Southern Baptists face push for public listing of sex abusers

A blistering report on the Southern Baptist Convention’s mishandling of intercourse abuse allegations is raising the prospect that the denomination, for the primary time, will create a publicly accessible database of pastors and other church personnel identified to be abusers.

The creation of an “Offender Information System” was one of many key suggestions in a report released Sunday by Guidepost Solutions, an independent firm contracted by the SBC’s Executive Committee after delegates to last 12 months’s nationwide assembly pressed for an investigation by outsiders.

The proposed database is anticipated to be one among a number of suggestions introduced to hundreds of delegates attending this 12 months’s nationwide assembly, scheduled for June 14-15 in Anaheim, California.

“Those suggestions shall be open to questions, debate and feedback on the assembly floor,” stated SBC President Ed Litton.

He expressed hope that the stunning findings in the Guidepost report will bring “lasting change” to the SBC, America’s largest Protestant denomination. It has been losing membership steadily lately, while 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 once more, with resistance, stonewalling, and even outright hostility from some within the EC.”

“Our investigation revealed that, for a few years, a few senior EC leaders, together with outside counsel, largely managed the EC’s response to those reports of abuse ... and were singularly centered on avoiding liability,” the report said.

The motion for an impartial investigation was put ahead at last year’s nationwide meeting 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, as well as leaders prioritizing safety of the SBC from liability over abuse prevention.

“We’re at a fork in the highway,” Gaines mentioned. “I think this report provided the knowledge that we would have liked for there to be a groundswell of support to take the suitable actions.”

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

“I believe that’s one of the first things we should do,” he mentioned.

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 mentioned questions remain about its implementation.

“What is absolutely vital is that the native church can not function as the default or presumed beginning place for a survivor to try to obtain an investigation of clergy sex abuse,” she stated via e mail. “If the native church is deemed to be a requisite first stop for survivors to pursue action, then many survivors’ voices will probably 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 listing of a whole lot of SBC-affiliated clergy and other personnel identified as sex abusers. Brown stated the committee, at a particular meeting Tuesday, ought to agree to launch this checklist.

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

The ultimate decisions about suggestions to submit to the Anaheim delegates might be made by the SBC’s Sexual Abuse Process Drive, comprising seven members and two advisors. Its work over the past year has been an emotional journey, stated Pastor Bruce Frank, who led the group.

“We noticed patterns and issues that were deeply concerning,” he said. “Our principal job was to empower Guidepost to do their job, they usually have done a truly exceptional job in the final 9 months to take a look at occasions that occurred over 20 years.”

Within the next week or so, the duty drive will carry forth formal motions in “exact language,” which will probably 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 drive’s suggestions based mostly on Guidepost’s report will be summarized in two phrases – prevention and care.

“Our primary goal ought to be preventing sexual abuse,” he stated. “And if abuse does happen, how do we take care of survivors in a significantly better pastoral method? How can we higher communicate 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 that is fair-minded will take a look at what’s in that report and demand that issues be higher,” Frank stated. “SBC is a giant family with 48,000 church buildings. There might be some disagreement on easy methods to make things higher. But I’m confident that we’ll work through 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 leading 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 stated 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 believe everyone within the survivor group that I’ve heard from has stated studies are one thing, but we’ll see if this household of churches has the courage and resolve to take action.”

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 instances in Southern Baptist church buildings, together with several wherein alleged perpetrators remained in ministry.

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