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Southern Baptists face push for public checklist of sex abusers


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Southern Baptists face push for public checklist of sex abusers
2022-05-25 01:01:17
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A blistering report on the Southern Baptist Conference’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 known to be abusers.

The creation of an “Offender Info System” was one of the key recommendations in a report released Sunday by Guidepost Options, an impartial firm contracted by the SBC’s Government Committee after delegates to last 12 months’s nationwide meeting pressed for an investigation by outsiders.

The proposed database is predicted to be one in every of a number of recommendations offered to 1000's of delegates attending this year’s nationwide meeting, scheduled for June 14-15 in Anaheim, California.

“Those suggestions shall 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 bring “lasting change” to the SBC, America’s largest Protestant denomination. It has been losing membership steadily in recent times, whereas 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 Executive Committee, “solely 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, a few senior EC leaders, together with exterior counsel, largely controlled the EC’s response to those studies of abuse ... and had been singularly focused on avoiding legal responsibility,” the report stated.

The motion for an unbiased investigation was put ahead eventually yr’s national assembly by the Rev. Grant Gaines, senior pastor of Belle Aire Baptist Church in Murfreesboro, Tennessee.

Reading 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 liability over abuse prevention.

“We’re at a fork within the street,” Gaines stated. “I believe this report supplied the information that we would have liked for there to be a groundswell of assist to take the suitable actions.”

Specifically, Gaines stated he supports the proposal to create a system that alerts communities to identified offenders.

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

Lawyer and writer 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 stay about its implementation.

“What is absolutely essential is that the local church can't operate because the default or presumed beginning place for a survivor to attempt to get hold of an investigation of clergy sex abuse,” she said through e mail. “If the local church is deemed to be a requisite first stop for survivors to pursue motion, then many survivors’ voices will be choked in their throats before sound is ever uttered.”

Among the many Guidepost report’s findings was that the Executive Committee saved a secret checklist of hundreds of SBC-affiliated clergy and other personnel recognized as intercourse abusers. Brown said the committee, at a particular meeting Tuesday, ought to agree to launch this listing.

“I urge you to make public the whole lot of your list of pastors & ministers accused of sexual abuse, in whatever form it’s been stored for lo these many years,” Brown tweeted. “Post. It. Now.”

The final decisions about suggestions to submit to the Anaheim delegates will likely be made by the SBC’s Sexual Abuse Task Power, comprising seven members and two advisors. Its work over the past 12 months has been an emotional journey, mentioned Pastor Bruce Frank, who led the group.

“We saw patterns and things that were deeply regarding,” he stated. “Our most important job was to empower Guidepost to do their job, they usually have carried out a truly remarkable job in the final nine months to take a look at events that occurred over 20 years.”

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

“Our major aim must be preventing sexual abuse,” he said. “And if abuse does occur, how can we care for survivors in a much better pastoral approach? How can we better talk to make sure (abusers) don’t go from one church to a different?”

His hope is that this report serves as “a catalyst for change.”

“Any one who is fair-minded will have a look at what’s in that report and demand that things be better,” Frank stated. “SBC is a giant household with 48,000 churches. There is likely to be some disagreement on how to make issues higher. However I’m confident that we’ll work through the difficulties.”

Along with intercourse abuse, the agenda for the meeting in Anaheim includes election of a new SBC president to succeed Litton.

One of many leading contenders is Bart Barber, a pastor from Farmersville, Texas, who expressed dismay at 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 done,” he added. “We’ve gotten the report, however I feel everybody in the survivor group that I’ve heard from has stated studies are one factor, but we’ll see if this family of churches has the courage and resolve to take action.”

The sex abuse scandal was thrust into the spotlight in 2019 by a landmark report from the Houston Chronicle and San Antonio Categorical-News documenting tons of of instances in Southern Baptist churches, together with several through which alleged perpetrators remained in ministry.

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Associated Press faith coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Dialog US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely answerable for this content.


Quelle: apnews.com

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