Southern Baptists face push for public checklist 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 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 suggestions in a report released Sunday by Guidepost Options, an impartial firm contracted by the SBC’s Government Committee after delegates to last yr’s nationwide assembly pressed for an investigation by outsiders.

The proposed database is anticipated to be considered one of several suggestions introduced to thousands of delegates attending this yr’s national meeting, scheduled for June 14-15 in Anaheim, California.

“Those suggestions might be open to questions, debate and feedback on the assembly floor,” said SBC President Ed Litton.

He expressed hope that the stunning findings in the Guidepost report will deliver “lasting change” to the SBC, America’s largest Protestant denomination. It has been losing membership steadily in recent years, while being wracked by inside 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 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, along with outside counsel, largely controlled the EC’s response to those reports of abuse ... and had been singularly targeted on avoiding legal responsibility,” the report mentioned.

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

Reading the Guidepost report, Gaines stated he was struck by repeated examples of a callous disregard for survivors, as well as leaders prioritizing protection of the SBC from liability over abuse prevention.

“We’re at a fork in the highway,” Gaines said. “I believe this report offered the data that we would have liked for there to be a groundswell of assist to take the appropriate actions.”

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

“I believe that’s one of the 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 urgent the SBC since 2006 to create a publicly accessible database of known abusers. She was heartened that Guidepost was recommending such a system, however stated questions stay about its implementation.

“What is absolutely important is that the local church can't function because the default or presumed beginning place for a survivor to attempt to get hold of an investigation of clergy sex abuse,” she said through e-mail. “If the native church is deemed to be a requisite first cease for survivors to pursue motion, then many survivors’ voices will probably be choked in their throats before sound is ever uttered.”

Among the many Guidepost report’s findings was that the Government Committee saved a secret checklist of hundreds of SBC-affiliated clergy and other personnel identified as intercourse abusers. Brown mentioned the committee, at a special assembly Tuesday, should conform to launch this checklist.

“I urge you to make public the whole thing of your record of pastors & ministers accused of sexual abuse, in no matter form it’s been saved for lo these many years,” Brown tweeted. “Submit. It. Now.”

The final selections about suggestions to undergo the Anaheim delegates will be made by the SBC’s Sexual Abuse Job Pressure, 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 noticed patterns and issues that had been deeply regarding,” he mentioned. “Our predominant job was to empower Guidepost to do their job, and so they have done a very exceptional job within the last nine months to take a look at occasions that occurred over 20 years.”

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

Frank stated the crux of the duty power’s suggestions primarily based on Guidepost’s report can be summarized in two phrases – prevention and care.

“Our predominant purpose should be preventing sexual abuse,” he said. “And if abuse does happen, how can we care for survivors in a significantly better pastoral way? How can we better talk to ensure (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 look at what’s in that report and demand that issues be better,” Frank mentioned. “SBC is a big family with 48,000 church buildings. There is likely to be some disagreement on methods to make issues better. However I’m confident that we’ll work by the difficulties.”

Along with sex 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 on the mean-spirited behaviors attributed to some SBC officials 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 sailing into uncharted waters.”

“The work’s not executed,” he added. “We’ve gotten the report, however I feel everybody within the survivor group that I’ve heard from has mentioned studies are one factor, however we’ll see if this household of church buildings has the courage and resolve to take motion.”

The sex abuse scandal was thrust into the spotlight in 2019 by a landmark report from the Houston Chronicle and San Antonio Express-Information documenting a whole lot of cases in Southern Baptist churches, including a number of through which alleged perpetrators remained in ministry.

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