SBC Delays Vote on Clergy Abuse Reforms and Ignores Suggestions from Baptist Advocates, SNAP Responds

SAINT LOUIS (MO)
SNAP

June 3, 2020

A critical vote to advance reforms aimed at curbing cases of clergy sexual abuse was delayed when the annual meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention was canceled. While we recognize that the spread of COVID-19 has caused plans nationwide to change, we also recognize that “where there’s a will, there’s a way,” and believe that the SBC should use alternative means in order to have this needed vote and continue the work of preventing cases of sexual violence within the SBC.

As Ashley Easter said during this year’s virtual “For Such a Time as This” rally, no substantive change has occurred in the SBC since a massive exposé into cases of sexual violence and cover-up within the church was published. This scheduled vote would not have brought the needed change that survivors and advocates have been asking for, but it at least would have been a step in the right direction. By abandoning the vote without a plan to move forward, it seems that the SBC is content to just ignore the issue, as they ignored the problem of racism for so many years.

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