement for an impartial investigation was put ahead eventually yr’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 safety of the SBC from liability over abuse prevention.

“We’re at a fork in the highway,” Gaines said. “I think this report provided the information that we would have liked for there to be a groundswell of assist to take the precise actions.”

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

“I feel that’s one of the first issues we should always do,” he said.

Lawyer and writer 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, however stated questions stay about its implementation.

“What is absolutely important is that the native church can not perform because the default or presumed beginning place for a survivor to try to acquire an investigation of clergy sex abuse,” she mentioned by way of e mail. “If the native church is deemed to be a requisite first cease for survivors to pursue motion, then many survivors’ voices will likely be choked of their throats earlier than sound is ever uttered.”

Among the Guidepost report’s findings was that the Government Committee stored 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 the whole lot of your listing of pastors & ministers accused of sexual abuse, in no matter form it’s been stored for lo these many years,” Brown tweeted. “Publish. It. Now.”

The final selections about recommendations to undergo the Anaheim delegates might be made by the SBC’s Sexual Abuse Process Power, comprising seven members and two advisors. Its work over the previous yr has been an emotional journey, said Pastor Bruce Frank, who led the group.

“We saw patterns and things that were deeply concerning,” he stated. “Our main job was to empower Guidepost to do their job, and they have achieved a truly outstanding job in the final 9 months to look at occasions that occurred over 20 years.”

Within the next week or so, the task power will convey forth formal motions in “exact language,” which will likely 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 task power’s suggestions based on Guidepost’s report will be summarized in two phrases – prevention and care.

“Our most important goal must be stopping sexual abuse,” he said. “And if abuse does happen, how do we look after survivors in a much better pastoral approach? How can we better communicate to verify (abusers) don’t go from one church to a different?”

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 issues be better,” Frank mentioned. “SBC is an enormous household with 48,000 church buildings. There might be some disagreement on how you can make things better. However I’m confident that we’ll work by the difficulties.”

Along with intercourse abuse, the agenda for the assembly in Anaheim contains 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 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 crusing into uncharted waters.”

“The work’s not completed,” he added. “We’ve gotten the report, but I feel everybody within the survivor neighborhood that I’ve heard from has said reviews are one factor, but we’ll see if this household of churches has the courage 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 lots of of instances in Southern Baptist churches, together with several wherein alleged perpetrators remained in ministry.

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