Southern Baptists face push for public listing of sex abusers

A blistering report on the Southern Baptist Conference’s mishandling of sex 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 recognized to be abusers.

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

The proposed database is predicted to be considered one of a number of suggestions offered to hundreds of delegates attending this 12 months’s nationwide meeting, scheduled for June 14-15 in Anaheim, California.

“These suggestions might be open to questions, debate and comments on the assembly flooring,” stated SBC President Ed Litton.

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

The Guidepost report said 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 within the EC.”

“Our investigation revealed that, for a few years, a few senior EC leaders, along with outdoors counsel, largely managed the EC’s response to these studies of abuse ... and had been singularly focused on avoiding liability,” the report mentioned.

The movement for an unbiased investigation was put ahead finally yr’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 legal responsibility over abuse prevention.

“We’re at a fork in the street,” Gaines said. “I believe this report offered the data that we would have liked for there to be a groundswell of help to take the appropriate actions.”

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

“I believe that’s one of many first things we should 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 urgent the SBC since 2006 to create a publicly accessible database of recognized abusers. She was heartened that Guidepost was recommending such a system, but mentioned questions stay about its implementation.

“What is absolutely vital is that the native church can't operate as the default or presumed beginning place for a survivor to try to acquire an investigation of clergy intercourse abuse,” she stated via e-mail. “If the native church is deemed to be a requisite first cease for survivors to pursue action, then many survivors’ voices can be choked in their throats earlier than sound is ever uttered.”

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

“I urge you to make public the entirety of your record of pastors & ministers accused of sexual abuse, in whatever type it’s been kept for lo these many years,” Brown tweeted. “Publish. It. Now.”

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

“We saw patterns and things that had been deeply regarding,” he said. “Our primary job was to empower Guidepost to do their job, they usually have executed a really outstanding job in the last 9 months to look at events that occurred over 20 years.”

In the next week or so, the duty force will deliver forth formal motions in “exact language,” which will likely 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 force’s suggestions based mostly on Guidepost’s report can be summarized in two phrases – prevention and care.

“Our important purpose must be stopping sexual abuse,” he mentioned. “And if abuse does happen, how will we look after survivors in a significantly better pastoral means? How can we better communicate to verify (abusers) don’t go from one church to a different?”

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 better,” Frank said. “SBC is a big household with 48,000 churches. There is perhaps some disagreement on how to make things better. But 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 many main 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 mentioned 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 finished,” he added. “We’ve gotten the report, however I think all people within the survivor neighborhood that I’ve heard from has mentioned reports are one factor, however we’ll see if this family of church buildings 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 Specific-News documenting a whole bunch of instances in Southern Baptist church buildings, together with several during which alleged perpetrators remained in ministry.

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