Baptist News Global
March 8, 2019
By Christa Brown
The Southern Baptist Convention’s executive committee has proposed an amendment to the SBC constitution that would allow for churches to be disfellowshipped when they are determined to have “evidenced indifference in addressing sexual abuse.”
Sounds good, right?
But take a closer look.
The amendment sets forth four examples of conduct the committee can consider as evidence of church indifference:
(a) employing a convicted sex offender,
(b) allowing a convicted sex offender to work as a volunteer in contact with minors,
(c) continuing to employ a person who unlawfully concealed from law enforcement information regarding the sexual abuse of any person by an employee or volunteer of the church, or
(d) willfully disregarding compliance with mandatory child abuse reporting laws.
All four focus on determinations of criminal conduct. This is troubling because sexual abuse cases that encounter the criminal justice system are just the tip of the iceberg.
Further, when one examines how the committee has recently applied these standards, what was troubling on its face becomes even more grievously flawed in the application. While the amendment’s language suggests there could be “other things” that would trigger a determination of “indifference,” in application the committee treated these four as being the only standards.
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