NASHVILLE (TN)
Nashville Tennessean
June 4, 2019
By Holly Meyer
Key leaders in the largest Protestant denomination in the U.S. have spent the last year owning up to that while trying to figure out how their network of evangelical churches can do a better job of addressing and preventing sexual abuse in the future.
In the wake of recent revelations illustrating how widespread the problem is, Southern Baptists will soon have a chance to enact changes that would make it easier to hold churches accountable and keep people in their pews safe.
Sexual abuse in the church is expected to be front and center when thousands of representatives from the more than 50,000 Southern Baptist congregations gather June 11-12 in Birmingham, Alabama, for their big annual meeting.
That focus is intentional, Southern Baptist Convention President J.D. Greear said. Victim revelations have made it clear that Southern Baptists need to create systems that protect the vulnerable, he said.
“God gave his life for them,” Greear said in an interview. “How dare we not provide protection for them so when they’re in the house of God they know that they’re safe and that they’re cared for.”
Up for consideration are two changes to core Southern Baptist Convention governing documents:
The first is an amendment to the Southern Baptist Convention’s constitution that would explicitly state that addressing sexual abuse and racism is a part of what it means to be a Southern Baptist church.
The second is a proposed bylaw change that would create a committee to assess misconduct claims, including sexual abuse, against churches.
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