Southern Baptists face push for public listing of sex abusers

A blistering report on the Southern Baptist Conference’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 Info System” was one of the key suggestions in a report launched Sunday by Guidepost Options, an impartial firm contracted by the SBC’s Executive Committee after delegates to last year’s national meeting pressed for an investigation by outsiders.

The proposed database is anticipated to be considered one 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.

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

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

The Guidepost report said survivors of abuse by SBC clergy repeatedly shared allegations with the Govt Committee, “solely 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, along with exterior counsel, largely managed the EC’s response to these experiences of abuse ... and have been singularly targeted on avoiding liability,” the report said.

The movement for an impartial investigation was put ahead ultimately year’s nationwide assembly 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 stated. “I believe this report supplied the knowledge that we would have liked for there to be a groundswell of help to take the right actions.”

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

“I think that’s one of the first issues we should 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 recognized abusers. She was heartened that Guidepost was recommending such a system, but stated questions remain about its implementation.

“What is absolutely vital is that the native church can't perform as the default or presumed starting place for a survivor to try to receive an investigation of clergy intercourse abuse,” she mentioned by way of electronic mail. “If the native church is deemed to be a requisite first stop for survivors to pursue action, then many survivors’ voices can be choked in their throats earlier than sound is ever uttered.”

Among the Guidepost report’s findings was that the Executive Committee stored a secret checklist of hundreds of SBC-affiliated clergy and other personnel recognized as intercourse abusers. Brown stated the committee, at a special meeting Tuesday, ought to agree to launch this checklist.

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

The final decisions about recommendations to submit to the Anaheim delegates shall be made by the SBC’s Sexual Abuse Process Drive, comprising seven members and two advisors. Its work over the previous 12 months has been an emotional journey, mentioned Pastor Bruce Frank, who led the group.

“We saw patterns and things that had been deeply regarding,” he said. “Our primary job was to empower Guidepost to do their job, they usually have executed a really remarkable job in the last 9 months to take a look at occasions that occurred over 20 years.”

In the next week or so, the task force will deliver 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 said the crux of the task drive’s suggestions primarily based on Guidepost’s report can be summarized in two phrases – prevention and care.

“Our principal purpose ought to be stopping sexual abuse,” he stated. “And if abuse does happen, how will we look after survivors in a significantly better pastoral manner? How can we better communicate to verify (abusers) don’t go from one church to another?”

His hope is that this report serves as “a catalyst for change.”

“Any one that is fair-minded will take a look at what’s in that report and demand that things be higher,” Frank mentioned. “SBC is a giant family with 48,000 churches. There is perhaps some disagreement on the best way to make things better. But I’m assured that we’ll work by means of 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 in 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 achieved,” he added. “We’ve gotten the report, but I think everyone within the survivor group that I’ve heard from has said studies are one thing, but we’ll see if this household of church buildings has the braveness 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 Categorical-Information documenting hundreds of instances in Southern Baptist churches, including several during which alleged perpetrators remained in ministry.

___

Associated Press faith protection receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Dialog US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely answerable for this content.