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 elevating 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 Info System” was one of many key suggestions in a report released Sunday by Guidepost Solutions, an unbiased firm contracted by the SBC’s Govt Committee after delegates to final 12 months’s nationwide assembly pressed for an investigation by outsiders.

The proposed database is anticipated to be certainly one of several suggestions introduced to hundreds of delegates attending this yr’s nationwide meeting, scheduled for June 14-15 in Anaheim, California.

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

He expressed hope that the stunning findings within 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 mentioned survivors of abuse by SBC clergy repeatedly shared allegations with the Executive 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 a few years, a number of senior EC leaders, together with exterior counsel, largely controlled the EC’s response to these reviews of abuse ... and were singularly focused on avoiding liability,” the report said.

The motion for an impartial investigation was put forward at last yr’s national meeting by the Rev. Grant Gaines, senior pastor of Belle Aire Baptist Church in Murfreesboro, Tennessee.

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

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

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

“I believe that’s one of many first issues we must always 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 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 said questions stay about its implementation.

“What is completely vital is that the local church cannot perform because the default or presumed starting place for a survivor to attempt to acquire an investigation of clergy sex abuse,” she stated via email. “If the native church is deemed to be a requisite first cease for survivors to pursue motion, then many survivors’ voices will be choked of their throats earlier than sound is ever uttered.”

Among the Guidepost report’s findings was that the Executive Committee stored a secret list of a whole bunch of SBC-affiliated clergy and different personnel recognized as sex abusers. Brown mentioned the committee, at a special assembly Tuesday, should comply with release this checklist.

“I urge you to make public everything of your record of pastors & ministers accused of sexual abuse, in no matter form it’s been saved for lo these many years,” Brown tweeted. “Publish. It. Now.”

The ultimate decisions about recommendations to undergo the Anaheim delegates shall be made by the SBC’s Sexual Abuse Job Power, 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 had been deeply concerning,” he stated. “Our main job was to empower Guidepost to do their job, and they have achieved a really outstanding job within the last 9 months to have a look at events that occurred over 20 years.”

Within the subsequent week or so, the duty drive will deliver forth formal motions in “exact language,” which will 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 stated the crux of the task force’s suggestions primarily based on Guidepost’s report may be summarized in two words – prevention and care.

“Our major objective needs to be preventing sexual abuse,” he said. “And if abuse does occur, how do we care for survivors in a much better pastoral way? How can we higher talk to make sure (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 take a look at what’s in that report and demand that issues be higher,” Frank mentioned. “SBC is a giant household with 48,000 church buildings. There is likely to be some disagreement on how to make things better. However I’m assured that we’ll work through the difficulties.”

Along with sex abuse, the agenda for the meeting in Anaheim consists of 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 sailing into uncharted waters.”

“The work’s not carried out,” he added. “We’ve gotten the report, however I believe everybody in the survivor group that I’ve heard from has stated reports are one factor, however we’ll see if this household of church buildings has the braveness and resolve to take action.”

The sex 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 cases in Southern Baptist churches, together with a number of by which alleged perpetrators remained in ministry.

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