Southern Baptists face push for public checklist of sex abusers

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

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

The proposed database is expected to be one in all several suggestions offered to 1000's of delegates attending this year’s nationwide assembly, scheduled for June 14-15 in Anaheim, California.

“These suggestions will likely be open to questions, debate and feedback on the meeting flooring,” said SBC President Ed Litton.

He expressed hope that the shocking findings in the Guidepost report will deliver “lasting change” to the SBC, America’s largest Protestant denomination. It has been losing 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 Executive Committee, “only to be met, time and time again, with resistance, stonewalling, and even outright hostility from some inside the EC.”

“Our investigation revealed that, for many years, a number of senior EC leaders, along with outside counsel, largely managed the EC’s response to these studies of abuse ... and were singularly centered on avoiding legal responsibility,” the report mentioned.

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

Reading the Guidepost report, Gaines said 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 within the highway,” Gaines said. “I feel this report supplied the data that we would have liked for there to be a groundswell of support to take the appropriate actions.”

Particularly, 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 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 known abusers. She was heartened that Guidepost was recommending such a system, but said questions remain about its implementation.

“What is absolutely important is that the local church cannot operate because the default or presumed starting place for a survivor to try to receive 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 shall be choked of their throats before sound is ever uttered.”

Among the many Guidepost report’s findings was that the Govt Committee kept a secret record of hundreds of SBC-affiliated clergy and other personnel identified as sex abusers. Brown said the committee, at a particular assembly Tuesday, should agree to launch this checklist.

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

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

“We saw patterns and things that have been deeply concerning,” he said. “Our principal job was to empower Guidepost to do their job, and they have carried out a truly remarkable job within the final nine months to take a look at events that occurred over 20 years.”

Within the next week or so, the task power will carry forth formal motions in “exact language,” which will be made public and presented 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 pressure’s recommendations primarily based on Guidepost’s report can be summarized in two phrases – prevention and care.

“Our principal aim should be preventing sexual abuse,” he stated. “And if abuse does happen, how can we take care of survivors in a much better pastoral approach? How can we higher talk to verify (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 things be higher,” Frank mentioned. “SBC is an enormous household with 48,000 churches. There is perhaps some disagreement on methods to make things higher. But I’m assured that we’ll work via the difficulties.”

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

One of many main contenders is Bart Barber, a pastor from Farmersville, Texas, who expressed dismay at 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 wisdom 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 all people in the survivor group that I’ve heard from has mentioned experiences are one thing, however we’ll see if this household of church buildings has the braveness 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-Information documenting lots of of cases in Southern Baptist church buildings, together with a number of by which alleged perpetrators remained in ministry.

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