ATLANTA, May 22 (Reuters) – For decades, complaints of sexual abuse by pastors and officials in the largest Protestant denomination in the United States, the Southern Baptist Convention, have been either ignored or covered up by senior clerics, according to an internal report released Sunday. .
The nearly 300-page report describes how the complaints were kept as “top secret” in the church to avoid responsibility, “excluding all other considerations,” it said.
“In the service of this goal, survivors and others who reported abuses were ignored, distrusted,” the report said, with church leaders covering up allegations and allowing accused clergy to remain pastors or other positions of power.
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The lawsuits against the church were denounced as “opportunistic” and unfounded, it said.
The year-round investigation was initiated by the Southern Baptist Convention in June 2021, when a stream of complaints was raised at its annual meeting. The complaints focus on sexual abuse by pastors and volunteers and the lack of response from the religious body’s executive committee. Read more
“We are saddened by the findings of this investigation,” Roland Slade, chairman of the church’s executive committee, said in a statement.
“We are committed to doing our utmost to prevent future cases of sexual violence in churches, to improve our response and our concerns, and (and) to remove barriers to reporting,” the statement said.
The Southern Baptist Church Convention claims more than 13 million members in the United States and more than 40 million worldwide.
The scandal covers the Roman Catholic Church, which was rocked by allegations of sexual violence when the Boston Globe revealed in 2002 that the church hierarchy had been covering up sexual misconduct by clergy for decades.
The Catholic Church in the United States has paid approximately $ 3.2 billion to settle cases of clergy abuse, according to BishopAccountability.org, which is tracking the issue.
In 2019, the Houston Chronicle and San Antonio Express-News reported that more than 700 victims had been abused by pastors, leaders and volunteers in Southern Baptist congregations. Read more
The Southern Baptist investigation was conducted by Guidepost Solutions LLC.
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Report by Rich McKay in Atlanta; Edited by Paul Simao and Tom Hogg
Our standards: Thomson Reuters’ principles of trust.
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