Southern Baptist Convention Abuse Report: Read It For Yourself

In June of last year, as the sexual abuse scandal in the Southern Baptist Convention was roiling the general meeting then, I wrote this here at Ordinary Times:

Far from such lofty theological concerns such as hamartiology and ecclesiology, or even the ideals of their own traditional Baptist Faith & Message, the Southern Baptist Convention is rushing towards affirming the much more secular — but undefeated — Hoffer Principle

For the uninitiated, hamartiology the study of sin in Christian systematic theology including origins, effects, and mankind’s responsibility. Ecclesiology is the study in Christian systematic theology applied to the nature and structure of the Christian Church. The Hoffer Principle is “every great cause begins as a movement, becomes a business, and eventually degenerates into a racket.”

The releasing of the 300-page Guidepost Solutions investigation and report is a damning indictment of Southern Baptist Church leadership who acted like degenerates involved in a racket.

Washington Post:

Leaders in the Southern Baptist Convention on Sunday released a major third-party investigation that found that sex abuse survivors were often ignored, minimized and “even vilified” by top clergy in the nation’s largest Protestant denomination.

The findings of nearly 300 pages include shocking new details about specific abuse cases and shine a light on how denominational leaders for decades actively resisted calls for abuse prevention and reform. Evidence in the report suggests leaders also lied to Southern Baptists over whether they could maintain a database of offenders to prevent more abuse when top leaders were secretly keeping a private list for years.

The report — the first investigation of its kind in a massive Protestant denomination like the SBC — is expected to send shock waves into a conservative Christian community that has had intense internal battles over how to handle sex abuse. The 13 million-member denomination, along with other religious institutions in the United States, has struggled with declining membership for the past 15 years. Its leaders have long resisted comparisons between its sexual abuse crisis and that of the Catholic Church, saying the total number of abuse cases among Southern Bapitists was small.

The investigation finds that for almost two decades, survivors of abuse and other concerned Southern Baptists have been contacting the Southern Baptist Convention’s administrative arm to report alleged child molesters and other accused abusers who were in the pulpit or employed as church staff members. Many of the cases referred to in the report were considered outside the statute of limitations, the time survivors can report sex abuse, so it’s unclear how many abusers were criminally charged.

The report, compiled by an organization called Guidepost Solutions at the request of Southern Baptists, states that abuse survivors’ calls and emails were “only to be met, time and time again, with resistance, stonewalling, and even outright hostility” by leaders who were concerned more with protecting the institution from liability than from protecting Southern Baptists from further abuse.

I’ll have plenty more thoughts once I finish reading the report for myself. But even a cursory reading, and as someone who worships at a Southern Baptist Church, it is revolting not just the allegations but the years of buildup knowing this was coming and the leadership refused to take action. Refused even after the membership rank and file demanded it. And here we are.

You can read the Guidepost Solution Report of the Independent Investigation into abuse allegation in the Southern Baptist Convention for yourself here: