Southern Baptists face push for public checklist of intercourse abusers

A blistering report on the Southern Baptist Convention’s mishandling of sex abuse allegations is raising 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 the key suggestions in a report launched Sunday by Guidepost Options, an independent firm contracted by the SBC’s Executive Committee after delegates to last year’s nationwide assembly pressed for an investigation by outsiders.

The proposed database is anticipated to be one among a number of suggestions presented to 1000's of delegates attending this 12 months’s national meeting, scheduled for June 14-15 in Anaheim, California.

“These recommendations might be open to questions, debate and comments on the assembly ground,” mentioned SBC President Ed Litton.

He expressed hope that the shocking findings within the Guidepost report will carry “lasting change” to the SBC, America’s largest Protestant denomination. It has been dropping membership steadily in recent times, 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 Government 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 couple of senior EC leaders, together with exterior counsel, largely controlled the EC’s response to these experiences of abuse ... and had been singularly focused on avoiding legal responsibility,” the report said.

The movement for an independent investigation was put ahead at last 12 months’s national meeting by the Rev. Grant Gaines, senior pastor of Belle Aire Baptist Church in Murfreesboro, Tennessee.

Studying the Guidepost report, Gaines said 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 road,” Gaines said. “I believe this report supplied the knowledge that we wanted for there to be a groundswell of support to take the right actions.”

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

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

Lawyer and author 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 said questions stay about its implementation.

“What is absolutely critical is that the local church cannot operate as the default or presumed starting place for a survivor to attempt to receive an investigation of clergy intercourse abuse,” she mentioned by way of electronic mail. “If the local church is deemed to be a requisite first stop for survivors to pursue action, then many survivors’ voices might be choked of their throats earlier than sound is ever uttered.”

Among the Guidepost report’s findings was that the Executive Committee kept a secret listing of hundreds of SBC-affiliated clergy and other personnel identified as intercourse abusers. Brown mentioned the committee, at a particular assembly Tuesday, ought to comply with launch this record.

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

The ultimate selections about recommendations to undergo the Anaheim delegates can be made by the SBC’s Sexual Abuse Job Drive, comprising seven members and two advisors. Its work over the previous 12 months has been an emotional journey, said Pastor Bruce Frank, who led the group.

“We noticed patterns and issues that have been deeply regarding,” he stated. “Our most important job was to empower Guidepost to do their job, they usually have executed a really remarkable job in the final nine months to have a look at events that occurred over 20 years.”

In the next week or so, the duty force will bring forth formal motions in “precise language,” which will be made public and offered to the delegates in Anaheim for a vote, said Frank, lead pastor of Biltmore Baptist Church in Arden, North Carolina.

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

“Our major goal ought to be preventing sexual abuse,” he mentioned. “And if abuse does happen, how will we look after survivors in a significantly better pastoral approach? How can we higher talk to ensure (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 look at what’s in that report and demand that things be better,” Frank stated. “SBC is a giant household with 48,000 churches. There is likely to be some disagreement on how you can make things higher. But I’m assured that we’ll work via the difficulties.”

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

One of many leading contenders is Bart Barber, a pastor from Farmersville, Texas, who expressed dismay at the mean-spirited behaviors attributed to some SBC officers 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 crusing into uncharted waters.”

“The work’s not carried out,” he added. “We’ve gotten the report, but I think all people in the survivor group that I’ve heard from has said studies are one thing, however we’ll see if this household of church buildings has the courage and resolve to take action.”

The intercourse abuse scandal was thrust into the highlight in 2019 by a landmark report from the Houston Chronicle and San Antonio Specific-News documenting tons of of circumstances in Southern Baptist church buildings, including several by which alleged perpetrators remained in ministry.

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