Southern Baptists face push for public checklist of sex 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 recognized to be abusers.

The creation of an “Offender Info System” was one of many key recommendations in a report launched Sunday by Guidepost Solutions, an unbiased firm contracted by the SBC’s Government Committee after delegates to final 12 months’s national meeting pressed for an investigation by outsiders.

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

“These recommendations will be open to questions, debate and comments on the assembly floor,” stated 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 dropping membership steadily lately, whereas being wracked by inner divisions over race and gender roles.

The Guidepost report said survivors of abuse by SBC clergy repeatedly shared allegations with the Government Committee, “only to be met, time and time again, with resistance, stonewalling, and even outright hostility from some within the EC.”

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

The motion for an unbiased investigation was put forward ultimately year’s national assembly 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 highway,” Gaines stated. “I believe this report supplied the data that we needed for there to be a groundswell of support to take the fitting actions.”

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

“I feel that’s one of many first things 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 identified abusers. She was heartened that Guidepost was recommending such a system, but said questions stay about its implementation.

“What is totally vital is that the local church can't operate as the default or presumed beginning place for a survivor to attempt to get hold of an investigation of clergy intercourse abuse,” she said 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 will likely be choked in their throats earlier than sound is ever uttered.”

Among the Guidepost report’s findings was that the Govt Committee kept a secret record of a whole lot of SBC-affiliated clergy and other personnel recognized as intercourse abusers. Brown mentioned the committee, at a special meeting Tuesday, should conform to release this list.

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

The ultimate selections about recommendations to undergo the Anaheim delegates will likely be made by the SBC’s Sexual Abuse Job Drive, comprising seven members and two advisors. Its work over the past yr has been an emotional journey, mentioned Pastor Bruce Frank, who led the group.

“We saw patterns and things that have been deeply regarding,” he stated. “Our principal job was to empower Guidepost to do their job, and so they have performed a very exceptional job in the last nine months to have a look at events that occurred over 20 years.”

Within the subsequent week or so, the duty power will bring forth formal motions in “precise language,” which will likely 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 said the crux of the duty drive’s suggestions primarily based on Guidepost’s report might be summarized in two phrases – prevention and care.

“Our main objective needs to be stopping sexual abuse,” he mentioned. “And if abuse does occur, how can we take care of survivors in a a lot better pastoral way? 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 have a look at what’s in that report and demand that issues be better,” Frank said. “SBC is a big family with 48,000 church buildings. There is perhaps some disagreement on learn how to make things higher. But I’m assured that we’ll work by means of the difficulties.”

In addition to sex 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 officers in 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 executed,” he added. “We’ve gotten the report, but I believe all people within the survivor community that I’ve heard from has said reviews are one factor, however we’ll see if this family of churches has the braveness and resolve to take motion.”

The sex abuse scandal was thrust into the highlight in 2019 by a landmark report from the Houston Chronicle and San Antonio Specific-News documenting tons of of instances in Southern Baptist church buildings, including several in which alleged perpetrators remained in ministry.

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