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 elevating the prospect that the denomination, for the first time, will create a publicly accessible database of pastors and different church personnel recognized to be abusers.

The creation of an “Offender Data System” was one of many key recommendations in a report launched Sunday by Guidepost Options, an unbiased agency contracted by the SBC’s Govt Committee after delegates to final yr’s national assembly pressed for an investigation by outsiders.

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

“Those recommendations will likely be open to questions, debate and comments on the assembly floor,” stated SBC President Ed Litton.

He expressed hope that the shocking findings in the Guidepost report will bring “lasting change” to the SBC, America’s largest Protestant denomination. It has been shedding membership steadily lately, while being wracked by inside 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 inside the EC.”

“Our investigation revealed that, for a few years, a number of senior EC leaders, along with outdoors counsel, largely managed the EC’s response to these reports of abuse ... and were singularly focused on avoiding legal responsibility,” the report stated.

The motion for an impartial investigation was put forward finally year’s nationwide assembly 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, as well as leaders prioritizing safety of the SBC from liability over abuse prevention.

“We’re at a fork in the highway,” Gaines stated. “I think this report provided the knowledge that we wanted for there to be a groundswell of support to take the precise actions.”

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

“I think that’s one of many first things 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 urgent the SBC since 2006 to create a publicly accessible database of recognized abusers. She was heartened that Guidepost was recommending such a system, however said questions stay about its implementation.

“What is completely essential is that the native church cannot function as the default or presumed beginning place for a survivor to attempt to get hold of an investigation of clergy intercourse abuse,” she said via electronic mail. “If the native church is deemed to be a requisite first stop for survivors to pursue action, then many survivors’ voices shall be choked of their throats earlier than sound is ever uttered.”

Among the Guidepost report’s findings was that the Government Committee stored a secret checklist of lots of of SBC-affiliated clergy and other personnel recognized as intercourse abusers. Brown said the committee, at a special meeting Tuesday, should conform to release this listing.

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

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

“We noticed patterns and issues that were deeply regarding,” he said. “Our most important job was to empower Guidepost to do their job, and so they have executed a very exceptional job in the final 9 months to have a look at occasions that occurred over 20 years.”

In the next week or so, the task power will convey forth formal motions in “precise language,” which might be made public and introduced to the delegates in Anaheim for a vote, stated Frank, lead pastor of Biltmore Baptist Church in Arden, North Carolina.

Frank said the crux of the task force’s recommendations primarily based on Guidepost’s report can be summarized in two words – prevention and care.

“Our primary aim must be preventing sexual abuse,” he stated. “And if abuse does occur, how can we take care of survivors in a a lot better pastoral manner? How can we better communicate 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 take a look at what’s in that report and demand that things be better,” Frank stated. “SBC is an enormous family with 48,000 churches. There may be some disagreement on how you can make things higher. But I’m confident that we’ll work by the difficulties.”

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

One of the main contenders is Bart Barber, a pastor from Farmersville, Texas, who expressed dismay at the mean-spirited behaviors attributed to some SBC officials in the Guidepost report.

If elected, Barber said in a broadcast interview Monday, “I’m praying that God will give me the knowledge to know what to do.... We’re sailing into uncharted waters.”

“The work’s not accomplished,” he added. “We’ve gotten the report, however I feel all people in the survivor group that I’ve heard from has stated studies are one factor, however we’ll see if this family of church buildings has the courage and resolve to take action.”

The intercourse abuse scandal was thrust into the spotlight in 2019 by a landmark report from the Houston Chronicle and San Antonio Specific-News documenting a whole bunch of instances in Southern Baptist churches, including several in which alleged perpetrators remained in ministry.

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