Southern Baptists face push for public list of intercourse abusers

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

The creation of an “Offender Info System” was one of the key recommendations in a report launched Sunday by Guidepost Solutions, an unbiased firm contracted by the SBC’s Govt Committee after delegates to final 12 months’s national assembly pressed for an investigation by outsiders.

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

“These suggestions will likely 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 bring “lasting change” to the SBC, America’s largest Protestant denomination. It has been dropping membership steadily in recent times, while being wracked by inner divisions over race and gender roles.

The Guidepost report stated survivors of abuse by SBC clergy repeatedly shared allegations with the Government Committee, “only 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 a few years, a couple of senior EC leaders, together with outdoors counsel, largely managed the EC’s response to those studies of abuse ... and were singularly focused on avoiding liability,” the report stated.

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

Reading the Guidepost report, Gaines said 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 mentioned. “I think this report offered the information that we wanted for there to be a groundswell of assist to take the precise 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 must always do,” he mentioned.

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 known abusers. She was heartened that Guidepost was recommending such a system, however said questions stay about its implementation.

“What is absolutely critical is that the local church can't operate as the default or presumed beginning place for a survivor to attempt to acquire an investigation of clergy sex abuse,” she stated via electronic mail. “If the local church is deemed to be a requisite first cease for survivors to pursue motion, then many survivors’ voices will be choked in their throats earlier than sound is ever uttered.”

Among the Guidepost report’s findings was that the Government Committee saved a secret list of a whole bunch of SBC-affiliated clergy and other personnel identified as sex abusers. Brown stated the committee, at a special assembly Tuesday, ought to comply with release this list.

“I urge you to make public the whole lot of your listing of pastors & ministers accused of sexual abuse, in no matter kind it’s been kept for lo these a few years,” Brown tweeted. “Post. It. Now.”

The ultimate selections about recommendations to undergo the Anaheim delegates will likely be made by the SBC’s Sexual Abuse Job Power, comprising seven members and two advisors. Its work over the previous 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 stated. “Our major job was to empower Guidepost to do their job, they usually have done a very outstanding job in the last 9 months to look at events that occurred over 20 years.”

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

Frank said the crux of the task pressure’s recommendations based on Guidepost’s report will be summarized in two phrases – prevention and care.

“Our predominant objective ought to be preventing sexual abuse,” he said. “And if abuse does occur, how do we look after survivors in a significantly better pastoral approach? How can we better 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 that is fair-minded will take a look at what’s in that report and demand that issues be better,” Frank said. “SBC is a giant household with 48,000 church buildings. There is likely to be some disagreement on find out how to make things higher. However I’m confident that we’ll work by way of the difficulties.”

Along with sex abuse, the agenda for the assembly in Anaheim contains 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 on the mean-spirited behaviors attributed to some SBC officials within the Guidepost report.

If elected, Barber said in a broadcast interview Monday, “I’m praying that God will give me the wisdom to know what to do.... We’re sailing into uncharted waters.”

“The work’s not done,” he added. “We’ve gotten the report, but I think all people within the survivor group that I’ve heard from has stated reports are one thing, however we’ll see if this family of churches 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 Specific-Information documenting hundreds of cases in Southern Baptist churches, together with several by which alleged perpetrators remained in ministry.

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