But what all my pastor friends are hearing is we better get this right, and we better fix this. He is planning to discuss the report with attendees at the churchs weekly Bible study on Wednesday night. While we await the direction of the messengers and gather the strength of our convictions to implement the will of the messengers in the wake of this report, we want to provide some basic responses to the most frequent questions that may arise in connection with the report. But they found her story to be credible. That series led the Southern Baptist Convention to commission an independent investigation. So at this time, there's nobody on the database, but those will be coming soon.". He was one of the lead reporters on a series of articles published in 2019 titled "Abuse Of Faith" investigating allegations of sexual abuse in the Southern Baptist Church. While there are some people in the denomination who really want to do the right thing, she said, others are content with the status quo. WebThere are two options to report an instance of abuseby phone at 202-864-5578 or SBChotline@guidepostsolutions.com. Meanwhile, the church kept a secret list of over 700 offenders. Its gathering in Nashville for one of its major meetings of the year on Monday and Tuesday. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information. Why was their general counsel requesting this list, do you know? That list was unknown to most of the EC staff and to the trustees, Besen said during the May 24 EC meeting. I mean, these are wounds that never heal. She previously covered a similar beat for Time magazine. Southern Baptist leaders release a list of accused sexual The series also detailed numerous incidents in which denominational leaders mishandled, ignored or concealed warnings that Southern Baptist churches were being targeted by predators. SBC abuse Marshall Blalock, chairman of the SBC Abuse Reform Implementation Task Force, speaks during the SBC Annual Meeting in New Orleans, Louisiana, on June 14, 2023. And while the husband was gone, he basically, you know, invited himself into this woman's condo next door and sexually assaulted her. GROSS: Let me reintroduce you again. They plan to go to next months convention in Anaheim, she said, to make sure the S.B.C. "Roughly 80 percent of respondents" to a poll posted in a dark web forum with 3,000 members said that "they had used or intended to use AI tools to He was one of the lead reporters on a series of articles published in 2019, titled "Abuse of Faith," investigating allegations of sexual abuse in the Southern Baptist Church. @elizabethjdias, A version of this article appears in print on, Southern Baptist Sex Abuse Report Stuns, From Pulpit to Pews, https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/23/us/southern-baptist-sex-abuse-report.html. After Blalocks presentation on Monday night, SBC President Bart Barber addressed the executive committee and spoke on the importance of courageousness and boldness. CNN An independent investigation into the Southern Baptist Convention found its leaders mishandled allegations of sexual abuse, intimidated victims and resisted Our people, I dont think they have the bandwidth to get into all the details, said Griffin Gulledge, the pastor of Madison Baptist Church in Georgia. For victims of sexual abuse or for those who suspect sexual abuse by a pastor, staff member or member of a Southern Baptist church or entity. But at the same time, they did have the power to oust churches that had female pastors or were affirming of homosexuality. If you're just joining us, my guest is Robert Downen, a reporter for the Houston Chronicle. Critics have said that the Southern Baptist Convention is comfortable drawing hard lines from the top down when it chooses. Some women need help afterward. I mean, sexual predators understand that churches - they call them soft targets for a reason because they understand that there's a lot of focus on repentance and forgiveness, and that, coupled with this loose structure that is kind of at the core of the SBC, has really allowed a lot of these guys to abuse, repent and then abuse again, even just down the street. Abusers go where they think they can hide. The report quickly proved to be another dividing line within the denomination, with some pastors and members seeing it as a call to action for deep cultural and structural changes on abuse, as well as a range of issues around politics and the treatment of women. The denomination includes almost 14 million members in more than 47,000 congregations. And that's been a constant refrain for years now. All information will remain confidential. The Sexual Abuse Task Force (SATF), which hired Guidepost Solutions to conduct the independent investigation, described the parameters of the list. And they lived with that trauma daily that they had not done enough to stop the man who abused them from abusing others. A trial in her daughters lawsuit against the church is set to begin in October. Although we were told for decades this was impossible, last June our convention voted to get this done, Marshall Blalock, chairman of the SBC Abuse Reform Implementation Task Force, said at an SBC Executive Committee meeting on Monday night. Blalocks announcement about the Ministry Check database was a long time coming and took longer than many initially expected. Copyright 