Leaders of the Southern Baptist Convention, the largest Protestant denomination in America, stoned and insulted survivors of sexual assault by priests for nearly two decades despite their reputation.
These survivors and other concerned Southern Baptists have repeatedly shared allegations with the SBC Executive Committee, saying that “they have only encountered, occasionally, opposition, stoning and even apparent hostility to within some European Commission ”, the report states.
The seven-month investigation was conducted by Guidepost Solutions, an independent company taken over by the executive committee since delegates at a national meeting last year asked outsiders to investigate.
“Our investigation showed that over the years many high -ranking EC leaders, including external consultants, have extensively examined the European Commission’s response to these reports of violence … and focused only on avoidance of liability for SBC. ” , the report states.
“In serving this purpose, survivors and others who denounce the abuse, neglect, disbelief or continued suppression of the SBC cannot take any action because of the church’s autonomy policies – even if it means it’s that convicted perpetrators continue to be abusive. ” “There is no warning or warning for their current church or parish,” he added.
The report states that a member of the executive committee kept a list of Baptist ministers accused of harassment, but there is no indication that anyone has “taken any action to ensure that the accused ministers are no longer in positions. of power in the SBC churches. “.
The latest list includes the names of hundreds of offenders who thought they were related to the SBC at one point. Survivors and lawyers have long sought a public database of authors.
SBC President Ed Leighton said in a statement on Sunday to “express his condolences” for the victims and thanked God for their work that brought SBC to this moment. He called on Southern Baptists to grieve and prepare for change in cultural and denominational reforms.
“I pray that Southern Baptists will begin training today to take deliberate action to address this failure and set a new course when we meet in Anaheim,” said Leighton, referring to the city of California that will host the SBC 14-15. National. .
Key recommendations of the report include:
– Establish an independent commission and then establish a permanent administrative body to oversee the SBC’s long-term comprehensive reforms regarding sexual violence and related misconduct.
– Create and maintain a criminal information system to warn the public about known criminals.
– Provide a comprehensive toolbox of resources, including protocols, training, education, and practical information.
-Restrict the use of non-disclosure agreements and civil agreements that oblige survivors to maintain their privacy regarding sexual assault, unless the survivor requests it.
Interim Executive Committee Leaders Willie McLaughlin and Roland Slade accepted the recommendations and pledged to make a concerted effort to end sexual violence in the SBC.
“We recognize that there are no shortcuts,” they said. We must all face this challenge through careful and prayerful use, and we must do so with Christlike compassion.
The Executive Committee will hold an extraordinary session on Tuesday to review the report.
The sexual assault scandal emerged in a historic report in 2019 from the Houston Chronicle and the San Antonio Express-News, documenting hundreds of cases in Southern Baptist churches, including many in which those allegedly remained. sin in ministry.
Last year, thousands of delegates at an SBC national meeting clarified that they did not want the executive committee to oversee the investigation of their own actions. Instead, they voted to establish a working group to oversee third-party reviews. Leighton, pastor of the Church of the Atonement in Saraland, Alabama, appointed the jury.
The working group had a week to review the report before it was made public. The working group’s recommendations, based on the findings in Guidepost, will be presented at the SBC meeting in Anaheim.
The report provides surprising details on how Johnny Hunt, a pastor living in Georgia, and the former SBC president sexually assaulted the wife of another pastor on a beach vacation in 2010. In an interview with investigators, Hunt denied he had any physical contact with the woman, but admitted. She had a relationship with him.
On May 13, Hunt, senior vice president of evangelism and leadership on the North American Mission Board, SBC’s internal mission agency, resigned, said Kevin Ezel, the organization’s president and chief executive officer. Ezel said that until May 13 “he did not know of any alleged misconduct” on Hunt’s part.
The report describes a meeting between Hunt, which took place between the woman, her husband Hunt, and a pastoral counselor a few days after the alleged attack. Hunt admitted he treated the victim inappropriately, but said, “Thank God I didn’t end the relationship.”
Among those who strongly responded to the Guidepost report was Russell Moore, who previously headed the SBC’s public policy wing but left the denomination after accusing top executive committee leaders of stopping attempts to address the sexual crisis. that violence.
“The crisis is a very small word.” It was an apocalypse, ”Moore wrote in a report for Christianity Today. and more systematic than I thought could happen. “
According to the report, Guidepost investigators who spoke with survivors of various ages, including children, said the survivors were both traumatized by the way churches responded to their sexual reports. that abuse.
Survivors “spoke of the trauma of the initial violence, but also the devastating effects of responding to churches and institutions like the SBC that did not believe in them, ignored, abused them and could not help them”. The report says.
He cited the case of Dave Pittman, who from 2006 to 2011 called and sent letters and letters to the SBC and Georgian Baptist Convention, informing him that he had been abused by Frank Willie, a youth pastor at Rehoboth Baptist Church in he was 12. Up to 15 years.
Pittman and many others have publicly declared that Willie abused and raped them, while Willie admitted to abusing “many victims” at many of Georgia’s southern Baptist churches.
According to the report, a Georgian Baptist Convention official told Pittman that churches are independent and inevitably pray.
The report also tells the story of Christa Brown, who was allegedly sexually assaulted as a teenager by the Minister of Youth and Education at her church in SBC.
When he insulted the music minister a few months after the insult, he was told he had not discussed it, according to a report that says his tormentor also served in Southern Baptist churches in several states.
Brown, one of the most enduring survivors, told investigators that over the past 15 years he has received “a volume of hate speech, hateful blog comments and cruel phone calls. . “
After reading the report, Brown told The Associated Press that “largely confirms what Southern Baptist clerics have said about sexual assault survivors over the decades.”
“I see this investigative conclusion as the beginning and not the end. “The work will continue,” Brown said. “But let no one forget the human value required to also bring the SBC to this starting line in addressing the sexual abuse of clergy.”
Do I need help? Visit RAINN National hotline for online sexual abuse O National Sexual Abuse Resource Center website.
Source: Huffpost
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