Southern Baptist Convention releases a third-party investigation of the SBC Executive Committee's handling of sexual abuse reports and cases. And as you might expect, it's awful.
"Armed with a secret list of more than 700 abusive pastors, Southern Baptist leaders chose to protect the denomination from lawsuits rather than protect the people in their churches from further abuse...Survivors, advocates, and some Southern Baptists themselves spent more than 15 years calling for ways to keep sexual predators from moving quietly from one flock to another. The men who controlled the Executive Committee (EC)—which runs day-to-day operations of the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC)—knew the scope of the problem. But, working closely with their lawyers, they maligned the people who wanted to do something about abuse and repeatedly rejected pleas for help and reform.
“Behind the curtain, the lawyers were advising to say nothing and do nothing, even when the callers were identifying predators still in SBC pulpits,” according to a massive third-party investigative report released Sunday...As renewed calls for action emerged with the #ChurchToo and #SBCToo movements, [SBC general counsel Augie] Boto referred to advocacy for abuse survivors as “a satanic scheme to completely distract us from evangelism.”
There are many stories from victims of sexual abuse by SBC pastors that are horrific, and the pastors were not only not fired, but often allowed to move from one SBC church to another. One such story: "Another victim, Debbie Vasquez, was repeatedly sexually assaulted by an SBC pastor starting at the age of 14. When one assault led to her pregnancy, she was forced to apologize in front of the church but forbidden to mention the father. The pastor went on to serve at another Southern Baptist church, and when Vasquez reached out to the [Executive Committee], her entreaties were ignored and evaded for years until a
Houston Chronicle investigation three years ago.
"Over the past 20 years, meanwhile, a string of SBC presidents failed to appropriately respond to abuse in their own churches and seminaries. In several instances, leaders sided with individuals and churches that had been credibly accused of abuse or cover-up.
One former [SBC] president—pastor Johnny Hunt—sexually assaulted another pastor’s wife in 2010, investigators found.
The report just goes on and on with stories like this. And mind you, these are the exact same people who want to set up a "Christian Dominion" in the USA to enforce their moral values on everyone else, and who call LGBTQ people "sick" and perverted, and who are about to eliminate access to abortion via their Supreme Court, and who want to go after contraceptive rights, and lots more. It's sick.
Link:
https://www.christianitytoday.com/news/2022/may/southern-baptist-abuse-investigation-sbc-ec-legal-survivors.html
Link:
https://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2022/may-web-only/southern-baptist-abuse-apocalypse-russell-moore.html