2022 NPR. ROBERT DOWNEN: So this was a list that was commissioned at the behest of a top SBC leader and one of their longtime lawyers. The results of a sprawling investigation are coursing through every level of Baptist society, at an already fraught moment for the nations largest Protestant denomination. The denominations former policy head, Russell Moore, who left last year, called it an apocalypse that revealed a reality far more evil and systemic than I imagined it could be. Its current president, Ed Litton, said the report was far worse than he had anticipated. Christa Brown, the survivor that you're quoting, I believe later in that quote described it as a poor sieve of the denomination, and, I mean, I think this week's report really does speak to that, as well as our reporting previously, now - in 2019, as part of our first round of stories, we focused in part on people who had been accused of sex crimes or offenses at churches and were able to find other jobs at other churches, and we found 35 of them. I mean, I talked to Christa Brown for a while about this. SBC But, you know, the number of people who reached out to us and said, you know, I - this happened to me, and I had always just assumed that I was a misnomer, that this was a Catholic problem and that I was an anomaly. For Ms. I'm getting emotional here. You know, we reached out to the National Sexual Assault Hotline. No. And those comments were publicized, and they went unchallenged. GROSS: Robert Downen, thank you so much for talking with us. The SBC abuse reform task force will present report of its work at the upcoming 2023 SBC annual meeting and ask for renewal for another year to finalize a June 17, 2023 3 AM PT. "Southern Baptists, keep your resolve, steel your spine, do what is right, speak for the abuse and continue this work of reform for this reason, because the sole question before us is extending the task force for another year," he said. Nothing popped up. And, you know, there's a reason why the people who were ignored or who were vilified for coming forward routinely are the ones that are the most vocal and adamant advocates because they understand the truly devastating and nuanced effects of not having someone to talk to or living with the deeply conflicting and profound guilt that, you know, maybe I should have done something more to stop my predator, and now I have to live with the idea every day that he's abusing others. DOWNEN: I don't think we really got that many crank calls. And I remember sitting there on that Friday with the family of a girl who had been abused recently at a Dallas megachurch. This list is being made public for the first time as an initial, but important, step towards addressing the scourge of sexual abuse and implementing reform in the Convention. The list, which had grown to 585 names as of August 2018, has been reviewed by legal counsel and the SBCs Sexual Abuse Task Force. AI-generated images of child sexual abuse are on the rise - The Blalock responded that church names will not be listed on the new website, only names, cities, states and photos of those credibly accused of sexual abuse. Published May 23, 2022 Updated May 26, 2022. He was one of the lead reporters on a series of articles published in 2019, titled "Abuse Of Faith," investigating allegations of sexual abuse in the Southern Baptist Church. And what is alleged in the report is that in 2010, a month after his presidency, he basically had invited a woman and her husband and their family on vacation to Panama City Beach. Top Southern Baptists stonewalled sex abuse victims, report finds Four years ago she reported to the churchs leaders that her daughter, at about age 11, had been sexually abused at the churchs summer camp for children. But in our own reporting, I mean, we found 700 victims, and nearly all of them were children. But if - I mean, if you're a parent, you can only, I guess, fathom how deeply painful that is and how just earth-shattering that is to your relationship with your child, with your spouse and with your faith. Then he can infiltrate the entirety of Southern Baptist Convention, moved from church to church, from state to state, go to bigger churches and more prominent churches where he has more influence and power. It's hierarchical. "We want to make sure that it is absolutely solid before we put it up there. But there was a problem. Southern Baptist list includes hundreds of cases of abuse, All rights reserved. GROSS: This is FRESH AIR. Messengers And 50-plus years after her abuse and after 20 years of being absolutely dragged through the mud and vilified by SBC leaders, finally a local media outlet reported the name of the man she's said for decades abused her. A new report summarizing an independent investigation into the history of sexual abuse in the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) details decades of gaslighting and cover-ups. GROSS: Do you know if the SBC is worried about what this will mean for the SBC's reputation, if it will alienate members of Southern Baptist churches and if it will decrease their fundraising efforts? GROSS: When you were doing the 2019 investigation into sexual abuse in the church, how did survivors react knowing that you were taking their allegations seriously, and in some cases, like, you were proving those allegations were actually accurate, that these