Southern Baptists face push for public record of intercourse abusers

A blistering report on the Southern Baptist Convention’s mishandling of intercourse abuse allegations is raising the prospect that the denomination, for the first time, will create a publicly accessible database of pastors and different church personnel recognized to be abusers.

The creation of an “Offender Information System” was one of many key recommendations in a report launched Sunday by Guidepost Options, an independent firm contracted by the SBC’s Executive Committee after delegates to final yr’s national assembly pressed for an investigation by outsiders.

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

“Those recommendations shall be open to questions, debate and feedback on the assembly floor,” said SBC President Ed Litton.

He expressed hope that the surprising findings in the Guidepost report will carry “lasting change” to the SBC, America’s largest Protestant denomination. It has been shedding 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 Govt 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 a few years, just a few senior EC leaders, along with outside counsel, largely controlled the EC’s response to these stories of abuse ... and were singularly focused on avoiding liability,” the report mentioned.

The motion for an independent investigation was put forward eventually 12 months’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 within the road,” Gaines said. “I think this report offered the information that we needed for there to be a groundswell of help to take the proper actions.”

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

“I feel that’s one of the first things we must 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 known abusers. She was heartened that Guidepost was recommending such a system, however said questions remain about its implementation.

“What is absolutely crucial is that the local church can't operate as the default or presumed starting place for a survivor to attempt to get hold of an investigation of clergy intercourse abuse,” she mentioned via e-mail. “If the local church is deemed to be a requisite first cease for survivors to pursue motion, then many survivors’ voices will probably be choked of their throats before sound is ever uttered.”

Among the Guidepost report’s findings was that the Govt Committee kept a secret list of a whole lot of SBC-affiliated clergy and different personnel identified as sex abusers. Brown stated the committee, at a particular meeting Tuesday, should conform to release this record.

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

The ultimate selections about recommendations to undergo the Anaheim delegates will be made by the SBC’s Sexual Abuse Job 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 noticed patterns and things that have been deeply regarding,” he mentioned. “Our principal job was to empower Guidepost to do their job, and so they have achieved a truly outstanding job in the last 9 months to take a look at occasions that occurred over 20 years.”

Within the next week or so, the duty power will deliver forth formal motions in “precise language,” which can be made public and offered to the delegates in Anaheim for a vote, stated Frank, lead pastor of Biltmore Baptist Church in Arden, North Carolina.

Frank said the crux of the duty power’s recommendations primarily based on Guidepost’s report may be summarized in two phrases – prevention and care.

“Our major aim needs to be preventing sexual abuse,” he said. “And if abuse does occur, how will we look after survivors in a much better pastoral approach? How can we higher communicate 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 one that is fair-minded will take a look at what’s in that report and demand that things be better,” Frank stated. “SBC is a giant household with 48,000 church buildings. There may be some disagreement on easy methods to make things better. But I’m confident that we’ll work through the difficulties.”

In addition to sex abuse, the agenda for the assembly 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 said 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 believe everyone within the survivor community that I’ve heard from has said reviews are one thing, however we’ll see if this family of churches 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-News documenting tons of of instances in Southern Baptist churches, together with a number of through which alleged perpetrators remained in ministry.

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