Southern Baptists face push for public record of intercourse abusers

A blistering report on the Southern Baptist Convention’s mishandling of sex abuse allegations is raising 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 launched Sunday by Guidepost Options, an unbiased firm contracted by the SBC’s Executive Committee after delegates to final year’s national assembly pressed for an investigation by outsiders.

The proposed database is anticipated to be one of several suggestions offered to thousands of delegates attending this 12 months’s nationwide assembly, scheduled for June 14-15 in Anaheim, California.

“Those recommendations will probably be open to questions, debate and comments on the assembly ground,” mentioned SBC President Ed Litton.

He expressed hope that the shocking findings in the Guidepost report will deliver “lasting change” to the SBC, America’s largest Protestant denomination. It has been shedding membership steadily in recent times, 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 Govt 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 many years, a few senior EC leaders, together with outside counsel, largely managed the EC’s response to these reports of abuse ... and were singularly focused on avoiding legal responsibility,” the report mentioned.

The movement for an unbiased investigation was put forward ultimately year’s national 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 protection of the SBC from legal responsibility over abuse prevention.

“We’re at a fork within the highway,” Gaines stated. “I feel this report offered the information that we needed for there to be a groundswell of support to take the correct actions.”

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

“I feel that’s one of many first things we must always do,” he stated.

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 recognized abusers. She was heartened that Guidepost was recommending such a system, however mentioned questions stay about its implementation.

“What is totally important is that the local church can not perform because the default or presumed starting place for a survivor to attempt to receive an investigation of clergy intercourse abuse,” she said via e-mail. “If the native church is deemed to be a requisite first stop for survivors to pursue action, then many survivors’ voices shall be choked of their throats earlier than sound is ever uttered.”

Among the Guidepost report’s findings was that the Executive Committee saved a secret listing of tons of of SBC-affiliated clergy and different personnel recognized as intercourse abusers. Brown said the committee, at a particular assembly Tuesday, ought to conform to release this list.

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

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

“We noticed patterns and things that were deeply regarding,” he stated. “Our most important job was to empower Guidepost to do their job, and they have achieved a really exceptional job within the final 9 months to 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 will likely be made public and offered to the delegates in Anaheim for a vote, mentioned Frank, lead pastor of Biltmore Baptist Church in Arden, North Carolina.

Frank said the crux of the task force’s recommendations based on Guidepost’s report can be summarized in two words – prevention and care.

“Our predominant goal should be stopping sexual abuse,” he said. “And if abuse does occur, how will we take care of survivors in a a lot better pastoral manner? How can we higher talk 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 one that is fair-minded will look at what’s in that report and demand that issues be better,” Frank mentioned. “SBC is a big family with 48,000 churches. There could be some disagreement on how you can make things higher. But I’m confident that we’ll work by way of the difficulties.”

In addition to intercourse abuse, the agenda for the assembly in Anaheim contains 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 officers in the Guidepost report.

If elected, Barber stated 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 completed,” he added. “We’ve gotten the report, however I feel everyone in the survivor group that I’ve heard from has mentioned reviews are one factor, but we’ll see if this family of church buildings has the courage 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 Specific-Information documenting tons of of circumstances in Southern Baptist church buildings, including a number of in which alleged perpetrators remained in ministry.

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