Southern Baptists face push for public record of intercourse abusers

A blistering report on the Southern Baptist Conference’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 Data System” was one of the key recommendations in a report released Sunday by Guidepost Options, an impartial agency contracted by the SBC’s Government Committee after delegates to last yr’s national assembly pressed for an investigation by outsiders.

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

“These suggestions will likely be open to questions, debate and feedback on the meeting floor,” stated SBC President Ed Litton.

He expressed hope that the stunning findings within the Guidepost report will convey “lasting change” to the SBC, America’s largest Protestant denomination. It has been dropping membership steadily in recent times, whereas 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 many years, a couple of senior EC leaders, along with exterior counsel, largely controlled the EC’s response to these studies of abuse ... and had been singularly targeted on avoiding liability,” the report said.

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

Reading 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 liability over abuse prevention.

“We’re at a fork in the highway,” Gaines said. “I believe this report provided the data that we wanted for there to be a groundswell of support to take the best actions.”

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

“I believe that’s one of the 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 identified abusers. She was heartened that Guidepost was recommending such a system, however stated questions remain about its implementation.

“What is completely vital is that the native church can not function as the default or presumed starting place for a survivor to try to obtain an investigation of clergy sex abuse,” she mentioned through e mail. “If the local church is deemed to be a requisite first stop for survivors to pursue motion, then many survivors’ voices will be choked in their throats earlier than sound is ever uttered.”

Among the many Guidepost report’s findings was that the Executive Committee saved a secret list of a whole bunch of SBC-affiliated clergy and different personnel identified as sex abusers. Brown mentioned the committee, at a special assembly Tuesday, should comply with launch this record.

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

The final choices about recommendations to submit to the Anaheim delegates will probably be made by the SBC’s Sexual Abuse Task Force, comprising seven members and two advisors. Its work over the previous 12 months has been an emotional journey, said Pastor Bruce Frank, who led the group.

“We noticed patterns and things that were deeply regarding,” he mentioned. “Our main job was to empower Guidepost to do their job, they usually have achieved a really remarkable job in the last nine months to have a look at occasions that occurred over 20 years.”

In the next week or so, the duty force will deliver forth formal motions in “precise language,” which can be made public and introduced to the delegates in Anaheim for a vote, mentioned Frank, lead pastor of Biltmore Baptist Church in Arden, North Carolina.

Frank stated the crux of the duty power’s recommendations based mostly on Guidepost’s report could be summarized in two phrases – prevention and care.

“Our most important objective needs to be preventing sexual abuse,” he mentioned. “And if abuse does occur, how can we care for survivors in a much better pastoral manner? How can we higher 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 take a look at what’s in that report and demand that issues be higher,” Frank mentioned. “SBC is an enormous household with 48,000 churches. There could be some disagreement on how you can make issues better. However I’m confident that we’ll work via the difficulties.”

In addition to intercourse abuse, the agenda for the assembly in Anaheim contains 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 officials in the Guidepost report.

If elected, Barber mentioned 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 performed,” he added. “We’ve gotten the report, but I feel everyone in the survivor group that I’ve heard from has said reports are one factor, however we’ll see if this family of church buildings has the courage 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 Categorical-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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