Report: Leading Southern Baptists Block Sex Abuse Victims


Leaders of the Southern Baptist Convention, America’s largest Protestant denomination, blocked and denigrated survivors of clergy sexual abuse for nearly two decades as they sought to protect their own reputations, according to a scathing 288 investigative report. pages published on Sunday.

These survivors, and other concerned Southern Baptists, repeatedly shared accusations with the SBC Executive Committee, “only to meet, again and again, resistance, obstruction, and even outright hostility from some within the EC,” the report says.

The seven-month investigation was conducted by Guidepost Solutions, an independent firm hired by the Executive Committee after delegates at last year’s national meeting pushed for an independent investigation.

“Our investigation revealed that, for many years, a few senior EC leaders, along with outside counsel, largely controlled the EC’s response to these reports of abuse…and were singularly focused on avoiding EC responsibility. SBC,” the report says.

“In service of this goal, survivors and others who reported abuse were either ignored, disbelieved, or met with the constant refrain that the SBC could not take any action because of its policy regarding church autonomy, including if that meant the convicted abusers continued in ministry with no notice or warning to their current church or congregation,” the report added.

SBC President Ed Litton said in a statement Sunday that he is “sorry to the core” for the victims and thanked God for his work in carrying the SBC forward to this point. He called on Southern Baptists to grieve and prepare to change the denomination’s culture and implement reforms.

“I pray that Southern Baptists begin preparing today to take deliberate steps to address these failures and chart a new course when we meet in Anaheim,” Litton said.

Among the report’s key recommendations:

— Form an independent commission and then establish a permanent administrative entity to oversee long-term, comprehensive reforms related to sexual abuse and related misconduct within the SBC.

—Create and maintain an Offender Information System to alert the community to known offenders.

— Provide a comprehensive resource toolbox that includes protocols, training, education and practical information.

—Restrict the use of nondisclosure agreements and civil agreements that bind survivors to confidentiality in matters of sexual abuse, unless requested by the survivor.

The sexual abuse scandal was thrust into the spotlight in 2019 by a landmark report by the Houston Chronicle and the San Antonio Express-News that documented hundreds of cases at Southern Baptist churches, including several in which the alleged perpetrators remained in the ministry.

Last year, thousands of delegates at the national SBC meeting sent the message that they did not want the Executive Committee to oversee an investigation of their own actions. Instead, they voted overwhelmingly to create the task force charged with overseeing the third-party review. SBC President Ed Litton, pastor of Redemption Church in Saraland, Alabama, appointed the panel.

Executive Committee members had a week to review the report before it was made public on Sunday afternoon. The task force’s recommendations based on the Guidepost findings will be presented at the SBC’s annual meeting in Anaheim on June 14-15.

In February, the Executive Committee offered a public apology and a confidential monetary settlement to sexual abuse survivor Jennifer Lyell, who was misrepresented by the denomination’s internal news service when she decided to go public with her story in March 2019.

Lyell publicly revealed that she was a survivor of sexual abuse after learning that the man she accused of abuse, a former Southern Baptist seminary professor, had recently returned to ministry. She said that she came forward with her story to prevent the man from committing further abusive acts.

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Associated Press religious coverage is supported through AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. AP is solely responsible for this content.



Reference-apnews.com

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