Southern Baptists face push for public record 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 primary time, will create a publicly accessible database of pastors and different church personnel identified to be abusers.

The creation of an “Offender Info System” was one of the key suggestions in a report released Sunday by Guidepost Options, an unbiased firm contracted by the SBC’s Government Committee after delegates to last year’s national assembly pressed for an investigation by outsiders.

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

“These suggestions will probably be open to questions, debate and feedback on the meeting flooring,” mentioned SBC President Ed Litton.

He expressed hope that the surprising findings in the Guidepost report will convey “lasting change” to the SBC, America’s largest Protestant denomination. It has been dropping membership steadily in recent times, while 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 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 many years, a few senior EC leaders, together with exterior counsel, largely controlled the EC’s response to these experiences of abuse ... and had been singularly targeted on avoiding liability,” the report stated.

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

Studying the Guidepost report, Gaines stated 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 highway,” Gaines mentioned. “I feel this report provided the data that we would have liked for there to be a groundswell of support to take the fitting actions.”

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

“I think that’s one of many first issues we must always do,” he said.

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, however mentioned questions stay about its implementation.

“What is completely essential is that the local church can't operate because the default or presumed beginning place for a survivor to attempt to get hold of an investigation of clergy intercourse abuse,” she stated by way of email. “If the native church is deemed to be a requisite first stop for survivors to pursue action, then many survivors’ voices shall be choked in their throats before sound is ever uttered.”

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

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

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

“We noticed patterns and issues that had been deeply concerning,” he mentioned. “Our essential job was to empower Guidepost to do their job, and they have performed a very remarkable job in the final nine months to look at events that occurred over 20 years.”

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

Frank mentioned the crux of the duty power’s recommendations based on Guidepost’s report might be summarized in two words – prevention and care.

“Our primary aim must be stopping sexual abuse,” he mentioned. “And if abuse does occur, how can we look after survivors in a a lot better pastoral method? How can we higher talk 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 have a look at what’s in that report and demand that issues be higher,” Frank mentioned. “SBC is a big household with 48,000 church buildings. There may be some disagreement on make things better. However I’m confident that we’ll work through the difficulties.”

Along with intercourse abuse, the agenda for the meeting in Anaheim consists of 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 officers within the Guidepost report.

If elected, Barber said 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, but I believe everybody in the survivor neighborhood that I’ve heard from has said stories are one thing, but we’ll see if this family of churches has the braveness 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 Specific-News documenting hundreds of instances in Southern Baptist churches, including a number of by which alleged perpetrators remained in ministry.

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