Southern Baptists face push for public listing of intercourse abusers

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

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

The proposed database is expected to be considered one of several recommendations offered to thousands of delegates attending this 12 months’s national meeting, 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 surprising findings in the Guidepost report will deliver “lasting change” to the SBC, America’s largest Protestant denomination. It has been dropping membership steadily lately, while 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, “solely 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, together with outdoors counsel, largely controlled the EC’s response to these reviews of abuse ... and have been singularly focused on avoiding liability,” the report stated.

The motion 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.

Studying the Guidepost report, Gaines stated 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 road,” Gaines mentioned. “I think this report provided the data that we needed for there to be a groundswell of help to take the proper actions.”

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

“I think that’s one of many first things we should do,” he said.

Lawyer and author 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 known abusers. She was heartened that Guidepost was recommending such a system, however mentioned questions remain about its implementation.

“What is absolutely crucial is that the native church can not operate because 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 native church is deemed to be a requisite first cease for survivors to pursue action, then many survivors’ voices will be choked of their throats earlier than sound is ever uttered.”

Among the many Guidepost report’s findings was that the Executive Committee saved a secret record of hundreds of SBC-affiliated clergy and other personnel identified as intercourse abusers. Brown stated the committee, at a particular assembly Tuesday, should agree to release this record.

“I urge you to make public everything of your record of pastors & ministers accused of sexual abuse, in no matter form it’s been kept for lo these a few years,” Brown tweeted. “Put up. It. Now.”

The ultimate selections about recommendations to submit to the Anaheim delegates might be made by the SBC’s Sexual Abuse Job Power, comprising seven members and two advisors. Its work over the past 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 primary job was to empower Guidepost to do their job, and they have done a truly exceptional job within the final 9 months to look at events that occurred over 20 years.”

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

Frank stated the crux of the task power’s recommendations based mostly on Guidepost’s report might be summarized in two words – prevention and care.

“Our principal purpose must be stopping sexual abuse,” he mentioned. “And if abuse does happen, how will we care for survivors in a significantly better pastoral manner? How can we better talk to verify (abusers) don’t go from one church to another?”

His hope is that this report serves as “a catalyst for change.”

“Any one that is fair-minded will have a look at what’s in that report and demand that issues be higher,” Frank mentioned. “SBC is a giant household with 48,000 churches. There is likely to be some disagreement on easy methods to make issues higher. But I’m confident that we’ll work via 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 main contenders is Bart Barber, a pastor from Farmersville, Texas, who expressed dismay at the mean-spirited behaviors attributed to some SBC officers 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 crusing into uncharted waters.”

“The work’s not achieved,” he added. “We’ve gotten the report, however I think everyone in the survivor neighborhood that I’ve heard from has stated experiences are one factor, but we’ll see if this household of churches 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-Information documenting hundreds of circumstances in Southern Baptist church buildings, together with several by which alleged perpetrators remained in ministry.

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