Southern Baptists face push for public checklist of sex 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 different church personnel known to be abusers.

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

The proposed database is predicted to be considered one of several recommendations offered to 1000's of delegates attending this 12 months’s national meeting, scheduled for June 14-15 in Anaheim, California.

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

He expressed hope that the shocking findings in the Guidepost report will convey “lasting change” to the SBC, America’s largest Protestant denomination. It has been shedding 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 Govt Committee, “only 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 couple of senior EC leaders, along with exterior counsel, largely managed the EC’s response to these experiences of abuse ... and have been singularly targeted on avoiding liability,” the report stated.

The motion for an impartial investigation was put ahead ultimately yr’s national assembly 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 legal responsibility over abuse prevention.

“We’re at a fork within the street,” Gaines mentioned. “I feel this report provided the data that we needed for there to be a groundswell of help to take the proper actions.”

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

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

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 identified abusers. She was heartened that Guidepost was recommending such a system, but stated questions stay about its implementation.

“What is absolutely critical is that the local church can't perform as the default or presumed beginning place for a survivor to attempt to acquire an investigation of clergy intercourse abuse,” she mentioned via email. “If the local church is deemed to be a requisite first cease for survivors to pursue action, then many survivors’ voices will probably be choked of their throats before sound is ever uttered.”

Among the Guidepost report’s findings was that the Govt Committee kept a secret listing of lots of of SBC-affiliated clergy and other personnel identified as sex abusers. Brown mentioned the committee, at a particular assembly Tuesday, should comply with launch this record.

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

The final selections about recommendations to undergo the Anaheim delegates will likely be made by the SBC’s Sexual Abuse Activity Drive, comprising seven members and two advisors. Its work over the previous yr has been an emotional journey, stated Pastor Bruce Frank, who led the group.

“We saw patterns and things that have been deeply concerning,” he said. “Our important job was to empower Guidepost to do their job, and they have performed a really exceptional job in the final nine months to take a look at occasions that occurred over 20 years.”

Within the subsequent week or so, the task drive will deliver forth formal motions in “precise language,” which shall 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 said the crux of the duty pressure’s recommendations based on Guidepost’s report will be summarized in two phrases – prevention and care.

“Our important goal should be preventing sexual abuse,” he said. “And if abuse does occur, how will we look after survivors in a significantly better pastoral method? How can we higher 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 one who is fair-minded will take a look at what’s in that report and demand that issues be higher,” Frank stated. “SBC is a giant household with 48,000 churches. There is likely to be some disagreement on how you can make things higher. But I’m assured that we’ll work by means of the difficulties.”

Along with intercourse abuse, the agenda for the meeting in Anaheim includes election of a new SBC president to succeed Litton.

One of the 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 knowledge to know what to do.... We’re sailing into uncharted waters.”

“The work’s not carried out,” he added. “We’ve gotten the report, however I feel everybody within the survivor community that I’ve heard from has mentioned studies are one factor, but we’ll see if this household of church buildings has the braveness 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 Express-Information documenting lots of of cases in Southern Baptist church buildings, together with a number of in which alleged perpetrators remained in ministry.

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