BishopAccountability.org

Southern Baptist group overhauls national conference to focus on sex abuse crisis

By Robert Downen
HoustChronicle
April 30, 2019

https://bit.ly/2Lik7KK

First Baptist Church of Rockwall, where families of two former youth group members claimed in civil suits that sexual abuse was covered up.
Photo by Jon Shapley

This collection of mug shots includes a portion of the 220 people who, since 1998, worked or volunteered in Southern Baptist churches and were convicted of or pleaded guilty to sex crimes.

Gwen Casados sits in her daughter's room in Houston. Her daughter, Heather Schneider, was sexually abused inside Second Baptist Church in Houston in 1994 and later died of a drug overdose.
Photo by Jon Shapley

The headquarters of the Southern Baptist Convention is shown on Wednesday, Dec. 7, 2011, in Nashville, Tenn.
Photo by Mark Humphrey

In this 1979 file photo, attendees of the Southern Baptist Convention's annual meeting, held that year in Houston, form a "human cross" at the Astrodome.
Photo by John Van Beekum

Citing a sexual abuse crisis revealed in a recent Houston Chronicle investigation, the Southern Baptist Convention's public policy arm has overhauled its 2019 national conference in Grapevine to focus on abuse.

The Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission is expected to announce Tuesday that it has changed the conference's theme to focus on "the current crisis within the SBC denomination."

The announcement follows a February investigation by the Houston Chronicle and San Antonio Express-News that found more than 700 people, mostly children, had reported being sexually abused by roughly 380 Southern Baptist church leaders or volunteers since 1998.

Southern Baptist leaders vowed sweeping changes in the wake of the "heartbreaking" report, titled "Abuse of Faith."

In a statement, commission President Russell Moore said the change was spurred by a "realization" when planning seminars for the conference, which was previously focused on "courage."

"We came to a realization," he said. "That is, the scourge of sexual abuse in churches is the very embodiment of the need for gospel courage. Combating abuse takes clear eyes, resolute focus, and a willingness to engage in painful, complicated questions."

"This is a critical season for churches seeking to address this crisis," he said. "As we thought about this, we realized if we want to talk about courage, then we owed it to our churches and the world around us to talk about courage in light of this area of great need. So that's what we're going to do."

The commission's conference will convene in October in Grapevine. The Southern Baptist Convention is also hosting a national meeting in June in Birmingham, Alabama, where SBC leaders plan to discuss proposed reforms to prevent sexual abuse.

"I think it's a good step, I really do," said Wade Burleson, a Southern Baptist pastor in Oklahoma who has called for the creation of a national database that would keep track of church employees and volunteers who have been accused of sexual abuse. "I think to focus solely on the issue and to talk about prevention, it's the first time it's ever been done."

The conference in Grapevine will include panels with Rachael Denhollander, a lawyer and advocate for sexual abuse survivors whose testimony helped lead to the conviction of former USA Gymnastics doctor Larry Nassar; Houston-based author and Bible teacher Beth Moore; and psychologist Diane Langberg.

Moore and current SBC President J.D. Greear last summer announced a working group that focuses on sexual abuse. That group is expected to unveil more proposals in Birmingham.

In the wake of the newspapers' investigation, Greear called for inquiries into multiple churches over their handling of sexual abuse. SBC leaders have also pursued changes to the SBC's governing documents to outlaw sexual predators from working in churches.

A Houston church pastored by a convicted sex offender has since been removed from the SBC, and a Georgia music minister accused of molesting multiple young boys in the 1980s was also removed from his position.

A Texas state lawmaker and Southern Baptist minister has also proposed a bill that would allow charitable organizations to disclose sexual abuse allegations against former employees without being sued — an issue that was detailed in one of the Chronicle's reports.




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