Southern Baptists face push for public checklist of intercourse abusers

A blistering report on the Southern Baptist Convention’s mishandling of sex abuse allegations is elevating the prospect that the denomination, for the first 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 recommendations in a report released Sunday by Guidepost Options, an unbiased agency contracted by the SBC’s Govt Committee after delegates to last 12 months’s national assembly pressed for an investigation by outsiders.

The proposed database is expected to be considered one of a number of recommendations offered to 1000's of delegates attending this 12 months’s nationwide assembly, scheduled for June 14-15 in Anaheim, California.

“Those recommendations will be open to questions, debate and feedback on the assembly floor,” said SBC President Ed Litton.

He expressed hope that the surprising findings within the Guidepost report will deliver “lasting change” to the SBC, America’s largest Protestant denomination. It has been dropping membership steadily in recent years, while being wracked by internal divisions over race and gender roles.

The Guidepost report stated survivors of abuse by SBC clergy repeatedly shared allegations with the Executive Committee, “solely to be met, time and time once more, with resistance, stonewalling, and even outright hostility from some throughout the EC.”

“Our investigation revealed that, for many years, a number of senior EC leaders, together with exterior counsel, largely controlled the EC’s response to these reports of abuse ... and had been singularly centered on avoiding liability,” the report stated.

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

Reading 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 within the highway,” Gaines stated. “I feel this report supplied the knowledge that we needed for there to be a groundswell of assist to take the suitable actions.”

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

“I feel that’s one of the first issues we must always do,” he mentioned.

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 said questions stay about its implementation.

“What is absolutely important is that the local church cannot function because the default or presumed beginning place for a survivor to attempt to get hold of an investigation of clergy intercourse abuse,” she mentioned by way of email. “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 Govt Committee stored a secret list of lots of of SBC-affiliated clergy and other personnel recognized as intercourse abusers. Brown said the committee, at a special assembly Tuesday, should conform to release this checklist.

“I urge you to make public the entirety of your list of pastors & ministers accused of sexual abuse, in no matter form it’s been kept for lo these many years,” Brown tweeted. “Submit. It. Now.”

The ultimate choices about recommendations to undergo the Anaheim delegates will probably be made by the SBC’s Sexual Abuse Task Power, comprising seven members and two advisors. Its work over the past yr has been an emotional journey, stated Pastor Bruce Frank, who led the group.

“We saw patterns and issues that had been deeply concerning,” he mentioned. “Our important job was to empower Guidepost to do their job, and so they have accomplished a really remarkable job within the final 9 months to take a look at events that occurred over 20 years.”

In the subsequent week or so, the task drive will convey forth formal motions in “exact language,” which can 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 mentioned the crux of the task drive’s recommendations based mostly on Guidepost’s report might be summarized in two phrases – prevention and care.

“Our principal goal needs to be stopping sexual abuse,” he stated. “And if abuse does happen, how can we care for survivors in a significantly better pastoral means? 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 look at what’s in that report and demand that things be higher,” Frank stated. “SBC is a giant family with 48,000 churches. There might be some disagreement on make things higher. However I’m assured that we’ll work by way of the difficulties.”

In addition to sex abuse, the agenda for the assembly in Anaheim contains election of a brand 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 within the Guidepost report.

If elected, Barber mentioned 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 accomplished,” he added. “We’ve gotten the report, however I believe everybody in the survivor community that I’ve heard from has stated stories are one thing, however we’ll see if this family of church buildings has the courage and resolve to take action.”

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 circumstances in Southern Baptist churches, together with several in which alleged perpetrators remained in ministry.

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