Southern Baptists face push for public list of intercourse 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 many key suggestions in a report released Sunday by Guidepost Options, an impartial agency contracted by the SBC’s Government Committee after delegates to last year’s nationwide assembly pressed for an investigation by outsiders.

The proposed database is predicted to be one in all several recommendations offered to 1000's of delegates attending this year’s nationwide meeting, scheduled for June 14-15 in Anaheim, California.

“Those suggestions can be open to questions, debate and comments on the meeting ground,” said SBC President Ed Litton.

He expressed hope that the shocking findings in the Guidepost report will convey “lasting change” to the SBC, America’s largest Protestant denomination. It has been shedding 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 Government 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 many years, a couple of senior EC leaders, along with exterior counsel, largely managed the EC’s response to those studies of abuse ... and were singularly targeted on avoiding legal responsibility,” the report said.

The motion for an unbiased investigation was put forward finally yr’s national assembly by the Rev. Grant Gaines, senior pastor of Belle Aire Baptist Church in Murfreesboro, Tennessee.

Studying 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 liability over abuse prevention.

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

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

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

“What is absolutely essential is that the native church can't function because the default or presumed starting place for a survivor to try to acquire an investigation of clergy intercourse abuse,” she mentioned through email. “If the native church is deemed to be a requisite first cease for survivors to pursue motion, then many survivors’ voices shall be choked in their throats before sound is ever uttered.”

Among the Guidepost report’s findings was that the Govt Committee saved a secret list of a whole lot of SBC-affiliated clergy and other personnel recognized as intercourse abusers. Brown mentioned the committee, at a particular assembly Tuesday, ought to agree to launch this record.

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

The ultimate decisions about recommendations to undergo the Anaheim delegates will be made by the SBC’s Sexual Abuse Activity Drive, comprising seven members and two advisors. Its work over the previous yr has been an emotional journey, mentioned Pastor Bruce Frank, who led the group.

“We saw patterns and things that were deeply concerning,” he mentioned. “Our most important job was to empower Guidepost to do their job, and so they have accomplished a very exceptional job within the final nine months to look at events that occurred over 20 years.”

Within the subsequent week or so, the task pressure will bring forth formal motions in “exact language,” which will probably be made public and presented 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 drive’s suggestions primarily based on Guidepost’s report could be summarized in two words – prevention and care.

“Our principal purpose should be preventing sexual abuse,” he stated. “And if abuse does happen, how can we look after survivors in a a lot better pastoral manner? How can we higher communicate to verify (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 things be better,” Frank said. “SBC is a giant family with 48,000 church buildings. There is likely to be some disagreement on how to make issues higher. However I’m assured that we’ll work by way of 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 many 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 knowledge to know what to do.... We’re sailing into uncharted waters.”

“The work’s not completed,” he added. “We’ve gotten the report, but I think all people in the survivor community that I’ve heard from has mentioned studies are one factor, but we’ll see if this family of church buildings has the braveness and resolve to take motion.”

The sex abuse scandal was thrust into the spotlight in 2019 by a landmark report from the Houston Chronicle and San Antonio Specific-News documenting a whole bunch of circumstances in Southern Baptist church buildings, together with a number of during which alleged perpetrators remained in ministry.

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