Southern Baptists face push for public record of sex abusers

A blistering report on the Southern Baptist Conference’s mishandling of sex abuse allegations is raising the prospect that the denomination, for the primary time, will create a publicly accessible database of pastors and different 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 Options, an impartial firm contracted by the SBC’s Executive Committee after delegates to final year’s nationwide assembly pressed for an investigation by outsiders.

The proposed database is expected to be one in every of a number of recommendations offered to 1000's 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 feedback on the assembly ground,” mentioned SBC President Ed Litton.

He expressed hope that the stunning findings in the Guidepost report will deliver “lasting change” to the SBC, America’s largest Protestant denomination. It has been dropping membership steadily lately, while being wracked by internal divisions over race and gender roles.

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

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

The motion for an independent investigation was put forward at last yr’s nationwide meeting by the Rev. Grant Gaines, senior pastor of Belle Aire Baptist Church in Murfreesboro, Tennessee.

Studying the Guidepost report, Gaines stated he was struck by repeated examples of a callous disregard for survivors, in addition to leaders prioritizing safety of the SBC from legal responsibility over abuse prevention.

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

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

“I believe that’s one of many first things we should 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, but mentioned questions stay about its implementation.

“What is totally critical is that the native church cannot operate as the default or presumed beginning place for a survivor to attempt to get hold of an investigation of clergy sex abuse,” she said via e mail. “If the local church is deemed to be a requisite first cease for survivors to pursue motion, then many survivors’ voices can be choked of their throats earlier than sound is ever uttered.”

Among the many Guidepost report’s findings was that the Executive Committee stored a secret record of lots of of SBC-affiliated clergy and different personnel recognized as intercourse abusers. Brown mentioned the committee, at a particular assembly Tuesday, should agree to release this checklist.

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

The final choices about recommendations to submit to the Anaheim delegates might be made by the SBC’s Sexual Abuse Task Pressure, comprising seven members and two advisors. Its work over the previous yr has been an emotional journey, mentioned Pastor Bruce Frank, who led the group.

“We noticed patterns and issues that were deeply concerning,” he mentioned. “Our foremost job was to empower Guidepost to do their job, they usually have finished a really remarkable job in the final nine months to have a look at occasions that occurred over 20 years.”

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

Frank mentioned the crux of the duty drive’s suggestions based on Guidepost’s report could be summarized in two words – prevention and care.

“Our most important aim needs to be preventing sexual abuse,” he said. “And if abuse does happen, how can we care for survivors in a much better pastoral method? How can we higher 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 one that is fair-minded will take a look at what’s in that report and demand that issues be better,” Frank stated. “SBC is a big household with 48,000 church buildings. There is likely to be some disagreement on the way to make things better. But I’m assured that we’ll work by the difficulties.”

In addition to sex abuse, the agenda for the meeting in Anaheim includes election of a brand new SBC president to succeed Litton.

One of the main contenders is Bart Barber, a pastor from Farmersville, Texas, who expressed dismay on the mean-spirited behaviors attributed to some SBC officers within 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 carried out,” he added. “We’ve gotten the report, but I believe everyone in the survivor neighborhood that I’ve heard from has said experiences 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 spotlight in 2019 by a landmark report from the Houston Chronicle and San Antonio Specific-Information documenting tons of of cases in Southern Baptist church buildings, including several by which alleged perpetrators remained in ministry.

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