Southern Baptists face push for public listing 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 primary 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 recommendations in a report released Sunday by Guidepost Solutions, an impartial 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 anticipated to be one among several recommendations introduced to 1000's of delegates attending this 12 months’s nationwide meeting, scheduled for June 14-15 in Anaheim, California.

“Those suggestions can be open to questions, debate and comments on the assembly flooring,” said SBC President Ed Litton.

He expressed hope that the shocking findings within the Guidepost report will deliver “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 mentioned survivors of abuse by SBC clergy repeatedly shared allegations with the Government Committee, “only 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 few senior EC leaders, along with exterior counsel, largely controlled the EC’s response to these stories of abuse ... and were singularly focused on avoiding legal responsibility,” the report stated.

The motion for an unbiased investigation was put ahead finally year’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 safety of the SBC from liability over abuse prevention.

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

Particularly, Gaines mentioned he helps the proposal to create a system that alerts communities to recognized offenders.

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

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

“What is completely critical is that the native church can not perform because the default or presumed starting place for a survivor to try to obtain an investigation of clergy sex abuse,” she mentioned by way of email. “If the native church is deemed to be a requisite first stop for survivors to pursue motion, then many survivors’ voices can be choked in their throats before sound is ever uttered.”

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

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

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

“We saw patterns and things that have been deeply regarding,” he stated. “Our main job was to empower Guidepost to do their job, they usually have executed a really remarkable job within the last 9 months to look at events that occurred over 20 years.”

In the subsequent week or so, the task force will deliver forth formal motions in “precise language,” which can 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 stated the crux of the task drive’s recommendations based mostly on Guidepost’s report could be summarized in two phrases – prevention and care.

“Our fundamental goal must be stopping sexual abuse,” he said. “And if abuse does occur, how will we care for survivors in a much better pastoral means? How can we better talk to verify (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 things be higher,” Frank stated. “SBC is a big family with 48,000 churches. There is perhaps some disagreement on how to make issues better. However I’m assured that we’ll work through the difficulties.”

In addition to intercourse abuse, the agenda for the meeting in Anaheim contains 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 in the Guidepost report.

If elected, Barber said 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 feel everybody within the survivor neighborhood that I’ve heard from has stated reviews are one factor, however we’ll see if this family of churches has the braveness 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 Categorical-News documenting lots of of instances in Southern Baptist churches, together with several through which alleged perpetrators remained in ministry.

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