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 identified 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 unbiased agency contracted by the SBC’s Govt Committee after delegates to last year’s national assembly pressed for an investigation by outsiders.

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

“Those recommendations can be open to questions, debate and comments on the meeting flooring,” stated 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 dropping membership steadily lately, while being wracked by inside divisions over race and gender roles.

The Guidepost report said survivors of abuse by SBC clergy repeatedly shared allegations with the Executive Committee, “solely to be met, time and time once more, with resistance, stonewalling, and even outright hostility from some throughout the EC.”

“Our investigation revealed that, for many years, a couple of senior EC leaders, together with outdoors counsel, largely controlled the EC’s response to these reviews of abuse ... and had been singularly focused on avoiding liability,” the report mentioned.

The motion for an impartial investigation was put ahead eventually 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, in addition to leaders prioritizing protection of the SBC from liability over abuse prevention.

“We’re at a fork in the street,” Gaines said. “I think this report provided the information that we would have liked for there to be a groundswell of help to take the precise actions.”

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

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

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 said questions remain about its implementation.

“What is totally critical is that the native church can not perform as the default or presumed starting place for a survivor to attempt to obtain an investigation of clergy sex abuse,” she mentioned via e mail. “If the local church is deemed to be a requisite first stop for survivors to pursue motion, then many survivors’ voices shall be choked in their throats earlier than sound is ever uttered.”

Among the many Guidepost report’s findings was that the Government Committee saved a secret listing of a whole bunch of SBC-affiliated clergy and different personnel identified as sex abusers. Brown said the committee, at a special meeting Tuesday, should comply with release this checklist.

“I urge you to make public the entirety of your list of pastors & ministers accused of sexual abuse, in no matter form it’s been saved for lo these a few years,” Brown tweeted. “Put up. It. Now.”

The ultimate choices about recommendations to submit to the Anaheim delegates will probably be made by the SBC’s Sexual Abuse Job Pressure, 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 had been deeply concerning,” he said. “Our major job was to empower Guidepost to do their job, and so they have finished a very outstanding job within the last nine months to take a look at occasions that occurred over 20 years.”

Within the next week or so, the duty drive will deliver forth formal motions in “precise language,” which might be made public and offered 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 force’s recommendations based mostly on Guidepost’s report may be summarized in two phrases – prevention and care.

“Our essential aim ought to be stopping sexual abuse,” he stated. “And if abuse does happen, how can we look after survivors in a significantly better pastoral manner? How can we better 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 one that is fair-minded will have a look at what’s in that report and demand that issues be higher,” Frank stated. “SBC is an enormous family with 48,000 churches. There could be some disagreement on how to make things better. However I’m confident that we’ll work via the difficulties.”

In addition to intercourse abuse, the agenda for the assembly in Anaheim includes election of a 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 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 everyone in the survivor community that I’ve heard from has stated reports are one thing, however we’ll see if this family of church buildings has the courage 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 Specific-Information documenting lots of of instances in Southern Baptist churches, including several by which alleged perpetrators remained in ministry.

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