If Covid’s impact upon our S.B.C. and BR-KC Churches wasn’t bad enough, there are new developments that will prove to be one of our greatest challenges to date to reconcile. A few years ago, allegations began to surface that Southern Baptist Convention leaders had and were mishandling sexual allegations that occurred on their watch. Some were seminary presidents, some were pastors, and some were denominational leaders. The polity in SBC life is bottom up, or the denominational agencies, entities, and leaders answer to the members and messengers. Those messengers demanded full disclosure and complete transparency at every level of Southern Baptist Life at last year’s annual S.B.C. Convention.
Fast forward to last week and the Guidepost Solutions Independent report was released. It confirmed that we do have a problem in tracking and reporting known sexual offenders who serve in church staff positions. The nearly 300-page report also revealed that of the 703 named abusers, 409 of them were affiliated with Southern Baptist Churches at some point in time. The report includes the 205-page document given to them voluntarily by the Executive Committee that was a collection of several names of men accused of sexual abuse that had been kept secretly by a member of the executive committee. Nine Missouri pastors were listed as having sexual charges or allegations. The closest one was a former pastor in St. Joseph. Gratefully, no one in our metro area churches were named. The report also showed a pattern of denominational leaders either covering up or downplaying the significance of sexual abuse allegations made during their watch.
All of this is unfolding just weeks before the Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting in Anaheim, California, June 14-15. Simply browse the social media discussions on this topic and you’ll see a great deal of anger, frustration, and, often, misinformation. Many are responding by pulling their church and funding away from the Cooperative Program. Some are pledging to leave the S.B.C. altogether. This is the greatest challenge we have faced to date as a faith family. Here is what I would ask you to consider and remember before you make any big decisions.
- I trust the messengers at this year’s convention to demand change and to forge a path forward that will bring about full disclosure and transparency. The messengers who meet in Anaheim this summer will have as their first priority protecting women, girls, and boys from sexual predators, period. One victim is too many. I, and many of our BR-KC church members, will constitute several of those messengers so I will be able to report back to you, firsthand, what was decided.
- It would be premature and reactionary to withdraw from the S.B.C. family and our cooperative mission to the world before the Convention and seeing what solutions are brought forth. How does it make any sense to punish and financially cripple the church planters and missionaries serving overseas? There is no faith group or denomination in the world that is not dealing with sexual impropriety and assault. Where there are sinful, fallen people, this problem will be present.
- Please, pray for the messengers and those leading the Convention this year. Many denominational leaders have been named in the report and they simply happened to be the ones serving when this all came to light. Most of them have acted in good faith and demanded full accountability. Those who have not, will be revealed and experience the consequences of their silence or complicity with those who sought to cover up this behavior.
In the meantime, all of this should serve to wake us up to the possibility of sexual indiscretion within our own church and among our own members. Do you have a firm policy of background checking every person you bring on staff and checking all of their references? Do you have a firm policy of how staff and members are to relate to children, youth, and women that protects them from predatory behavior? Do you follow best practices in your office and in your children’s department that require at a minimum, background checks for all workers, open or glass door policy for all children’s/youth areas, two workers per room, and a plan for bathroom trips? Finally, do you have a clear policy that requires the reporting of all sexually inappropriate behavior to the proper law enforcement authorities? What is being learned through the study is that churches, desiring to be gracious, to give the person the benefit of the doubt, or not to destroy the person’s career, are often asking the alleged sexual offender to leave their position without a thorough investigation and without pressing any formal charges. Sadly, predatory people simply move on to the next church position and repeat the abuse and nothing shows up on their background check because the former church pressed no charges.
If you have further questions about the S.B.C. response to the Guidepost Solution findings or want more information about how to better safeguard your members from sexual abuse, please contact us.
Gregory Boll
Associate Director of Missions
816-623-5630
[email protected]
