Southern Baptists face push for public list 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 known 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 firm contracted by the SBC’s Executive Committee after delegates to last 12 months’s nationwide assembly pressed for an investigation by outsiders.

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

“These recommendations will probably be open to questions, debate and feedback on the assembly ground,” 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 lately, whereas being wracked by inner divisions over race and gender roles.

The Guidepost report stated survivors of abuse by SBC clergy repeatedly shared allegations with the Executive Committee, “only 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, just a few senior EC leaders, together with outdoors counsel, largely controlled the EC’s response to those reports of abuse ... and had been singularly focused on avoiding liability,” the report mentioned.

The movement for an unbiased investigation was put ahead ultimately 12 months’s nationwide 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 safety of the SBC from liability over abuse prevention.

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

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

“I think that’s one of the first issues we should always 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 pressing the SBC since 2006 to create a publicly accessible database of identified abusers. She was heartened that Guidepost was recommending such a system, however mentioned questions remain about its implementation.

“What is completely important is that the local church cannot perform because the default or presumed starting place for a survivor to try to acquire an investigation of clergy sex abuse,” she mentioned through e mail. “If the native church is deemed to be a requisite first stop for survivors to pursue action, 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 Govt Committee kept a secret record of lots of of SBC-affiliated clergy and different personnel identified as intercourse abusers. Brown said the committee, at a particular meeting Tuesday, should comply with launch this record.

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

The ultimate decisions about suggestions to undergo the Anaheim delegates will be made by the SBC’s Sexual Abuse Activity Pressure, comprising seven members and two advisors. Its work over the past 12 months has been an emotional journey, said Pastor Bruce Frank, who led the group.

“We saw patterns and things that had been deeply concerning,” he said. “Our major job was to empower Guidepost to do their job, and so they have executed a very remarkable job in the last 9 months to have a look at occasions that occurred over 20 years.”

Within the subsequent week or so, the task force will deliver forth formal motions in “exact language,” which will probably be made public and presented to the delegates in Anaheim for a vote, said Frank, lead pastor of Biltmore Baptist Church in Arden, North Carolina.

Frank said the crux of the task drive’s suggestions based on Guidepost’s report might be summarized in two words – prevention and care.

“Our fundamental purpose should be preventing sexual abuse,” he said. “And if abuse does occur, how will we look after survivors in a much better pastoral means? How can we higher talk to ensure (abusers) don’t go from one church to a different?”

His hope is that this report serves as “a catalyst for change.”

“Any person who is fair-minded will look at what’s in that report and demand that issues be higher,” Frank stated. “SBC is an enormous household with 48,000 churches. There could be some disagreement on easy methods to make things higher. But I’m confident that we’ll work by the difficulties.”

Along with intercourse abuse, the agenda for the meeting in Anaheim includes election of a brand 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 officials within the Guidepost report.

If elected, Barber stated 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 accomplished,” he added. “We’ve gotten the report, but I think all people within the survivor neighborhood that I’ve heard from has stated studies 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 Express-Information documenting lots of of instances in Southern Baptist churches, together with a number of wherein alleged perpetrators remained in ministry.

___

Related Press faith coverage receives help via the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely answerable for this content material.