Southern Baptists face push for public listing of intercourse abusers

A blistering report on the Southern Baptist Convention’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 other church personnel recognized to be abusers.

The creation of an “Offender Info System” was one of the key recommendations in a report launched Sunday by Guidepost Options, an impartial agency contracted by the SBC’s Govt Committee after delegates to final yr’s national meeting pressed for an investigation by outsiders.

The proposed database is expected to be considered one of several suggestions offered to 1000's of delegates attending this yr’s nationwide meeting, scheduled for June 14-15 in Anaheim, California.

“These recommendations can 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 deliver “lasting change” to the SBC, America’s largest Protestant denomination. It has been dropping membership steadily in recent years, while 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 Government Committee, “only to be met, time and time once more, with resistance, stonewalling, and even outright hostility from some within the EC.”

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

The motion for an impartial investigation was put ahead eventually 12 months’s national meeting 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 safety of the SBC from legal responsibility over abuse prevention.

“We’re at a fork within the highway,” Gaines stated. “I feel this report offered the information that we needed for there to be a groundswell of help to take the best actions.”

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

“I believe that’s one of many first things we should 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 recognized abusers. She was heartened that Guidepost was recommending such a system, however stated questions remain about its implementation.

“What is absolutely essential is that the local church can't operate as the default or presumed starting place for a survivor to try to receive an investigation of clergy intercourse abuse,” she stated through e-mail. “If the native church is deemed to be a requisite first stop for survivors to pursue motion, then many survivors’ voices can be choked in their throats earlier than sound is ever uttered.”

Among the many Guidepost report’s findings was that the Executive Committee stored a secret checklist of hundreds of SBC-affiliated clergy and different personnel recognized as sex abusers. Brown stated the committee, at a particular meeting Tuesday, ought to comply with release this record.

“I urge you to make public everything of your record of pastors & ministers accused of sexual abuse, in whatever type it’s been kept for lo these a few years,” Brown tweeted. “Post. It. Now.”

The ultimate selections about suggestions to submit to the Anaheim delegates will likely be made by the SBC’s Sexual Abuse Job Drive, comprising seven members and two advisors. Its work over the previous 12 months has been an emotional journey, stated Pastor Bruce Frank, who led the group.

“We noticed patterns and issues that were deeply concerning,” he mentioned. “Our major job was to empower Guidepost to do their job, and so they have finished a truly exceptional job in the final 9 months to have a look at occasions that occurred over 20 years.”

In the next week or so, the duty force will convey forth formal motions in “precise language,” which shall 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 pressure’s recommendations based on Guidepost’s report will be summarized in two words – prevention and care.

“Our primary aim should be preventing sexual abuse,” he stated. “And if abuse does occur, how will we care for survivors in a a lot better pastoral manner? How can we better talk 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 person who is fair-minded will look at what’s in that report and demand that issues be better,” Frank stated. “SBC is a big family with 48,000 churches. There may be some disagreement on learn how to make things higher. But I’m assured that we’ll work by way of the difficulties.”

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

One of many main 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 wisdom to know what to do.... We’re sailing into uncharted waters.”

“The work’s not finished,” he added. “We’ve gotten the report, but I think everybody in the survivor neighborhood that I’ve heard from has stated reports are one thing, however 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 a whole bunch of circumstances in Southern Baptist church buildings, including a number of in which alleged perpetrators remained in ministry.

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