Southern Baptists’ abuse report is no call for reform. It’s a repudiation of the past 40 years.
There’s an old saying about Southern Baptists’ annual meeting: After all is said and done, more will have been said than will have been done. But last June in Nashville the Southern Baptists broke the rule as the gathered messengers voted to establish a task force to investigate a fact that had become more than a hunch: The denomination’s leaders had long mishandled allegations of sexual abuse.
Not only did the messengers’ suspicions prove true, but they greatly underestimated the rot.
On Sunday, the appointed task force released the findings of a months-long independent investigation by Guidepost Solutions, determining, in an explosive, nearly 300-page report filled with sickening detail, that denominational leaders had for decades systematically leveraged their power to stonewall sexual abuse claims, intimidate and denigrate victims, refuse to investigate child molesters, oppose basic safeguards and allow predatory pastors to remain in ministry roles.
The report confirmed that SBC leaders often knowingly misled their members and the public. A decade ago, survivors came forward not with condemnation but pleas for sensible measures, including a database of known abusers so that churches could be warned when one showed up in a pastor search. Denominational leaders repeatedly responded that this was not possible, even as they were secretly maintaining such a list.
Comparisons to the devastating Roman Catholic sex abuse scandals, while imperfect, are difficult to avoid. In many ways the comparison is more damning, as the SBC ignored the trauma the Catholic hierarchy’s denialism had caused and took much the same path.
The release of this report is more than the most important religion news story of the year.