Southern Baptists face push for public listing of sex abusers

A blistering report on the Southern Baptist Convention’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 identified to be abusers.

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

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

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

He expressed hope that the surprising findings within the Guidepost report will convey “lasting change” to the SBC, America’s largest Protestant denomination. It has been dropping membership steadily lately, while being wracked by internal 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 throughout the EC.”

“Our investigation revealed that, for a few years, a few senior EC leaders, together with exterior counsel, largely controlled the EC’s response to those studies of abuse ... and were singularly centered on avoiding legal responsibility,” the report stated.

The motion for an independent investigation was put forward at last yr’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 within the street,” Gaines said. “I believe this report supplied the knowledge that we wanted for there to be a groundswell of support to take the appropriate actions.”

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

“I feel that’s one of many first issues 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 pressing the SBC since 2006 to create a publicly accessible database of identified abusers. She was heartened that Guidepost was recommending such a system, but stated questions stay about its implementation.

“What is totally essential is that the local church can't function because the default or presumed starting place for a survivor to try to get hold of an investigation of clergy intercourse abuse,” she mentioned via email. “If the local church is deemed to be a requisite first stop for survivors to pursue motion, then many survivors’ voices can be choked of their throats before sound is ever uttered.”

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

“I urge you to make public everything of your checklist of pastors & ministers accused of sexual abuse, in no matter type it’s been kept for lo these many years,” Brown tweeted. “Post. It. Now.”

The final selections about recommendations to submit to the Anaheim delegates will likely be made by the SBC’s Sexual Abuse Activity Force, comprising seven members and two advisors. Its work over the previous year has been an emotional journey, mentioned Pastor Bruce Frank, who led the group.

“We noticed patterns and issues that had been deeply concerning,” he said. “Our primary job was to empower Guidepost to do their job, and they have carried out a very exceptional job within the final nine months to have a look at events that occurred over 20 years.”

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

Frank mentioned the crux of the task force’s recommendations based on Guidepost’s report might be summarized in two phrases – prevention and care.

“Our essential objective must be preventing sexual abuse,” he mentioned. “And if abuse does happen, how will we look after survivors in a a lot better pastoral way? How can we better talk 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 take a look at what’s in that report and demand that things be higher,” Frank said. “SBC is an enormous household with 48,000 church buildings. There is likely to be some disagreement on methods to make things better. But I’m assured that we’ll work by the difficulties.”

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

One of the leading 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 mentioned 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 in the survivor community that I’ve heard from has stated stories are one thing, but we’ll see if this household of churches has the braveness and resolve to take motion.”

The intercourse abuse scandal was thrust into the highlight in 2019 by a landmark report from the Houston Chronicle and San Antonio Categorical-News documenting hundreds of cases in Southern Baptist churches, including a number of through which alleged perpetrators remained in ministry.

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