Southern Baptists face push for public record 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 Information System” was one of many key recommendations in a report launched Sunday by Guidepost Options, an unbiased firm contracted by the SBC’s Executive Committee after delegates to last 12 months’s national meeting pressed for an investigation by outsiders.

The proposed database is expected to be certainly one of a number of suggestions offered to thousands of delegates attending this yr’s national assembly, scheduled for June 14-15 in Anaheim, California.

“These suggestions will likely be open to questions, debate and feedback on the assembly flooring,” said SBC President Ed Litton.

He expressed hope that the shocking findings in the Guidepost report will convey “lasting change” to the SBC, America’s largest Protestant denomination. It has been shedding 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 Executive Committee, “only to be met, time and time once more, with resistance, stonewalling, and even outright hostility from some within the EC.”

“Our investigation revealed that, for a few years, a number of senior EC leaders, together with outside counsel, largely managed the EC’s response to those reports of abuse ... and have been singularly centered on avoiding liability,” the report said.

The motion for an impartial investigation was put forward eventually 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 safety of the SBC from liability over abuse prevention.

“We’re at a fork within the highway,” Gaines mentioned. “I feel this report supplied the information that we wanted for there to be a groundswell of assist to take the appropriate actions.”

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

“I think that’s one of many first issues 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 recognized abusers. She was heartened that Guidepost was recommending such a system, however stated questions stay about its implementation.

“What is completely important is that the native church can't operate as the default or presumed beginning place for a survivor to try to obtain an investigation of clergy sex abuse,” she mentioned via email. “If the local church is deemed to be a requisite first cease for survivors to pursue motion, then many survivors’ voices shall be choked in their throats before sound is ever uttered.”

Among the many Guidepost report’s findings was that the Government Committee kept a secret checklist of lots of of SBC-affiliated clergy and other personnel identified as intercourse abusers. Brown stated the committee, at a special meeting Tuesday, ought to agree to release this checklist.

“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 many years,” Brown tweeted. “Put up. It. Now.”

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

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

In the subsequent week or so, the duty power will convey forth formal motions in “exact language,” which might be made public and introduced 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 duty force’s recommendations based on Guidepost’s report might be summarized in two phrases – prevention and care.

“Our fundamental objective needs to be stopping sexual abuse,” he stated. “And if abuse does occur, how do we care for survivors in a much better pastoral approach? How can we higher communicate to make sure (abusers) don’t go from one church to another?”

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

“Any person who is fair-minded will have a look at what’s in that report and demand that things be better,” Frank said. “SBC is a giant household with 48,000 churches. There is perhaps some disagreement on how one can make things higher. However I’m assured that we’ll work by means of the difficulties.”

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

One of the main contenders is Bart Barber, a pastor from Farmersville, Texas, who expressed dismay on 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 performed,” he added. “We’ve gotten the report, however I believe everybody within the survivor group that I’ve heard from has stated studies are one thing, but we’ll see if this family of church buildings 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 Express-Information documenting a whole lot of instances in Southern Baptist church buildings, together with a number of wherein alleged perpetrators remained in ministry.

___

Associated Press faith coverage receives help through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely accountable for this content material.