Southern Baptists face push for public record of intercourse abusers

A blistering report on the Southern Baptist Conference’s mishandling of intercourse 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 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 nationwide assembly pressed for an investigation by outsiders.

The proposed database is predicted to be one in every of a number of recommendations offered to hundreds of delegates attending this yr’s nationwide meeting, scheduled for June 14-15 in Anaheim, California.

“These recommendations can be open to questions, debate and feedback on the meeting ground,” stated SBC President Ed Litton.

He expressed hope that the shocking findings within 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 mentioned survivors of abuse by SBC clergy repeatedly shared allegations with the Govt 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 outdoors counsel, largely managed the EC’s response to those reports of abuse ... and were singularly centered on avoiding legal responsibility,” the report mentioned.

The movement for an independent investigation was put forward finally year’s nationwide meeting 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 safety of the SBC from legal responsibility over abuse prevention.

“We’re at a fork in the highway,” Gaines mentioned. “I believe this report offered the information that we wanted for there to be a groundswell of help to take the suitable actions.”

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

“I feel that’s one of many first things 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 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 completely essential is that the native church can not function as the default or presumed beginning place for a survivor to attempt to get hold of an investigation of clergy sex abuse,” she said via e-mail. “If the local church is deemed to be a requisite first stop for survivors to pursue motion, then many survivors’ voices might be choked in their throats before sound is ever uttered.”

Among the many Guidepost report’s findings was that the Government Committee stored a secret checklist of lots of of SBC-affiliated clergy and other personnel recognized as sex abusers. Brown mentioned the committee, at a special meeting Tuesday, ought to conform to release this record.

“I urge you to make public everything of your checklist of pastors & ministers accused of sexual abuse, in whatever type it’s been saved for lo these a few years,” Brown tweeted. “Put up. It. Now.”

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

“We saw patterns and issues that had been deeply regarding,” he stated. “Our fundamental job was to empower Guidepost to do their job, they usually have executed a truly remarkable job in the last 9 months to take a look at events that occurred over 20 years.”

In the next week or so, the duty force will bring forth formal motions in “precise language,” which might 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 can be summarized in two phrases – prevention and care.

“Our foremost aim must be preventing sexual abuse,” he stated. “And if abuse does occur, how will we take care of survivors in a much better pastoral method? How can we higher talk to ensure (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 things be higher,” Frank mentioned. “SBC is an enormous family with 48,000 churches. There is likely to be some disagreement on find out how to make things better. However I’m confident that we’ll work by the difficulties.”

Along with 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 at the mean-spirited behaviors attributed to some SBC officers in the Guidepost report.

If elected, Barber said 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 executed,” he added. “We’ve gotten the report, but I think everybody in the survivor community that I’ve heard from has mentioned reviews are one thing, but we’ll see if this family of churches has the courage and resolve to take motion.”

The sex abuse scandal was thrust into the highlight in 2019 by a landmark report from the Houston Chronicle and San Antonio Express-Information documenting lots of of cases in Southern Baptist churches, together with a number of during which alleged perpetrators remained in ministry.

___

Related Press religion protection receives support by means of the AP’s collaboration with The Dialog US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely liable for this content.