Southern Baptists face push for public record of sex 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 the key suggestions in a report launched Sunday by Guidepost Options, an impartial agency contracted by the SBC’s Government Committee after delegates to final 12 months’s national assembly pressed for an investigation by outsiders.

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

“These suggestions will likely be open to questions, debate and comments on the meeting flooring,” said 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 again, with resistance, stonewalling, and even outright hostility from some within the EC.”

“Our investigation revealed that, for a few years, a few senior EC leaders, together with outside counsel, largely controlled the EC’s response to these reports of abuse ... and were singularly focused on avoiding liability,” the report stated.

The motion for an impartial investigation was put forward at last 12 months’s nationwide assembly 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 road,” Gaines stated. “I believe this report provided the data that we would have liked for there to be a groundswell of help to take the best actions.”

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

“I feel that’s one of many 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 urgent the SBC since 2006 to create a publicly accessible database of identified abusers. She was heartened that Guidepost was recommending such a system, but mentioned questions remain about its implementation.

“What is totally essential is that the local church cannot function as the default or presumed starting place for a survivor to try to obtain an investigation of clergy intercourse abuse,” she stated via electronic mail. “If the local church is deemed to be a requisite first cease for survivors to pursue action, then many survivors’ voices shall be choked in their throats before sound is ever uttered.”

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

“I urge you to make public the whole thing of your listing of pastors & ministers accused of sexual abuse, in no matter kind it’s been stored for lo these a few years,” Brown tweeted. “Put up. It. Now.”

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

“We saw patterns and things that were deeply regarding,” he said. “Our primary job was to empower Guidepost to do their job, and they have completed a really outstanding job in the last nine months to take a look at occasions that occurred over 20 years.”

Within the next week or so, the task force will convey forth formal motions in “exact language,” which will 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 mentioned the crux of the duty drive’s recommendations based mostly on Guidepost’s report will be summarized in two phrases – prevention and care.

“Our predominant objective ought to be stopping sexual abuse,” he said. “And if abuse does happen, how will we look after survivors in a a lot better pastoral manner? How can we higher talk to verify (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 better,” Frank stated. “SBC is an enormous family with 48,000 church buildings. There is likely to be some disagreement on the way to make things higher. However I’m confident that we’ll work through the difficulties.”

In addition to sex abuse, the agenda for the meeting in Anaheim contains 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 within 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 crusing into uncharted waters.”

“The work’s not achieved,” he added. “We’ve gotten the report, however I think all people in the survivor community that I’ve heard from has mentioned stories are one factor, however we’ll see if this family of church buildings 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-Information documenting a whole lot of circumstances in Southern Baptist church buildings, including a number of wherein alleged perpetrators remained in ministry.

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