The Southern Baptist Convention, the nation’s largest Protestant denomination, is beginning its annual convention this week in Anaheim, California. Many church leaders are gathering to elect a new president and vote on SBC matters.
The denomination has been rocked by the release of the 288-page Sexual Abuse Task Force report by an independent third party (Guidepost Solutions). The convention will be voting on whether to implement a series of reforms aimed at addressing sexual abuse. According to Religion News Service, “An SBC task force has recommended spending $3 million to set up a website to track abusive pastors and church workers, provide more training and hire staff to help survivors find help, along with other potential reforms.”
One of our SOLA’s Editorial Board members, P.J. Tibayan, wrote about the sexual abuse report for the SOLA Network. He was also recently interviewed by the Los Angeles Times about the SBC convention and sex abuse scandal. We encourage you to read both articles to get a better sense of what is happening in the SBC and how we can pray for our brothers and sisters in the faith.
From the Los Angeles Times:
Q: Did you talk to God about [the sexual abuse report]?
A: Yes, I did talk to God about it. I prayed about it on my own, my wife and I prayed about it, the church prayed about it, and we prayed about it with our children.
Q: Did you get any answers?
A; Certainly I cried out to the Lord, asking the Lord why. But I think when someone asks why there are different levels to that question. There are the intellectual reasons like, give me a rationale. And there is also just the heartache of why — the affliction, the crushing emotional weight. I think I was asking more from the latter, heartache cry, as opposed to the rationale.
Also, as I pray, it seems God may be using this report to awaken pastors and churches of all denominations to take reports of sexual abuse more seriously, to guard their people and children more vigilantly, to care for survivors more compassionately, to do justice more courageously and to walk with Him more humbly.
Read the Los Angeles Times interview here.
Excerpt from “An SBC Pastor’s Response to the SBC’s Sexual Abuse Task Force Report”
The report is horrific and heartbreaking. Far worse is the reality that men and women, boys and girls, are living in daily. They carry the pain of isolation and they have been dismissed by churches that should have helped them. This is egregious. It is unacceptable.
The problem for us Christians and pastors associated with the SBC is that the gargantuan size of the failure not only breaks our hearts but paralyzes our minds. Angry, confused, and burdened—the overwhelming emotions can freeze us to inaction and further negligence.
So what should we Christians and pastors do? How should we respond? I thought about this for a week before writing about it. I feel angst and am overwhelmed, not only as a pastor of a church where the average of 1 in 3 female church members have been abused but also because my wife is a survivor (and one of my heroes). The reflections here are for my church family, pastors, and others in cooperation with the Southern Baptist Convention, though much of it will be applicable and relevant to all Christians.
Read the rest of P.J. Tibayan’s essay here.