Southern Baptists face push for public list of sex abusers

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

The creation of an “Offender Information System” was one of the key recommendations in a report released Sunday by Guidepost Solutions, an impartial agency contracted by the SBC’s Executive Committee after delegates to final year’s nationwide meeting pressed for an investigation by outsiders.

The proposed database is expected to be one in all 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 can be open to questions, debate and feedback on the assembly flooring,” mentioned SBC President Ed Litton.

He expressed hope that the stunning 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 years, whereas being wracked by inner divisions over race and gender roles.

The Guidepost report stated survivors of abuse by SBC clergy repeatedly shared allegations with the Government Committee, “only to be met, time and time once more, 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, together with exterior counsel, largely managed the EC’s response to those reports of abuse ... and were singularly focused on avoiding liability,” the report said.

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

Studying the Guidepost report, Gaines said he was struck by repeated examples of a callous disregard for survivors, as well as leaders prioritizing protection of the SBC from liability over abuse prevention.

“We’re at a fork in the road,” Gaines stated. “I believe this report supplied the data that we needed for there to be a groundswell of support to take the suitable actions.”

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

“I feel that’s one of many first things we should 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 recognized abusers. She was heartened that Guidepost was recommending such a system, however stated questions stay about its implementation.

“What is completely critical is that the local church cannot operate as the default or presumed beginning place for a survivor to try to acquire an investigation of clergy sex abuse,” she said through e mail. “If the native church is deemed to be a requisite first stop for survivors to pursue motion, then many survivors’ voices will be choked in their throats before sound is ever uttered.”

Among the many Guidepost report’s findings was that the Government Committee kept a secret record of a whole lot of SBC-affiliated clergy and different personnel recognized as intercourse abusers. Brown mentioned the committee, at a special meeting Tuesday, should conform to launch this listing.

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

The ultimate decisions about suggestions to submit to the Anaheim delegates will be made by the SBC’s Sexual Abuse Task Pressure, 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 had been deeply concerning,” he mentioned. “Our important job was to empower Guidepost to do their job, they usually have done a very remarkable job within the final nine months to take a look at occasions that occurred over 20 years.”

In the subsequent week or so, the task drive will bring forth formal motions in “exact language,” which might be made public and presented to the delegates in Anaheim for a vote, stated Frank, lead pastor of Biltmore Baptist Church in Arden, North Carolina.

Frank said the crux of the duty force’s suggestions based on Guidepost’s report could be summarized in two words – prevention and care.

“Our major goal needs to be preventing sexual abuse,” he said. “And if abuse does happen, how can we look after survivors in a significantly better pastoral means? How can we better 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 that is fair-minded will take a look at what’s in that report and demand that things be higher,” Frank said. “SBC is an enormous household with 48,000 church buildings. There might be some disagreement on the right way to make things higher. But I’m confident that we’ll work by means of the difficulties.”

In addition to intercourse abuse, the agenda for the meeting in Anaheim includes 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 on the mean-spirited behaviors attributed to some SBC officials within 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 sailing into uncharted waters.”

“The work’s not done,” he added. “We’ve gotten the report, however I believe everybody within the survivor group that I’ve heard from has mentioned reports are one factor, however we’ll see if this household of church buildings has the braveness and resolve to take motion.”

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

___

Associated Press faith protection receives support via the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely liable for this content.