people needed to be believed? And from what we know from that report, lawsuit liability was for decades a central focus amongst this small group of SBC leaders who were really dictating what the SBC could or could not do. And so this week, we got to name some of those abusers only because they were named in the Guidepost report. Liam Adams covers religion for The Tennessean. Every member church is autonomous, meaning the Southern Baptist Convention does not have power, control, or ownership over a member church. This will be the third major project Guidepost has handled dealing with abuse in the SBC. Opinion: What is the Southern Baptists problem with women? Guidepost Solutions named to create SBC database of accused DOWNEN: So I - we haven't had time to analyze the full, you know, 200-page "database," quote-unquote, that was made public last week. That is the goal.". 2023 Southern Baptist Convention. Heading Faith-Based Solutions is Samantha Kilpatrick, who graduated from an SBC seminary and who has worked with Southern Baptist-affiliated organizations on abuse reform. DOWNEN: Yeah, absolutely. The Conservative Baptist Network, an influential group founded in 2020, said in a brief statement on Monday evening that it joins other Southern Baptists in grieving, and that while it disagreed with certain aspects of the report, Southern Baptists should study its recommendations. During Tuesday's meeting, ARITF unveiled atoolbox of resourcesfor church leaders, including information to help them understand abuse and how to respond., "[Prediators] prey on high-trust environments, and churches should be high-trust environments," Blalock said. Discovery is no substitute for action, he said. We'll talk more about the Southern Baptist sexual abuse scandal and Downen's own reporting that uncovered the abuse after we take a short break. Our prayer is that the survivors of these heinous acts find hope and healing, and that churches will utilize this list proactively to protect and care for the most vulnerable among us. Barber has been seen as major proponent of abuse reform since his election last June. Though Barber didnt directly reference the abuse reform efforts on Monday, many themes of his address align with the conventions present need to address abuse. One of the things your team did was set up a confidential tip line where survivors of abuse could report their story. The letter on page It is every bit as bad as I expected it to be, she said. Robert Downen, welcome to FRESH AIR. And one of the things that, you know, she said that just keeps sticking out with me is that we feel validated, but there's absolutely no joy in that because we understand the human toll. I'm Terry Gross, and this is FRESH AIR. That investigation led to a report released just over a week ago that confirmed widespread sexual abuse and attempts to cover it up and discredit survivors who came forward. I think, within the first few weeks, we had 500+ people just reaching out to us alone. Southern Baptists Fight Over Female Leaders Shows Power of Insurgent Right. Survivors of abuse and advocates for reform have called for a such a database for over a decade. It was called the Caring Well conference. Report Let's get back to my interview with Robert Downen, a reporter for the Houston Chronicle. Johnny Hunt confesses to only kissing and some awkward fondling in defamation suit, Paige Patterson and SWBTS dismissed from sexual abuse lawsuit involving former SBC member, Pastor shoots wife, himself at hotel months after celebrating first year as leader, Pastor who shot wife at hotel constantly beat and threatened to kill her: report, Church members say they fired their pastor, but he refused to leave after judge overruled the decision, American street preacher arrested in England for preaching during LGBT pride event, UMC conference with lesbian bishop approves disaffiliation votes of 38 congregations, This week in Christian history: Crystal Cathedral holds last service, Council of Lyons begins, Messianic rabbi points Jews, Gentiles to Christ in the heart of the Bible Belt, Christian Reformed Church tells congregation to remove deacon in same-sex marriage. We intend to thoughtfully and prayerfully consider the recommendations of the Sexual Abuse Task Force. The Southern Baptist Convention's Abuse Reform Implementation Task Force (ARITF) has been granted another year to fulfill mandates outlined by SBC messengers last year to help churches combat sexual abuse within their ranks. SBC releases 200-page database of credibly accused sexual abusers Sexual Abuse - SBC.net All he has to do is talk a good talk and convince people he'd been called by God and he gets to become a Southern Baptist minister. Moreover, the Executive Committee diligently assisted Guidepost in obtaining certain information and speaking with some individuals outside of its control. SBC DOWNEN: It includes everyone from church volunteers to ministers to pastors, anyone who was credibly accused of sex offenses. So when you were first getting those calls, how did you separate the kind of crank calls from the real survivors? That series led the Southern Baptist Convention to commission an independent investigation. Hope youll give us another try and check out some other articles. And then when they tried to get whatever resembles justice for their child, they quickly found out