Southern Baptists face push for public record of sex abusers

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

The creation of an “Offender Data System” was one of the key suggestions in a report released Sunday by Guidepost Options, an independent firm contracted by the SBC’s Govt Committee after delegates to final year’s nationwide meeting pressed for an investigation by outsiders.

The proposed database is predicted to be one in every of a number of suggestions offered to 1000's of delegates attending this 12 months’s nationwide meeting, scheduled for June 14-15 in Anaheim, California.

“Those recommendations might be open to questions, debate and feedback on the assembly floor,” stated 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 shedding membership steadily lately, whereas being wracked by inside divisions over race and gender roles.

The Guidepost report stated survivors of abuse by SBC clergy repeatedly shared allegations with the Executive 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 many years, a couple of senior EC leaders, together with exterior counsel, largely controlled the EC’s response to these stories of abuse ... and had been singularly targeted on avoiding liability,” the report said.

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

Studying the Guidepost report, Gaines said he was struck by repeated examples of a callous disregard for survivors, as well as leaders prioritizing protection of the SBC from liability over abuse prevention.

“We’re at a fork within the road,” Gaines stated. “I think this report provided the information that we needed for there to be a groundswell of support to take the suitable actions.”

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

“I think that’s one of many first things we should do,” he stated.

Lawyer and author 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 known abusers. She was heartened that Guidepost was recommending such a system, however stated questions stay about its implementation.

“What is absolutely important is that the local church can not function as the default or presumed starting place for a survivor to try to obtain an investigation of clergy intercourse abuse,” she mentioned by way of electronic mail. “If the native church is deemed to be a requisite first stop for survivors to pursue action, then many survivors’ voices will likely be choked in their throats earlier than sound is ever uttered.”

Among the many Guidepost report’s findings was that the Government Committee stored a secret listing of a whole bunch of SBC-affiliated clergy and different personnel identified as sex abusers. Brown mentioned the committee, at a special meeting Tuesday, ought to comply with release this checklist.

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

The ultimate choices about suggestions to submit to the Anaheim delegates will be made by the SBC’s Sexual Abuse Job Pressure, comprising seven members and two advisors. Its work over the past 12 months has been an emotional journey, said Pastor Bruce Frank, who led the group.

“We saw patterns and things that had been deeply regarding,” he said. “Our most important job was to empower Guidepost to do their job, and so they have finished a very exceptional job in the final nine months to take a look at events that occurred over 20 years.”

Within the subsequent week or so, the task pressure will convey forth formal motions in “precise language,” which might 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 mentioned the crux of the task force’s suggestions primarily based on Guidepost’s report can be summarized in two phrases – prevention and care.

“Our most important objective must be preventing sexual abuse,” he stated. “And if abuse does occur, how do we care for survivors in a significantly better pastoral approach? How can we higher talk 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 who is fair-minded will take a look at what’s in that report and demand that things be better,” Frank mentioned. “SBC is a giant household with 48,000 churches. There may be some disagreement on the way to make things better. However I’m assured that we’ll work via the difficulties.”

Along with intercourse abuse, the agenda for the assembly in Anaheim consists of 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 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 crusing into uncharted waters.”

“The work’s not performed,” he added. “We’ve gotten the report, however I feel everybody within the survivor neighborhood that I’ve heard from has said stories are one thing, however we’ll see if this family 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 a whole lot of circumstances in Southern Baptist church buildings, including a number of wherein alleged perpetrators remained in ministry.

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