Southern Baptists face push for public record of sex abusers

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

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

The proposed database is predicted to be one in every of a number of recommendations presented to hundreds of delegates attending this yr’s national meeting, scheduled for June 14-15 in Anaheim, California.

“These recommendations will be open to questions, debate and feedback on the meeting ground,” mentioned SBC President Ed Litton.

He expressed hope that the surprising 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 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 throughout the EC.”

“Our investigation revealed that, for a few years, a number of senior EC leaders, along with outside counsel, largely controlled the EC’s response to these reviews of abuse ... and had been singularly centered on avoiding legal responsibility,” the report said.

The movement for an impartial investigation was put forward at last yr’s national 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 highway,” Gaines stated. “I believe this report offered the data that we needed for there to be a groundswell of support to take the fitting actions.”

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

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

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

“What is totally vital is that the local church can not perform as the default or presumed starting place for a survivor to try to get hold of an investigation of clergy sex abuse,” she mentioned by way of e mail. “If the local church is deemed to be a requisite first stop for survivors to pursue action, then many survivors’ voices shall be choked in their throats before sound is ever uttered.”

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

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

The final decisions about recommendations to submit to the Anaheim delegates will likely be made by the SBC’s Sexual Abuse Process Drive, 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 noticed patterns and things that had been deeply regarding,” he mentioned. “Our most important job was to empower Guidepost to do their job, and so they have carried out a very remarkable job within the last nine months to look at occasions that occurred over 20 years.”

Within the subsequent week or so, the duty force will convey forth formal motions in “exact language,” which can be made public and offered to the delegates in Anaheim for a vote, mentioned Frank, lead pastor of Biltmore Baptist Church in Arden, North Carolina.

Frank mentioned the crux of the duty force’s suggestions based on Guidepost’s report could be summarized in two words – prevention and care.

“Our primary objective needs to be preventing sexual abuse,” he mentioned. “And if abuse does happen, how can we take care of survivors in a significantly 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 take a look at what’s in that report and demand that issues be better,” Frank stated. “SBC is an enormous family with 48,000 churches. There is likely to be some disagreement on how one can make issues higher. However I’m confident that we’ll work through the difficulties.”

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

One of the main contenders is Bart Barber, a pastor from Farmersville, Texas, who expressed dismay on 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 accomplished,” he added. “We’ve gotten the report, however I feel everybody in the survivor neighborhood that I’ve heard from has mentioned studies are one factor, but we’ll see if this family of churches 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 Specific-Information documenting a whole bunch of instances in Southern Baptist church buildings, including a number of in which alleged perpetrators remained in ministry.

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