Southern Baptists face push for public checklist of sex abusers

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

The creation of an “Offender Data System” was one of many key suggestions in a report launched Sunday by Guidepost Options, an unbiased agency contracted by the SBC’s Government Committee after delegates to final 12 months’s nationwide assembly pressed for an investigation by outsiders.

The proposed database is expected to be one of several recommendations introduced to thousands of delegates attending this 12 months’s national meeting, scheduled for June 14-15 in Anaheim, California.

“Those suggestions can be open to questions, debate and feedback on the assembly floor,” mentioned SBC President Ed Litton.

He expressed hope that the stunning findings in 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 internal divisions over race and gender roles.

The Guidepost report said 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 inside the EC.”

“Our investigation revealed that, for a few years, a number of senior EC leaders, together with outdoors counsel, largely controlled the EC’s response to these stories of abuse ... and have been singularly targeted on avoiding legal responsibility,” the report mentioned.

The movement for an unbiased investigation was put forward finally 12 months’s national meeting by the Rev. Grant Gaines, senior pastor of Belle Aire Baptist Church in Murfreesboro, Tennessee.

Reading the Guidepost report, Gaines mentioned he was struck by repeated examples of a callous disregard for survivors, in addition to leaders prioritizing protection of the SBC from liability over abuse prevention.

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

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

“I feel that’s one of the first things we should do,” he stated.

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 stated questions stay about its implementation.

“What is completely important is that the native church can not operate as the default or presumed beginning place for a survivor to try to get hold of an investigation of clergy sex abuse,” she mentioned by way of e-mail. “If the local church is deemed to be a requisite first cease for survivors to pursue action, then many survivors’ voices shall be choked in their throats before sound is ever uttered.”

Among the many Guidepost report’s findings was that the Executive Committee saved a secret record of lots of of SBC-affiliated clergy and different personnel identified as sex abusers. Brown said the committee, at a particular meeting Tuesday, ought to agree to release this list.

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

The ultimate selections about recommendations to undergo the Anaheim delegates will likely be made by the SBC’s Sexual Abuse Task Force, comprising seven members and two advisors. Its work over the past 12 months has been an emotional journey, mentioned Pastor Bruce Frank, who led the group.

“We saw patterns and things that were deeply concerning,” he stated. “Our essential job was to empower Guidepost to do their job, they usually have finished a really exceptional job in the last 9 months to take a look at occasions that occurred over 20 years.”

In the subsequent week or so, the duty force will bring forth formal motions in “exact language,” which can 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 duty pressure’s suggestions primarily based on Guidepost’s report could be summarized in two phrases – prevention and care.

“Our primary objective must be preventing sexual abuse,” he said. “And if abuse does occur, how will we take care of survivors in a much better pastoral means? How can we better talk to ensure (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 take a look at what’s in that report and demand that things be better,” Frank said. “SBC is a giant family with 48,000 churches. There is likely to be some disagreement on tips on how to make things better. But I’m confident that we’ll work via the difficulties.”

In addition to intercourse abuse, the agenda for the meeting in Anaheim includes election of a 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 officers 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 done,” he added. “We’ve gotten the report, but I think everyone within the survivor community that I’ve heard from has said reports are one thing, but we’ll see if this family of church buildings has the courage and resolve to take action.”

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 hundreds of instances in Southern Baptist churches, including several by which alleged perpetrators remained in ministry.

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