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 identified to be abusers.

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

The proposed database is expected to be one in all a number of recommendations offered to 1000's of delegates attending this 12 months’s national assembly, scheduled for June 14-15 in Anaheim, California.

“These suggestions might be open to questions, debate and feedback on the meeting flooring,” said 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 dropping membership steadily in recent times, while 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 couple of senior EC leaders, along with outdoors counsel, largely controlled the EC’s response to these reports of abuse ... and were singularly centered on avoiding liability,” the report mentioned.

The movement for an independent investigation was put forward ultimately 12 months’s national assembly by the Rev. Grant Gaines, senior pastor of Belle Aire Baptist Church in Murfreesboro, Tennessee.

Reading the Guidepost report, Gaines mentioned he was struck by repeated examples of a callous disregard for survivors, in addition to leaders prioritizing protection of the SBC from legal responsibility over abuse prevention.

“We’re at a fork in the highway,” Gaines mentioned. “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.”

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

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

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, however mentioned questions stay about its implementation.

“What is completely important is that the local church can not perform as the default or presumed beginning place for a survivor to attempt to acquire an investigation of clergy sex abuse,” she mentioned via e-mail. “If the native church is deemed to be a requisite first cease for survivors to pursue motion, then many survivors’ voices shall be choked of their throats earlier than sound is ever uttered.”

Among the Guidepost report’s findings was that the Executive Committee saved a secret list of hundreds of SBC-affiliated clergy and other personnel identified as intercourse abusers. Brown mentioned the committee, at a particular meeting Tuesday, should agree to launch this listing.

“I urge you to make public the whole thing of your listing of pastors & ministers accused of sexual abuse, in whatever form it’s been stored for lo these many years,” Brown tweeted. “Post. It. Now.”

The ultimate choices about recommendations to submit to the Anaheim delegates shall be made by the SBC’s Sexual Abuse Process Force, comprising seven members and two advisors. Its work over the past 12 months has been an emotional journey, stated Pastor Bruce Frank, who led the group.

“We noticed patterns and things that had been deeply concerning,” he said. “Our major job was to empower Guidepost to do their job, and they have completed a truly remarkable job within the final nine months to look at events that occurred over 20 years.”

In the next week or so, the task pressure will deliver forth formal motions in “precise language,” which shall 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 said the crux of the task power’s suggestions primarily based on Guidepost’s report might be summarized in two words – prevention and care.

“Our main goal must be preventing sexual abuse,” he said. “And if abuse does occur, how can we look after survivors in a much better pastoral way? How can we better talk to make sure (abusers) don’t go from one church to a different?”

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 higher,” Frank said. “SBC is an enormous family with 48,000 church buildings. There could be some disagreement on how one can make issues better. However I’m assured that we’ll work by means of the difficulties.”

In addition to sex abuse, the agenda for the assembly in Anaheim includes 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 at 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 carried out,” he added. “We’ve gotten the report, but I feel all people within the survivor community that I’ve heard from has stated reviews are one thing, however we’ll see if this family of churches has the braveness and resolve to take motion.”

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

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