Southern Baptists face push for public checklist 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 first time, will create a publicly accessible database of pastors and other church personnel known to be abusers.

The creation of an “Offender Data System” was one of many key recommendations in a report released Sunday by Guidepost Solutions, an unbiased agency contracted by the SBC’s Government Committee after delegates to last yr’s nationwide assembly pressed for an investigation by outsiders.

The proposed database is anticipated to be considered one of a number of suggestions offered to hundreds of delegates attending this 12 months’s nationwide assembly, scheduled for June 14-15 in Anaheim, California.

“These suggestions might be open to questions, debate and comments on the assembly floor,” stated SBC President Ed Litton.

He expressed hope that the stunning findings in the Guidepost report will convey “lasting change” to the SBC, America’s largest Protestant denomination. It has been shedding membership steadily in recent years, while 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 Government Committee, “only to be met, time and time once more, with resistance, stonewalling, and even outright hostility from some inside the EC.”

“Our investigation revealed that, for a few years, just a few senior EC leaders, along with outdoors counsel, largely controlled the EC’s response to these studies of abuse ... and had been singularly targeted on avoiding liability,” the report said.

The motion for an impartial investigation was put forward finally year’s nationwide 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 protection of the SBC from liability over abuse prevention.

“We’re at a fork in the street,” Gaines mentioned. “I think this report offered the information that we wanted for there to be a groundswell of help to take the correct actions.”

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

“I think that’s one of many 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 recognized abusers. She was heartened that Guidepost was recommending such a system, but said questions stay about its implementation.

“What is absolutely important is that the native church can not function because the default or presumed starting place for a survivor to try to receive an investigation of clergy intercourse abuse,” she stated through e mail. “If the local church is deemed to be a requisite first stop for survivors to pursue action, then many survivors’ voices will be choked of their throats before sound is ever uttered.”

Among the many Guidepost report’s findings was that the Executive Committee stored a secret listing of hundreds of SBC-affiliated clergy and different personnel recognized as intercourse abusers. Brown mentioned the committee, at a particular assembly Tuesday, should comply with launch this record.

“I urge you to make public the whole lot of your checklist of pastors & ministers accused of sexual abuse, in whatever kind it’s been kept for lo these a few years,” Brown tweeted. “Publish. It. Now.”

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

“We noticed patterns and issues that have been deeply concerning,” he stated. “Our primary job was to empower Guidepost to do their job, and so they have executed a really remarkable job in the last nine months to take a look at occasions that occurred over 20 years.”

In the subsequent week or so, the task drive will carry forth formal motions in “exact 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 mentioned the crux of the duty drive’s recommendations based on Guidepost’s report may be summarized in two words – prevention and care.

“Our principal purpose must be preventing sexual abuse,” he stated. “And if abuse does occur, how will we take care of survivors in a significantly better pastoral means? How can we better communicate to ensure (abusers) don’t go from one church to another?”

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

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

In addition to sex abuse, the agenda for the assembly in Anaheim contains election of a 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 stated in a broadcast interview Monday, “I’m praying that God will give me the knowledge to know what to do.... We’re crusing into uncharted waters.”

“The work’s not accomplished,” he added. “We’ve gotten the report, however I think all people within the survivor neighborhood that I’ve heard from has mentioned reviews are one factor, but 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-News documenting hundreds of cases in Southern Baptist church buildings, together with a number of through which alleged perpetrators remained in ministry.

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