Southern Baptists face push for public checklist 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 different church personnel recognized to be abusers.

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

The proposed database is anticipated to be one in all several suggestions offered to hundreds of delegates attending this year’s national assembly, scheduled for June 14-15 in Anaheim, California.

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

He expressed hope that the stunning findings within the Guidepost report will deliver “lasting change” to the SBC, America’s largest Protestant denomination. It has been losing membership steadily in recent years, whereas being wracked by inner divisions over race and gender roles.

The Guidepost report mentioned 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 within the EC.”

“Our investigation revealed that, for a few years, a few senior EC leaders, together with exterior counsel, largely managed the EC’s response to those reports of abuse ... and were singularly focused on avoiding liability,” the report mentioned.

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

Reading the Guidepost report, Gaines stated 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 street,” Gaines said. “I feel this report offered the information that we would have liked for there to be a groundswell of support to take the appropriate actions.”

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

“I feel that’s one of the 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 identified abusers. She was heartened that Guidepost was recommending such a system, but said questions remain about its implementation.

“What is completely vital is that the native church can not function because the default or presumed beginning place for a survivor to attempt to receive an investigation of clergy sex abuse,” she stated through electronic mail. “If the native church is deemed to be a requisite first stop for survivors to pursue action, then many survivors’ voices will likely be choked of their throats before sound is ever uttered.”

Among the many Guidepost report’s findings was that the Executive Committee kept a secret checklist of a whole lot of SBC-affiliated clergy and different personnel recognized as sex abusers. Brown said the committee, at a particular meeting Tuesday, ought to conform to launch this record.

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

The ultimate decisions about recommendations to undergo the Anaheim delegates will probably be made by the SBC’s Sexual Abuse Task Power, comprising seven members and two advisors. Its work over the past year has been an emotional journey, mentioned Pastor Bruce Frank, who led the group.

“We saw patterns and issues that have been deeply regarding,” he mentioned. “Our primary job was to empower Guidepost to do their job, and they have finished a really remarkable job in the final nine months to look at occasions that occurred over 20 years.”

Within the next week or so, the duty power will deliver forth formal motions in “exact language,” which will probably 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 duty pressure’s recommendations based mostly on Guidepost’s report will be summarized in two words – prevention and care.

“Our essential purpose needs to be stopping sexual abuse,” he mentioned. “And if abuse does occur, how will we care for survivors in a much better pastoral way? 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 that is fair-minded will look at what’s in that report and demand that things be better,” Frank said. “SBC is a giant family with 48,000 churches. There could be some disagreement on tips on how to make issues higher. But I’m assured that we’ll work via the difficulties.”

In addition to intercourse abuse, the agenda for the meeting in Anaheim includes election of a brand 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 officials within 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 sailing into uncharted waters.”

“The work’s not completed,” he added. “We’ve gotten the report, however I feel everybody in the survivor community that I’ve heard from has stated reports are one factor, however we’ll see if this family of churches has the courage and resolve to take motion.”

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

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