that the very same people that they had allowed to, you know, care for their child didn't actually care about them. My hope is the survivors will know that they are seenandbelieved. "The thing that will tear this whole thing down is that we put somebody up there that is merely accused and there's no evidence behind it," Blalock explained. Bart Barber, a Texas pastor who is a candidate favored by many of Mr. Littons supporters, said in a statement that the convention needed leadership that breaks decisively from the patterns described in the report. Guidepost reviewed hundreds of thousands of emails, documents, videos, court filings, and other materials from Executive Committee leadership, legal counsel, committee members, survivors, advocates, and churches. They have, you know, overlapping theologies and other things that they they cooperate on, including pooling money for missions and to fund seminaries. @publicroad, Elizabeth Dias covers faith and politics from Washington. (iStock) 10 min. The reason that lawyers factored so heavily into that report is because the SBC's executive committee has kind of just deferred to this small group of leaders for decades now. A sexual abuse scandal has shaken up the Southern Baptist Church. 4 takeaways from the Southern Baptist Convention sex abuse They had heard time and time again from all sorts of people, whether in the church or in law enforcement, in media, that, you know, that their abuser would be publicized and that they could finally move past this this deep guilt and complex trauma that they hadn't done enough. And so when we talk about the profound devastation that this type of abuse, not just sexual but institutional - the type of damage that has on people long-term, I think it's evident, if you even just spend a little bit of time talking to so many of these survivors - I mean, there's a reason that Christa Brown is 68 and is just now this week finally being believed. GROSS: Why was she concerned about her child's safety? They didn't want to expose the SBC to liability and lawsuits. The investigation, conducted by a third party at the insistence of church members, has thrust the nations largest Protestant denomination into turmoil at a particularly fraught moment. This is FRESH AIR. I mean, that's it. Is that what has happened? Although the Executive Committee cannot guarantee the reliability of Guideposts analysis because the Executive Committee did not perform the investigation, the Executive Committee does not have any reason to believe the report is unreliable. The oversight group, called the SBC Credentials Committee, launched an inquiry into Hiland Park for platforming former SBC president Johnny Hunt, who is facing abuse allegations. We must keep our eyes focused on Him or we will sink, Slade said. DOWNEN: You know - sorry. This is FRESH AIR. The time is now for action, not words. Article IV of the SBC Constitution makes clear, the Convention does not claim and will never attempt to exercise any authority over any other Baptist body, whether church, auxiliary organizations, associations, or convention. Similarly, Article VI of the Baptist Faith and Message states that [a] New Testament church of the Lord Jesus Christ is an autonomous local congregation of baptized believers, associated by covenant in the faith and fellowship of the Gospel.. DOWNEN: Well, she says that, you know, during the alleged assaults over years, at one point, you know, she's still half deaf from what she says was her pastor firing a gun next to her head during one assault. The most recent list of sex abusers prepared by a staff member contained the names of 703 alleged abusers, with 409 believed to be SBC affiliated at some point, Let's start with the finding of the independent report commissioned by the Southern Baptist Convention, the report that was the result of your investigative series, along with a team of reporters. So for that woman to see him continuing to hold himself out as being, in some form, a victim of, you know, sin, of a moral failing, while also failing to, you know, reach out to them or do other things to care for her - I mean, I - you know, she has said repeatedly that's been particularly retraumatizing, to just have to relive this over and over and over again via his denials in public. Annually, the Drug Abuse Warning Network (DAWN) releases nationally representative data on key findings from drug-related emergency department visits. The executive committee is comprised of about 30 staff and an 86-member board of elected representatives and manages denomination business outside the SBC annual meeting. This list is being made public for the We must have the will to make sure there is no place to hide.". DOWNEN: You know, in just the last few years, we've seen - including in the Guidepost report from last week, we've seen SBC leaders saying, you know, this - abuse is a distraction from evangelism. And what we found is that the lack of training and oversights that often is required in those positions, combined with the ability to use social media and cellphones and all of these other things to kind of start grooming, you know, congregants at an early age, I mean - the fact that, you know, 25% of the cases we were able to find were youth pastors committing abuses of people in their youth groups really does speak to this broader issue within the