Southern Baptists face push for public checklist of sex abusers

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

The creation of an “Offender Data System” was one of many key recommendations in a report released Sunday by Guidepost Options, an independent firm contracted by the SBC’s Govt Committee after delegates to last 12 months’s nationwide assembly pressed for an investigation by outsiders.

The proposed database is predicted to be one in every of a number of suggestions presented to thousands of delegates attending this 12 months’s national assembly, scheduled for June 14-15 in Anaheim, California.

“Those recommendations can be open to questions, debate and comments on the meeting flooring,” stated SBC President Ed Litton.

He expressed hope that the shocking findings in the Guidepost report will carry “lasting change” to the SBC, America’s largest Protestant denomination. It has been dropping membership steadily lately, whereas being wracked by inside divisions over race and gender roles.

The Guidepost report mentioned 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 inside the EC.”

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

The motion for an impartial investigation was put ahead at last yr’s national meeting by the Rev. Grant Gaines, senior pastor of Belle Aire Baptist Church in Murfreesboro, Tennessee.

Studying the Guidepost report, Gaines stated 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 in the highway,” Gaines stated. “I think this report supplied the data that we wanted for there to be a groundswell of support to take the correct actions.”

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

“I think that’s one of the first issues we should 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 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 stated questions remain about its implementation.

“What is absolutely essential is that the native church cannot function because the default or presumed starting place for a survivor to try to obtain an investigation of clergy sex abuse,” she stated by way of email. “If the native church is deemed to be a requisite first cease for survivors to pursue motion, then many survivors’ voices will probably be choked of their throats earlier than sound is ever uttered.”

Among the many Guidepost report’s findings was that the Govt Committee stored a secret list of a whole lot of SBC-affiliated clergy and different personnel identified as intercourse abusers. Brown said the committee, at a particular assembly Tuesday, should agree to launch this record.

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

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

“We noticed patterns and issues that were deeply regarding,” he mentioned. “Our fundamental job was to empower Guidepost to do their job, and they have completed a truly outstanding job in the last nine months to have a look at occasions that occurred over 20 years.”

In the next week or so, the duty drive will carry forth formal motions in “precise language,” which shall 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 said the crux of the task power’s recommendations primarily based on Guidepost’s report can be summarized in two phrases – prevention and care.

“Our major aim ought to be preventing sexual abuse,” he said. “And if abuse does happen, how do we look after survivors in a a lot better pastoral method? How can we higher 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 have a look at what’s in that report and demand that things be better,” Frank said. “SBC is an enormous household with 48,000 churches. There might be some disagreement on the right way to make issues higher. But I’m confident that we’ll work via the difficulties.”

In addition to intercourse abuse, the agenda for the meeting in Anaheim contains 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 officials within 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 sailing into uncharted waters.”

“The work’s not executed,” he added. “We’ve gotten the report, but I feel everybody in the survivor neighborhood that I’ve heard from has mentioned studies are one thing, but we’ll see if this family of churches has the courage and resolve to take motion.”

The sex abuse scandal was thrust into the highlight in 2019 by a landmark report from the Houston Chronicle and San Antonio Specific-News documenting hundreds of circumstances in Southern Baptist churches, together with several in which alleged perpetrators remained in ministry.

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