A published report by Guidepost Solutions, an independent third party, found many instances of cover-ups of abuse and victim blaming by the SBC Executive Committee for over 20 years, and the SBC has been making efforts to, if not make up for decades of harm, at least move forward to try to make it easier for victims to report abuse as well as make the names of the abusers public.
Since the release of Guidepost Solutions report on the abuse, the SBC has created a hotline number for victims as well as friend and family members to report abuse. It also published a list of alleged abusers.
Willie McLaurin, interim president/CEO of the SBC Executive Committee, said that the hotline is being provided to care for anyone calling the various Baptist entities and Guidepost to report abuse.
“The SBC Executive Committee is committed to ensuring each and every individual impacted by sexual abuse within the SBC has a place to process their story, report their abuse, and have access to care and caring resources,” McLaurin said.
The SBC has also published the names of the abusers that was provided to Guidepost Solutions in their inquiries by a former SBC Executive Committee member.“I guarantee you women and children are going to be victimized no matter how much we spend, and that is going to make us potentially targets of great class action lawsuits.” – Joe Knott, SBC Executive Committee
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“This list is being made public for the first time as an initial, but important, step towards addressing the scourge of sexual abuse and implementing reform in the Convention,” Rolland Slade, SBC executive committee chairman, and McLaurin wrote in a joint statement. “Each entry in this list reminds us of the devastation and destruction brought about by sexual abuse. Our prayer is that the survivors of these heinous acts find hope and healing, and that churches will utilize this list proactively to protect and care for the most vulnerable among us.”
The list will have some redactions, including entries regarding victims and survivors as well as individuals who were not related to an abuse case. Names of people connected to unsubstantiated claims and those who were acquitted were also redacted.
The redactions do not include any name that has been verified to be connected with a guilty plea, conviction, judgment, sentence or inclusion on a sex offender registry.
In a special online SBC board meeting Thursday, some members had comments about the expense of lawyers following the revelations in the Guidepost report and asked whether their legal funding was adequate for the long term.
Joe Knott, committee member and lawyer, said he was terrified about this entire endeavor and was worried about the expense of lawyers and feared the SBC might have to pay hundreds of millions of dollars to potential victims.
“I guarantee you women and children are going to be victimized no matter how much we spend, and that is going to make us potentially targets of great class action lawsuits,” Knott said. “[It] could be the end of the Southern Baptist Convention.”
He said the SBC's mission is to fight sin, not individual's sins, and when the SBC starts targeting individual sins “to protect a certain class” and inevitably fails, it could be devastating to their entire mission.
Slade said he believes they need to do everything possible for victims and anyone else who is vulnerable.
“I don’t want us to say, well, we didn’t have enough money, and so therefore we didn’t protect a little one that was vulnerable, or that was in the line of being hurt,” Slade said. “It can’t be about the dollars. It’s got to be about the people, and relationships matter and people matter.”
The confidential hotline for reporting abuse by pastors, staff members, or members of an SBC church is 202-864-5578 or it can be reached by emailing [email protected].
