HOUSTON (TX)
Associated Baptist Press
An amended SBC resolution passed Wednesday calls on denominational leaders and workers to exercise “discernment” about identifying with groups or individuals tainted by lawsuits or arrest involving alleged child abuse.
By Bob Allen
The Southern Baptist Convention adopted a resolution June 12 in Houston calling on church members to be diligent in reporting alleged child sex abuse to legal authorities.
The non-binding resolution reminds of the “legal and moral responsibility to report any accusation of child abuse to authorities in addition to implementing any appropriate church discipline or internal restoration process.”
It calls on Southern Baptists to “cooperate fully with law enforcement officials in exposing and bringing to justice all perpetrators, sexual or otherwise, who criminally harm children placed in our trust.”
Messengers approved an amendment from the floor by Georgia pastor Peter Lumpkins, who proposed the original resolution behind the resolutions committee’s statement to encourage denominational leaders and employees to “utilize the highest sense of discernment in affiliation with groups and/or individuals” that have questionable policies or practices to safeguard children from criminal abuse.
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