Investigation Unearths Hundreds of Abuse Allegations in Independent Baptist Churches

By Carol Kuruvilla
Huffington Post
December 14, 2018

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/independent-fundamental-baptist-churches-sexual-abuse_us_5c117f67e4b0835fe326602e

An investigation has uncovered hundreds of abuse allegations against leaders of a conservative, loosely affiliated network of evangelical Christian churches.

The report, published by the Fort Worth Star-Telegram on Sunday, identified 412 abuse allegations in 187 independent fundamental Baptist (IFB) churches and institutions across 40 states and Canada, with some cases reaching as far back as the 1970s.

The Star-Telegram spoke to more than 200 current or former IFB church members who shared stories about “rape, assault, humiliation and fear.” Many of the stories have already been made public through criminal cases, lawsuits and news reports. However, the newspaper said its reporters uncovered 21 new abuse allegations in the course of its eight-month investigation.

In total, the newspaper said it found that 168 IFB church leaders were accused or have been convicted of sexually abusing children.

Some of the women interviewed suggested that the patriarchal theology preached in IFB churches protects its male pastors from criticism and helps create a pattern of abuse and cover-up.

Interviewees told the Star-Telegram that pastors in IFB churches were treated as if they were chosen by God and beyond reproach. Abusers used their power and position to psychologically manipulate and silence their victims, the women said. And often, even when victims spoke up, the accused pastors would manage to avoid criminal charges and use informal pastoral networks to relocate to another church.

An investigation uncovers hundreds of cases of alleged abuse, including the sexual abuse of children, at independent fundamental Baptist churches across the U.S. and Canada.

Stacey Shiflett, an independent fundamental Baptist pastor and abuse victim from Maryland, said it’s been the “M.O.” in fundamentalist churches for pastors to sweep abuse allegations under the rug.

“The one that does the abuse is the one that always comes out the other side smelling like a rose and goes down the road to another church, so he can do it again to somebody else,” Shiflett said in a YouTube video from May, which is cited in the report.

About 2.5 percent of American adults identify as independent fundamental Baptists, according to the Pew Research Center ? a higher percentage than those who identify as Episcopalians, Presbyterians or members of the Assemblies of God.

The most well-known independent fundamental Baptists are likely the Duggars, who starred on TLC’s reality show “19 Kids and Counting.” The show was canceled in 2015 after the network learned that eldest son Josh Duggar had been accused of sexually abusing girls, including four of his sisters, and that his parents had kept the abuse hidden.

America’s estimated 6,000 IFB churches can be part of loosely tied fellowships or pastors’ networks. There are also shared children’s camps, conferences and church-affiliated colleges. However, IFB churches don’t have the hierarchical denominational structures that unite more mainstream evangelical groups, like the Southern Baptist Convention.

Ashley Easter, an abuse survivor and advocate who grew up in IFB churches, told HuffPost that she believes the independent nature of the churches has played a role in leaders’ ability to cover up abuse.

“This makes it easy for churches to pass off abusive pastors and missionaries to other churches in their network or to blacklist survivors,” Easter said.

At the same time, when scandals come to light, IFB churches can distance themselves from others in the denomination “so they themselves are not scrutinized,” Easter said.

While practices can vary from church to church, independent fundamental Baptists do share some core beliefs, according to Christianity Today: that the Bible is the divinely inspired and inerrant word of God, for example, and that people should use only the King James Version of the text. Independent fundamental Baptists refrain from engaging in pop culture and many also home-school their kids.

Abuses in the independent Baptist churches are more easily kept quiet because of the lack of a formal structure to the denomination.