SNAP Seeks ‘transparent’ Study of Clergy Sex Abuse

By Bob Allen
Ethics Daily
February 22, 2019

http://www.bishop-accountability.org/AbuseTracker/

Editor’s note: This article first appeared on Sept. 18, 2007. Bob Allen was managing editor at the time of publication. This story was part of EthicsDaily.com’s efforts to bring to light clergy sexual abuse in the U.S., particularly within Baptist churches. More than a decade later, reporting by The Houston Chronicle and San Antonio Express-News documented 700 cases of abuse over a 20-year period. This has resulted in repentance by Southern Baptist Convention leadership, including current president J.D. Greear calling for a formal investigation of sexual abuse within the convention and its affiliated congregations.

A victims’ advocacy and support group asked Southern Baptist Convention leaders to seek input from outside experts and victims in developing a denomination-wide response to sexual abuse by clergy.

In June, SBC messengers referred a motion to the SBC Executive Committee requesting “a feasibility study concerning the development of a database of Southern Baptist clergy and staff who have been credibly accused of, personally confessed to or legally been convicted of sexual harassment or abuse and that such a database be accessible to Southern Baptist churches.”

“Baptist believers have spoken, and it is time for their leaders to listen,” Christa Brown, Baptist outreach leader for the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP), said in a sidewalk press conference outside SBC headquarters in Nashville, Tennessee.

Brown, of Austin, Texas, and SNAP National Director David Clohessy of St. Louis traveled to Nashville to hand-deliver a letter to members of the Executive Committee’s bylaws work group urging them to be “open and transparent” about the study’s methodology and resources.

“We request that you proactively solicit input from experts and from other religious leaders who have gone down similar roads ahead of you, and that you receive their testimony in a public hearing,” the letter said. “We request that you schedule a private hearing to receive testimony from victims.”