Investigation Reveals Top Southern Baptists Stonewalled Sex Abuse Victims

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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 within the EC,” said the report.

The seven-month investigation was conducted by Guidepost Solutions, an independent firm contracted by the Executive Committee after delegates to last year’s national meeting pressed for a probe by outsiders.

“Our investigation revealed that, for many years, a few senior EC leaders, along with outside counsel, largely controlled the EC’s response to these reports of abuse ... and were singularly focused on avoiding liability for the SBC,” the report said.
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https://www.huffpost.com/entry/souther ... 5d4d790657

There is now a distortion in the force, with thousands saying it isn’t so. All I can say is that isn’t unexpected.
Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored.-Huxley
"We can have democracy in this country, or we can have great wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we can't have both." ~ Louis Brandeis,

Re: Investigation Reveals Top Southern Baptists Stonewalled Sex Abuse Victims

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Not surprising, the SBC is the largest denomination in the US without any offices to investigate clergy abuse. Their 27,000 local churches are independent, so it's not the same as the structured Catholic Church or other mainline denominations. Reports like this are like #MeToo, allegations by supposed victims and not charges and convictions for sexual crimes. Even encouraging church members to report sex abuse to police would be a step forward.
"Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but not their own facts." - Daniel Patrick Moynihan

Re: Investigation Reveals Top Southern Baptists Stonewalled Sex Abuse Victims

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EVERY sect of that major religion has clergy that abuse the position by abusing the parishioners. Most of the time, the pastor or deacon or whoever is quietly shuffled off to be someone else's problem--repeatedly--because ours is a society that is far too okay with rape and other forms of abuse.

And, whether the allegations are eventually found substantial in court isn't the point for me. I'm keenly aware that sexual abuse is severely under-reported, so if there are ten allegations against a given pastor, there are likely a hundred more folks who are not daring enough to come forward with their stories, because they've seen how there might be one of those ten that can stomach the ordeal of the court process.

I know, I know, "innocent until proven guilty," and all that. But there are a lot of times I simply have to trust the victim, to not make that victim a victim of another kind of abuse.
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