SBC. Thousands of realistic but fake AI child sex images found online Guidepost was unable to interview some requested individuals and entities for various reasons. And that trauma, the idea that she trusted people who ended up not caring, who called her as reprehensible as a sex criminal, I mean, that's the type of damage that you really can't ever undo. But in east metro Atlanta churches, local officials were in the way, survivors say. This process will take some time. Roger Sing Oldham, who formerly served on the SBC executive committee asvice president for convention relations and communications, released an open letter on May 27 to SBC leadership, members of SBC sexual abuse task force, the SBC executive committee and various Baptist media outlets. If you have questions about the 2023 Trafficking in Persons Report, please email, TIPOutreach@state.gov . "If we're not protecting our people from abuse, we are compromising our mission," Marshall Blalock, chairman of the SBC Abuse Reform Implementation Task Force, said. Accuracy and availability may vary. Can you talk a little bit about their reaction that people who came forward got from the church? For some victims and family members, the report did not go far enough. An annual meeting for the Southern Baptist Convention, which has almost 14 million members. And I'm wondering if any of the survivors actually did get an abortion. GROSS: One of the activists who was arguing for reform within the church said being a preacher in the church was a perfect profession for a con artist. She refused church leaders' demands that she have an abortion and later uprooted her life and moved abroad out of fear for her daughter's safety. GROSS: So in this new independent report that was released, Johnny Hunt, a former Southern Baptist Convention president, was accused of sexually assaulting a woman from his church in 2010, one month after his presidency ended because of term limits. You found that some sexual abuse victims within the church were asked to forgive their abusers or get abortions. Sports gamblings legalization: Nothing to celebrate about, The uprising: Families clash with schools over LGBTQ propaganda, SBC messengers to vote on proposed amendment solidifying ban on women pastors in denomination, SBC upholds ousting of Saddleback Church over woman teaching pastor, Ex-SBC Pres. list But that's not what they were saying publicly. But, you know, I've talked to that woman numerous times. And to get back to your question, though, we definitely talked to a lot of parents who have had to come to terms with the fact that not only was their child abused, but their child was abused in a setting in which they put them. Site by Mere. And while the waters may be choppy and stormy, we will be with the One Who stills the storm.. Ruth Graham is a Dallas-based national correspondent covering religion, faith and values. The ARITF will report again to next year's SBC annual meeting in Indianapolis. I mean, that was - I mean, even until, you know, this morning, I'm still getting people reaching out to me, saying that. Twenty-five years ago, L.P. Cook and his wife, Amy, welcomed their twin sons into the world. SBC Abuse Reform Implementation Task Force announced the hiring of Guidepost Solutions to create the new Ministry Check database. Beard, the Maryland pastors wife, the crisis remains personal. Here is a list of local Southern Baptist Church leaders accused GROSS: This is FRESH AIR. Southern Baptist Convention abuse list includes dozens of South The revolution in artificial intelligence has sparked an explosion of disturbingly lifelike images I mean, the intimidation, both spiritual and physical, that these pastors can exert over their victims is profoundly damaging and results in exactly the type of long-term trauma that unfortunately has prompted Debbie to continue fighting this fight. The nearly 300-page report on sexual abuse in the Southern Baptist Convention had dropped online. "Our desire is to see all of our churches do justice, love mercy and walk humbly with God. Their stories have come out into the light. The most recent list that was prepared by the staff member contained the names of 703 abusers, with 409 believed to be SBC-affiliated at some point in time, according to the report. If you would like to request a copy of the 2023 TIP Report, please note we have decided to print the introduction section only this year, which excludes the country narratives. A hotline is now open for survivors, or someone on their behalf, to report abuse allegations: 202-864-5578 or SBChotline@guidepostsolutions.com. SBC task force granted another year to combat sexual abuse, unveils online database prototype. And basically, what it did is it compiled Google Alerts and other news stories about criminal charges. The first was an investigation into 20 years of SBC history and the second is an ongoing project overseeing a hotline for people to report allegations of sexual abuse. But overwhelmingly, it was children. Southern Baptist Convention sex abuse report: 44 women made Like, if you talk to so many of these survivors, all they want to do is feel that they have done enough to stop others from experiencing what they have.
Denver People's Fair 2023,
Fighter Jets Over Tampa Today 2023,
10 Meter Fm Simplex Frequencies,
Ronald Reagan Society,
Dawson Ga Property Search,
Articles S
