Southern Baptists face push for public checklist of intercourse abusers

A blistering report on the Southern Baptist Conference’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 different church personnel recognized to be abusers.

The creation of an “Offender Information System” was one of the key recommendations in a report launched Sunday by Guidepost Solutions, an impartial agency contracted by the SBC’s Government Committee after delegates to last year’s nationwide meeting pressed for an investigation by outsiders.

The proposed database is anticipated to be one in all several recommendations introduced to thousands of delegates attending this yr’s national assembly, scheduled for June 14-15 in Anaheim, California.

“These recommendations will probably be open to questions, debate and comments on the meeting floor,” mentioned SBC President Ed Litton.

He expressed hope that the surprising findings in the Guidepost report will convey “lasting change” to the SBC, America’s largest Protestant denomination. It has been losing membership steadily lately, whereas being wracked by internal 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 again, 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 outside counsel, largely managed the EC’s response to these reviews of abuse ... and had been singularly centered on avoiding liability,” the report stated.

The motion for an unbiased investigation was put forward eventually year’s nationwide 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 safety of the SBC from legal responsibility over abuse prevention.

“We’re at a fork in the street,” Gaines stated. “I believe this report provided the data that we wanted for there to be a groundswell of help to take the fitting actions.”

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

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

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

“What is totally important is that the local church cannot function because the default or presumed starting place for a survivor to try to get hold of an investigation of clergy intercourse abuse,” she mentioned through email. “If the native church is deemed to be a requisite first cease for survivors to pursue action, then many survivors’ voices will be choked of their throats before sound is ever uttered.”

Among the many Guidepost report’s findings was that the Executive Committee saved a secret listing of lots of of SBC-affiliated clergy and different personnel identified as intercourse abusers. Brown said the committee, at a special assembly Tuesday, should conform to release this listing.

“I urge you to make public the whole thing of your record of pastors & ministers accused of sexual abuse, in whatever kind it’s been stored for lo these a few years,” Brown tweeted. “Post. It. Now.”

The final choices about recommendations to undergo the Anaheim delegates can be made by the SBC’s Sexual Abuse Job 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 issues that had been deeply regarding,” he said. “Our foremost job was to empower Guidepost to do their job, and they have achieved a really exceptional job within the last 9 months to have a look at events that occurred over 20 years.”

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

“Our major goal must be preventing sexual abuse,” he said. “And if abuse does occur, how can we look after survivors in a a lot better pastoral means? How can we better 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 take a look at what’s in that report and demand that issues be better,” Frank stated. “SBC is a big household with 48,000 church buildings. There is perhaps some disagreement on how to make things better. But I’m assured that we’ll work through the difficulties.”

In addition to sex abuse, the agenda for the assembly in Anaheim consists of 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 on the mean-spirited behaviors attributed to some SBC officers in 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 executed,” he added. “We’ve gotten the report, however I feel everybody in the survivor community that I’ve heard from has said stories are one factor, however 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 a whole bunch of circumstances in Southern Baptist church buildings, together with several through which alleged perpetrators remained in ministry.

___

Associated Press religion protection receives help through the AP’s collaboration with The Dialog US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely liable for this content.