Southern Baptists will address clergy sex abuse; victims plan rally

By Greg Garrison
Birmingham News
June 9, 2019

https://bit.ly/2WrUveK

The Rev. Ashley Easter, spokesperson for a rally for victims of sexual abuse, poses with a millstone made by her husband, Will, to illustrate Matthew 18:6, a Bible verse they believe applies to the sexual abuse by clergy.

Southern Baptists from across the country have arrived in Birmingham and more are on the way.

The Southern Baptist Convention, the annual meeting of the 14.8-million-member denomination, gathers Tuesday and Wednesday at the BJCC Legacy Arena. It’s the first time the Southern Baptist Convention has met in Birmingham since 1941.

It will be an opportunity for many Southern Baptists in Alabama to attend for the first time.

“So many wanted to go as messengers who have never been,” said the Rev. Joe Godfrey, former president of the Alabama Baptist Convention.

The number of messengers, or voting delegates, allowed from each Southern Baptist church depends on its size.

“It’s based on church membership or giving record,” Godfrey said. “The maximum number is ten from each church.”

The Rev. J.D. Greear, 46, senior pastor of The Summit Church in Durham, N.C., will preside at the meeting after being elected president last year. He has made addressing sexual abuse by clergy a priority issue.

"We need to have a posture of lament," Greear said this past week on a Facebook live video. "Whether or not it's happened to me, to somebody I know or somebody in my church, it's happened to churches that bear the name Southern Baptist, and we need to lament that, lament the pain of victims and grieve with them. Lament that it happened on our watch."

Greear announced a Sexual Abuse Advisory Study in July. More than half of study group is women.

Initial recommendations of the study group include calling for repentance “for decades of inaction.”

A group of sexual abuse survivors and victims’ advocates plans to protest outside the Legacy Arena on Tuesday about 6 p.m. They requested display space in a meeting hall, and permission to rally on the plaza, but were denied by the convention, said the Rev. Ashley Easter, a spokesperson for the rally who grew up in an independent Baptist church and is now an ordained minister in the Progressive Christian Alliance.

Since 1998, roughly 380 Southern Baptist church leaders and volunteers have faced allegations of sexual misconduct, according to an investigation by the Houston Chronicle and the San Antonio Express-News published in February. About 220 offenders have been convicted or took plea deals, and dozens of cases are pending including pastors, ministers, youth pastors, Sunday school teachers, deacons and church volunteers.

At least 22 former Alabama Baptist ministers have been charged with sex crimes.

“They have a major abuse scandal on their hands,” Easter said. “I think they’re handling it poorly.”

It’s not just Southern Baptists that have been confronted with the issue. Last year, an investigation by the Fort Worth Star-Telegram focused on independent Baptist churches and found 400 allegations against 168 leaders, including prominent pastors, spanning almost 200 churches and institutions.

While Southern Baptist leaders won’t let protesters inside the convention, the BJCC designated a public sidewalk space that could be used for the protest rally.

“We’re relegated to the free speech sidewalks that are not in their power to control,” Easter said. “They want to squeeze out anyone who has meaningful criticism. We’re going to demand that safeguards be put in place. What the Southern Baptist Convention’s done is a lot of talk.”

Easter’s husband, Will, made a replica of a millstone for the rally to illustrate a Bible verse they believe applies to the sexual abuse by clergy. “Matthew 18:6 says that if someone offends one of these little ones, it will be better for them to have a millstone around their necks,” Easter said.

About 9,000 Southern Baptists from churches across the country are expected to assemble to worship, listen to sermons and do the business of the nation’s largest Protestant denomination. They will also attend a variety of related meetings, including the Southern Baptist Pastors’ Conference, which begins tonight and continues Monday before the convention starts. The Pastors’ Conference features sermons by pastors from around the country.