The Southern Baptist Convention’s handling of allegations of sexual abuse has been criticized in a shocking report. This raises the possibility that the church will make a public database of abusers, pastors, and other church staff for the first time.
Guidepost Solutions, an outside firm contracted by the SBC Executive Committee to conduct an investigation after delegated at last year’s national meeting demanded that an “Offender Information Systems” be created.
This year’s national meeting will be held in Anaheim, California, June 14-15, and the proposed database will be presented as one of many recommendations to thousands of delegate.
Ed Litton, President of the SBC, stated that “these recommendations will be open for questions and debate on the meeting floor.”
He expressed his hope that the Guidepost report’s shocking findings would bring about “lasting change” for the SBC, America’s largest Protestant denomination. The church has seen a steady decline in membership over the past few years and is plagued by internal divisions about race and gender roles.
According to the Guidepost report, victims of abuse by SBC clergy shared their allegations with the Executive Committee repeatedly, only for them to be met with resistance, stonewalling and even hostility from some members of the EC.
The report stated that “our investigation revealed that for many years, a few top EC leaders along with out-of-court counsel largely controlled the EC’s response to these abuse reports… and were singularly focussed on avoiding liability.”
At last year’s national gathering, the Rev. Grant Gaines is the senior pastor at Belle Aire Baptist Church, Murfreesboro (Tennessee).
Gaines stated that he was struck by the repeated instances of cruelty towards survivors and leaders who prioritised protecting the SBC from liability rather than abuse prevention when he read the Guidepost report.
Gaines stated, “We are at a fork on the road.” “I believe this report provided all the information we needed to have a groundwell of support for the right actions.”
Gaines stated that he supported the idea of creating a system to alert communities to known offenders.
He said, “I believe that’s one the first things we should be doing.”
Christa Brown, a lawyer and writer, claims she was sexually abused by her youth minister at her SBC church as a teenager. She has been pressing the SBC to create a publicly available database of abusers since 2006. Although she was encouraged by the recommendation of Guidepost, there are still questions about how it will be implemented.
She stated via email that “it is crucial that the local church not function as the default or presumed beginning place for survivors to seek an investigation into clergy sex abuse.” If the local church is considered to be the first stop for survivors seeking action, many survivors will feel stifled before they can speak.
The SBC’s Sexual Abuse Task Force (seven members, two advisors) will make the final decisions regarding the recommendations that Anaheim delegates should submit. The group’s year-long journey has been an emotional one, according to Pastor Bruce Frank.
He said, “We saw patterns and things which were deeply concerning.” “Our primary job was to enable Guidepost to do its job. They have done an amazing job over the past nine months, looking at events that took place over 20 years.”
Frank, lead pastor at Biltmore Baptist Church, Arden, North Carolina, stated that the task force will present formal motions in “precise terminology” within the next week. These will be made public and presented in Anaheim to the delegates for a vote.
Frank stated that the core of the Task Force’s recommendations based upon Guidepost’s Report can be summarized into two words: prevention and care.
He stated that “our main goal should be to prevent sexual abuse.” “And if abuse does happen, how can we provide pastoral care that is more effective for those who are affected? How can we communicate better to ensure that abusers don’t move from one church or another?
He hopes that the report will be “a catalyst for positive change.”
