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Tracking Clergy Sex Abuse in the Southern Baptist Convention
EthicsDaily.com reported 11 arrests, three convictions, two lawsuits and one suicide involving alleged sexual abuse by clergy in 2007. They also cite another story that included a church that allowed a convicted sex offender to preach from its pulpit while knowing about his past and comments by the president of the Southern Baptist Convention denying clergy predators are a "systemic" problem and accusing victim advocates of using the issue for personal gain.
The SBC Executive Committee is studying a motion referred from the convention last June regarding the feasibility of a database of clergy offenders, but leaders insist in public statements there is little the denomination can do beyond providing resources to the 44,000 autonomous churches that voluntarily align with the nation’s second-largest faith group behind Roman Catholics.
SBC President Frank Page told a Tennessee newspaper in May there are instances of sexual abuse in Southern Baptist churches, just like there are in all public institutions. “I do not believe we have a systemic problem,” the pastor of First Baptist Church in Taylors, S.C., told The Tennessean. Page speculated the SBC was being singled out as a possible target for lawsuits.
“Please realize that there are groups who claim to be one thing when in reality they are another,” Page said in a commentary article in the Florida Baptist Witness. “It would be great if the many groups who are claiming to be groups of advocacy and encouragement in ministry were that which they claim. Please be aware that there are groups that are nothing more than opportunistic persons who are seeking to raise opportunities for personal gain.”
Former SBC President Jerry Vines denied the denomination’s leaders are soft on sexual abuse by clergy but said their hands are tied. “The denomination has no authority over local churches but can provide resources to help us face this problem and deal with it,” the former pastor of First Baptist Church in Jacksonville, Fla., told Agape Press. “As a denomination, we do make resources available.”
Another SBC leader said a relatively low number of documented cases of sexual abuse by clergy proves the way Baptists currently deal with the problem is working. Will Hall, vice president for news services of the SBC Executive Committee, told Nashville ABC affiliate WKRN-Channel 2 in May that SNAP had come up with only about 40 incidents in the last 15 years, out of a denomination of nearly 44,000 churches.
“If churches are doing adequate background checks, they’re going to discover, and if in fact if a man has been convicted of sexual abuse, he is going to be in prison,” Hall said.
The article then goes on to name names, and update the last year of clergy sexual scandal. You can read more here (if you like).
FOR DISCUSSION: Do you feel sexual abuse in the church? Is it a problem? Does there need to be a national database of pastoral abusers? And do you think denominational leaders are ‘soft’ on abusers?
This post has been viewed 215 times and was added on January 03, 2008 by Todd Rhoades. Filed under: Engaging Culture Trends in Today's Church Share this post with a friend right now! View reactions to this post at other blogs... You can really help us out by subscribing to our free RSS feed with your favorite feed reader, or here at Bloglines. Also, you can add us to your favorites at Technorati.
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I'm Todd Rhoades... the MMI guy. I'm also on the team at Leadership Network (although that doesn't mean that they endorse everything I write here). In my past life, I was the founder and developer of a website named ChurchStaffing.com.
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Posted by erickyp
Thursday, January 03, 2008 at 9:20 AM
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Posted by
Thursday, January 03, 2008 at 9:22 AM
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Posted by Danni
Thursday, January 03, 2008 at 11:30 AM
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Posted by Christa Brown
Thursday, January 03, 2008 at 4:24 PM
Post Your Comments:It seems like those numbers are blindly low. I follow a blog site that reports all sexual misuses in the news by clergy. At least 3 times a week, there is a baptist pastor in this report. And what is even worse is the reports of covering up, protecting, turning blind eyes to the symptoms and worst of all, vilification of the victims of the sexual abuse by the members and leaders of the church.
I didn’t read the entire article, but what I didn’t read here either is the fact that the SBC has knowledge and private files when a sexual abuse claim is made. The only way for a church to know if someone they are hiring is in that file is by contacting the SBC. They take no proactive measures in alerting churches in their denomination of such offenders.
Now, how do I know this happens? Because I was abused by an SBC pastor.
Fortunately, my experience, since this person worked in a high level of leadership, was as “positive” as it could be. I did not come forward about this situation until a decade after it occurred, and even then it wasn’t me who came forward (because really, let me tell you, when you are manipulated and seduced in the most vulnerable of states, it’s not something you just leap to talk about)...anyway, a friend of mine who knew of the situation went to another leader in the denomination (not his church) who took it to a board, who investigated and released him from his employment.
It was the hardest thing I have ever had to do and feel so lucky that my story was finally heard and at least some justice on this earth was served, but if this person attempts to get a job in another SBC church who’s off the radar, chances are they won’t check this file the denomination keeps and this person will remain in a pulpit.
I know my case is a rarity - most people don’t get the chance to share their story. The SBC is **INFAMOUS** for sweeping issues like this under the rug. It is SOOOO prevalent. I can’t begin to tell you how many inappropriate relationships between older men/teenage girls I have heard of or know about. But because the SBC do like to protect their own and keep this “oh...we are so amazingly great and perfect” fronts...I can PROMISE you they have a VERY full file of abuse claims that just get tucked away in case they are ever involved in a lawsuit. And for no other reason.
It makes me SICK.
Thank you for posting this! I track these issues too. This got to me and I just had to post a reactionary blog on my site, too, with a link back to your post.
Anonymous: I am aware of secret files that are kept at a couple of the Southern Baptist state conventions, but I thought the national SBC headquarters in Nashville claimed that it didn’t keep any sort of records on abuse reports. They have taken a sort of “not my problem” attitude. If you have any more specific knowledge about files kept at the SBC or any documentation or letters related to the files, I would be very interested. I maintain the website at http://www.StopBaptistPredators.org which posts news about Baptist clergy sex abuse, and you can find my email in the contact info there. I would like to hear from you. Sad to say, based on all the many Baptist abuse cases I’ve seen, I wouldn’t be at all surprised if your perpetrator has managed to find employment in some other Southern Baptist church. Who’s going to stop him?
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