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 different church personnel known to be abusers.

The creation of an “Offender Info 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 last year’s national meeting pressed for an investigation by outsiders.

The proposed database is expected to be one of a number of recommendations offered to 1000's of delegates attending this yr’s nationwide assembly, scheduled for June 14-15 in Anaheim, California.

“Those suggestions shall be open to questions, debate and comments on the assembly floor,” stated 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 losing membership steadily lately, whereas being wracked by internal divisions over race and gender roles.

The Guidepost report said survivors of abuse by SBC clergy repeatedly shared allegations with the Executive Committee, “solely to be met, time and time again, with resistance, stonewalling, and even outright hostility from some inside the EC.”

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

The movement for an impartial investigation was put forward eventually year’s national meeting 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, in addition to leaders prioritizing safety of the SBC from legal responsibility over abuse prevention.

“We’re at a fork in the road,” Gaines mentioned. “I feel this report offered the data that we wanted for there to be a groundswell of support to take the appropriate actions.”

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

“I feel that’s one of many first things 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 known abusers. She was heartened that Guidepost was recommending such a system, but stated questions remain about its implementation.

“What is absolutely vital is that the native church can not operate because 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 local church is deemed to be a requisite first stop for survivors to pursue motion, then many survivors’ voices shall 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 other personnel identified as sex abusers. Brown said the committee, at a particular meeting Tuesday, should conform to launch this checklist.

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

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

“We saw patterns and things that have been deeply concerning,” he said. “Our principal job was to empower Guidepost to do their job, and they have executed a truly outstanding job in the last nine months to have a look at events that occurred over 20 years.”

In the subsequent week or so, the task force will deliver forth formal motions in “precise language,” which will be made public and offered 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 suggestions based on Guidepost’s report could be summarized in two phrases – prevention and care.

“Our principal aim needs to be preventing sexual abuse,” he said. “And if abuse does occur, how can we care for survivors in a a lot better pastoral means? How can we better talk 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 who is fair-minded will take a look at what’s in that report and demand that issues be higher,” Frank mentioned. “SBC is an enormous family with 48,000 churches. There might be some disagreement on the right way to make issues better. But I’m assured that we’ll work via the difficulties.”

In addition to intercourse abuse, the agenda for the assembly in Anaheim consists of 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 within 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 crusing into uncharted waters.”

“The work’s not completed,” he added. “We’ve gotten the report, however I believe all people in the survivor community that I’ve heard from has mentioned experiences are one thing, but we’ll see if this household of church buildings 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 Categorical-Information documenting lots of of cases in Southern Baptist churches, together with several through which alleged perpetrators remained in ministry.

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