‘So Much To Lament’: Southern Baptist Leaders Respond To ‘Devastating’ Report On Sexual Abuse Mishandling
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Leaders in the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) responded to an independent report released Sunday revealing that sexual abuse was covered up for years in America’s largest protestant denomination
The seven-month-long investigation concluded that leaders on the SBC’s Executive Committee (EC) “resisted” and “stonewalled” repeated sexual abuse allegations made by SBC members against pastors and leaders in the denomination.
“There are not adequate words to express my sorrow at the things revealed in this report,” SBC President Ed Litton said in a statement Sunday. “I am grieved to my core for those who have suffered sexual abuse in Southern Baptist contexts, both for those named in this report and the many who are not.”
Delegates at last year’s SBC national meeting called for an outside investigation, and the EC agreed to an examination by independent firm Guidepost Solutions.
“Our investigation revealed that, for many years, a few senior EC leaders, along with outside counsel, largely controlled the EC’s response to these reports of abuse … and were singularly focused on avoiding liability for the SBC,” the report said, according to the Associated Press.
The independent report added that the SBC ignored or disbelieved sexual abuse survivors and excused complaints by referring to the denomination’s autonomous church polity. The report stated that this excuse was given to those making abuse allegations “even if it meant that convicted molesters continued in ministry with no notice or warning to their current church or congregation.”
The report goes on to state that one EC member held a list of hundreds of accused pastors, but there is no evidence anyone on the committee “took any action to ensure that the accused ministers were no longer in positions of power at SBC churches.”
One of those accused was former SBC President Johnny Hunt, who was accused of sexually assaulting another pastor’s wife during a
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