As Southern Baptists Take Action on Sex Abuse, Some Question Whether It’s Enough

By Sarah Pulliam Bailey
Washington Post
June 13, 2019

https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/analysis-at-usccb-meeting-will-words-speak-louder-than-votes-53577

Puffing a cigarette outside a coffee shop, Jules Woodson, the sexual abuse victim who helped set off a reckoning over abuse in the Southern Baptist Convention, paused to take a measure of the progress toward addressing the problem during the group’s annual meeting this week.

The 8,000 church representatives, called “messengers,” overwhelmingly agreed Wednesday to pass a resolution condemning the crime as “evil” and calling on government authorities to review statutes of limitations for prosecuting perpetrators. The day before, they had agreed to amend the faith group’s constitution to remove from their ranks churches that mishandle sexual abuse. The same day, more than two-thirds also voted to designate a committee to review questions of sexual abuse.

Does Woodson, who is also an advocate, think that is enough? “It’s a good step,” Woodson said. “It’s a little step.”

Woodson’s mix of some optimism and much caution was shared by many who attended the annual meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) here, where the major agenda item was tackling widespread allegations of clergy sexual abuse that have surfaced over the past year in particular.

Woodson’s 2018 allegation that Andy Savage, then her Southern Baptist youth pastor, sexually assaulted her when she was 17, made national headlines and is widely viewed as one of the tipping points that have led Southern Baptists to confront the problem in their ranks. A series of reports by the Houston Chronicle earlier this year documenting hundreds of abuse stories within the nation’s largest Protestant denomination also helped push the issue front and center.