Leaders of the Southern Baptist Convention, America’s largest Protestant denomination, have been destroying and denigrating clergy survivors of sexual violence for nearly two decades as they sought to protect their own reputations, according to a scathing 288-page investigative report Sunday.
These survivors, as well as other concerned Southern Baptists, have repeatedly shared allegations with the SBC Executive Committee, “only to meet, over and over again, with resistance, opposition and even outright hostility from some in the EC,” the report said.
The seven-month investigation was conducted by Guidepost Solutions, an independent firm set up by the Executive Committee after delegates to last year’s national meeting were pressured to investigate by outsiders.
“Our investigation revealed that for many years, several senior EC leaders, along with external advisers, largely controlled the EC’s response to these reports of abuse … and were extremely focused on avoiding responsibility for the SBC.” says the report.
“In the service of this goal, survivors and others who report abuse have been ignored, disbelieved, or met with the constant refrain that the SBC cannot take any action because of its policy of church autonomy – even if it means convicted abusers continue to serve with no notice or warning to their current church or congregation, “the report added.
The report said an Executive Committee official maintained a list of Baptist officials accused of abuse, but there was no indication that anyone had “taken any action to ensure that the accused officials were no longer in power in SBC churches.” .
The latest list includes the names of hundreds of rapists believed to be linked to the SBC at some point. Survivors and defenders have long called for a public database of perpetrators.
In a statement on Sunday, SBC President Ed Lytton said he was “saddened to the heart” for the victims and thanked God for their work driving the SBC so far. He called on southern Baptists to complain and prepare to change the denomination’s culture and carry out reforms.
“I pray that Southern Baptists will begin to prepare today to take conscious action to address these failures and to chart a new course when we meet together in Anaheim,” Lytton said, referring to the California city that will host the National SBC meeting on 14-15 June. .
Among the main recommendations of the report:
– Establish an independent commission and later set up a permanent administrative body to oversee comprehensive long-term reforms on sexual violence and related violations within the SBC.
—Establish and maintain an infringer information system to alert the community to known infringers.
– Provide a comprehensive resource box including protocols, training, education and practical information.
– Limit the use of non-disclosure agreements and civil agreements that bind survivors to the confidentiality of sexual violence, unless requested by survivors.
The interim leaders of the Executive Committee, Willie McClorin and Roland Slade, welcomed the recommendations and vowed to make every effort to end sexual violence within the SBC.
“We acknowledge that there are no shortcuts,” they said. “We must all meet this challenge through reasonable and prayerful application, and we must do so with Christ-like compassion.”
The Executive Committee is due to hold a special meeting on Tuesday to discuss the report.
The sexual violence scandal was highlighted in 2019 by a landmark report by the Houston Chronicle and San Antonio Express-News documenting hundreds of cases in southern Baptist churches, including several in which the alleged perpetrators remain in service.
Last year, thousands of delegates to the SBC national meeting made it clear that they did not want the Executive Committee to oversee an investigation into their own actions. Instead, they voted overwhelmingly to set up a working group tasked with overseeing the review by a third party. Lytton, pastor of the Redemption Church in Saraland, Alabama, appointed the commission.
The working group had one week to review the report before it was made public. The recommendations of the working group, based on the findings of the Guidepost, will be presented at the SBC meeting in Anaheim.
The report offers shocking details of how Georgia-based pastor Johnny Hunt and former SBC president sexually abused another pastor’s wife during a beach vacation in 2010. In an interview with investigators, Hunt denied any physical contact with the woman, but still admitted he had contacts with her.
On May 13, Hunt, who was senior vice president of evangelization and leadership at the North American Missionary Council, SBC’s internal missions agency, resigned, said Kevin Ezel, the organization’s president and CEO. Ezel said before May 13, he “was unaware of Hunt’s alleged misconduct.”
The report describes a meeting organized by Hunt a few days after the alleged attack between the woman, her husband, Hunt and a pastor-counselor. Hunt admitted that he touched the victim inappropriately, but said “thank God I didn’t end the relationship.”
Among those who reacted sharply to the Guidepost report was Russell Moore, who previously headed the SBC’s public policy wing but left the denomination after accusing senior Executive Committee leaders of delaying efforts to tackle the sexual violence crisis.
“Crisis is too small a word. This is an apocalypse, “Moore wrote for Christianity Today after reading the report. “As grim as I was about the SBC Executive Committee, the investigation reveals a reality far worse and more systematic than I imagined it could be.”
According to the report, Guidepost investigators who spoke to survivors of all ages, including children, said survivors were equally traumatized by the way churches responded to their reports of sexual violence.
The survivors “spoke of the trauma of the initial abuse, but also told us about the devastating effects of the reaction of churches and institutions such as the SBC who did not trust them, ignored them, mistreated them and failed to help them,” it said. report.
It cites the case of Dave Pittman, who made phone calls from 2006 to 2011 and sent letters and emails to the SBC and Georgia Baptist Congresses Council, alleging that he had been abused by Frankie Wiley, a youth pastor at the Baptist Rehoboth Church when he was 12 years old. up to 15 years.
Pittman and several others went public to report that Wiley had harassed and raped them, and Wiley admitted to abusing “numerous victims” at several southern Baptist churches in Georgia.
According to the report, a Baptist convention official in Georgia told Pittman that the churches were autonomous and he could do nothing but pray.
The report also tells the story of Christa Brown, who says she was sexually abused as a teenager by the Minister of Youth and Education at her SBC church.
When she uncovered the abuse of the music minister after months of violence, she was told not to talk about it, according to the report, which said her abuser also continued to serve in southern Baptist churches in many states.
Brown, one of the most outspoken survivors, told investigators she had received “many hate letters, horrific blog comments and furious phone calls” over the past 15 years.
After reading the report, Brown told the Associated Press that it “fundamentally confirms what survivors of sexual abuse by southern Baptist clerics have been saying for decades.”
“I see this investigative report as the beginning, not the end. The work will continue, “Brown said. “But no one should ever forget the human cost of what it takes to get SBC even closer to this starting line of dealing with sexual violence by the clergy.
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Religious coverage of the Associated Press is supported by AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, funded by Lilly Endowment Inc. AP is solely responsible for this content.
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