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Update: Southern Baptist Convention confirms DOJ probe into its handling of sexual abuse claims


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WWW.THEGUARDIAN.COM

Survivors who reported abuse to executive committee were ‘ignored’ as leaders were ‘singularly focused on avoiding liability’

 

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Leaders of the Southern Baptist Convention, America’s largest Protestant denomination, stonewalled and denigrated survivors of clergy sex abuse over almost two decades while seeking to protect their own reputations, according to a scathing 288-page investigative report issued Sunday.

 

These survivors, and other concerned southern baptists, repeatedly shared allegations with the SBC’s executive committee, “only to be met, time and time again, with resistance, stonewalling, and even outright hostility from some” leaders, said the report.

 

Guidepost Solutions, an independent firm hired by the SBC’s executive committee under pressure from outsiders at the denomination’s national meeting last year, conducted the seven-month investigation that produced Sunday’s report.

 

“Our investigation revealed that, for many years, a few senior (executive committee) leaders, along with outside counsel, largely controlled the … response to these reports of abuse … and were singularly focused on avoiding liability for the SBC,” the report said.

 

The report added: “In service of this goal, survivors and others who reported abuse were ignored, disbelieved, or met with the constant refrain that the SBC could take no action due to its policy regarding church autonomy – even if it meant that convicted molesters continued in ministry with no notice or warning to their current church or congregation.”

 

An executive committee staffer maintained a list of Baptist ministers accused of abuse, but there is no indication anyone “took any action to ensure that the accused ministers were no longer in positions of power at SBC churches,” the report asserted.

 

In one example cited in the report, August Boto, a longtime SBC leader, decried the allegations in an email and said that they were a “satanic scheme to completely distract us from evangelism”.

 

 

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The SBC literally was formed to uphold chattel slavery as a moral good when Northern Baptists were pushing for abolition as the official position of the denomination. Shoulda burnt it down a long time ago.

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I grew up in the Southern Baptist Church. As much as I want to just leave it all behind and forget it, the culture is deeply rooted within me and I can't get free of it easily. I've moved on in my faith and no longer associate with the SBC, but the waves the SBC has made and continues to make still ripple through me. 

 

I've got a lot of thoughts on this but I've not compiled them yet. It'll take some time. 

 

But overall, this is completely unsurprising and at the same time shocking. 

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  • 2 months later...
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WWW.AXIOS.COM

Survivors were "met, time and time again, with resistance, stonewalling, and even outright hostility," a report found.

 

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The Justice Department is investigating the Southern Baptist Convention for its handling of sex abuse cases after an independent review found evidence of a cover-up among leaders.

 

Driving the news: The federal probe comes amid controversies about systemic problems of clergy sexual abuse, racism and the mistreatment of women. Survivors were "met, time and time again, with resistance, stonewalling, and even outright hostility," the SBC-commissioned review found.

 

 

  • Sicko 2
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  • Commissar SFLUFAN changed the title to Update: Southern Baptist Convention confirms DOJ probe into its handling of sexual abuse claims

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