BROKEN ARROW (OK)
The Oklahoman [Oklahoma City OK]
March 24, 2024
By Carla Hinton
Third-party investigation into accusations is under way
As Southern Baptists across the country grapple with allegations of sexual abuse dating back decades, leaders of an Oklahoma church are looking into a case of a former minister who was accused of abusing a teenager in 2006.
The current leaders of First Baptist Church of Broken Arrow have been responding to the accusations, in part, because their counterparts in 2006 did not notify police about the allegations. They also are investigating whether church leaders back then ever alerted the congregation at that time.
The church’s investigation into long-ago accusations of sex abuse are part of an ongoing effort by the Southern Baptist Convention to reckon with a decades-long pattern of mishandling or concealing allegations that resulted in the current crisis facing the faith group.
The eastern Oklahoma church, one of the larger Southern Baptist churches in the state, with average weekly attendance of 1,000, has hired Godly Response to Abuse in the Christian Environment, known as GRACE, to conduct an independent, third-party investigation regarding accusations made against a man, who formerly worked as the church’s college and singles minister. In their January announcement to the congregation, church leaders said they also have hired legal counsel who has worked with other churches that have faced similar matters.
According to a statement read aloud at First Baptist-Broken Arrow and posted on the house of worship’s website, the accused former minister worked at the church from 2003 to 2006 and was fired “based on knowledge of some level of sexual contact that took place” between him and a teenager involved with the church’s high school student ministry.
What happened after church leaders terminated the accused minister is at the heart of the matter. Notably, First Baptist-Broken Arrow leaders in 2006 did not file a report with law enforcement authorities about the accusations against the former staff member, according to Broken Arrow police.
In its statement entitled “Addressing Our Past,” First Baptist-Broken Arrow shared the name of the accused minister. The Oklahoman is not naming him because he has not been charged with a crime or been formerly accused in a legal action. The former minister told The Oklahoman in an email that he has contacted his accuser and First Baptist-Broken Arrow, but received no response from either of them. He declined further comment.
Legacy of lack of transparency, inaction?
As the Oklahoma church responds to years-old allegations of abuse, other congregations across the country are doing the same, including Immanuel Baptist, a high-profile Arkansas megachurch.
The Little Rock church’s current lead pastor, the Rev. Stephen Smith, has been embroiled in controversy since December 2023 over how he neglected to notify his congregation about sex abuse allegations against a former staff member who worked at the church from 2014 to 2016. Immanuel Baptist leaders have said their church also is launching a third-party investigation into the abuse allegations.
The church inquiries come at a critical time for the nation’s largest Protestant denomination, which has struggled to come to grips with a crisis that began after the 2019 publication of “Abuse of Faith,” an investigative report by the Houston Chronicle and the San Antonio Express News, that found a long pattern of Southern Baptist Convention leaders ignoring, concealing or mishandling sex abuse allegations involving hundreds of victims. After the report was published, Southern Baptist delegates, called messengers, asked for a third-party investigation into how some of the denomination’s top officials responded to sexual abuse allegations.
Another wave of scandal erupted when the report from the investigation was released in 2022, exposing how some of the denomination’s leaders, from roughly 2000 to 2020, bungled sex abuse allegations. That independent report also included a secret list of hundreds of sex offenders with ties to Southern Baptist churches or affiliates.
In June 2022, Southern Baptist messengers approved a series of sex abuse reform measures. Chief among those measures was a Ministry Check website that would serve as a database listing credibly accused ministry leaders, volunteers and others associated with Southern Baptist churches. In the last several years, many of the denomination’s state affiliates, including the Baptist General Convention of Oklahoma (informally known as Oklahoma Baptists), have produced abuse prevention resources for churches, as well as hotlines and guidelines for reporting abuse. The former Broken Arrow minister was not on the list.
Social media post alerts church
According to First Baptist-Broken Arrow’s statement, current church leaders first learned about the allegations against the former college and singles minister in 2021 via a social media post. Current church leaders said they immediately contacted the Broken Arrow Police Department, which told the church “there was no action which they could take.” Church leaders said they also reached out to the woman who made the social media post and met with her to discuss the allegations. They said they also notified the accused former minister and former church leaders about the allegations.
In their statement, church leaders shared their reason for naming the accused former minister. They said when independent investigations are warranted, the church has adopted a policy of naming the alleged abuser. They said by naming the accused, the church is not only providing an opportunity for relevant witnesses to come forward with information, but it also is preventing speculation or gossip about which former staff member is the subject of the allegations.
More:Southern Baptists give task force another year to implement sex abuse reforms
“For a thorough and just weighing of evidence, it is necessary for individuals to be aware of the identity of the alleged abuser,” church leaders said in their statement. “Naming an abuser is not a de facto judgment on allegations, rather it is the means by which a thorough weighing of evidence can take place.”
Meanwhile, leaders at the Broken Arrow church said the person who made the accusations against the former minister reached out to the church in August 2023 to express her gratitude for how their prior meeting was handled. She also asked that the church report the former minister to the Southern Baptist Convention, that church leaders review their policies and procedures for abuse prevention and response, and that they provide “some tangible consideration for the suffering she has experienced.”
Church leadership decided to pursue an investigation into the matter.
A church spokesman said Broken Arrow police did not give the church an official reason why the police didn’t take any further action upon the church’s reporting of the allegations in 2021.
“We can say that we recognize behavior does not have to meet a criminal standard for it to be defined as abusive,” the spokesman said. “We would want the investigation to make that determination in this case.”
The Oklahoman submitted a Freedom of Information request to obtain the church’s 2021 police report with Broken Arrow police. The report included few details other than First Baptist-Broken Arrow wished to disclose allegations made against a former minister in 2006. The Oklahoman’s attempts to verify the current status of the case were unsuccessful, but a police spokesman told The Oklahoman that a police report was not filed in 2006 regarding allegations against the accused former minister.
A church spokesman said the Rev. Matthew Brooks was named as the church’s senior pastor in December 2019, and most of the current leadership, including the senior and executive pastors, were not on the church staff when the former college and singles minister was terminated due to abuse allegations. The spokesman said he could not speak to the actions of the church’s leaders in 2006. He said that one of the goals of the independent investigation is to assess the response and the actions of the previous leadership in this circumstance.
More:‘Better than minimum’: Oklahoma Baptists unveil sex abuse hotline, abuse response team
Church leaders outlined in their statement what Lynchburg, Virginia-based GRACE will focus on in its investigation: examining and assessing the allegations against the former minister; assessing the church’s prior awareness of the allegations and subsequent response; and assessing the church’s current culture in responding to abuse and recommending changes to policies and procedures in that respect.
Church leaders said a completed report from the investigation may come by mid-2024.
“We are heartbroken over these allegations and have grieved heavily over what has been shared with us,” they said in their statement. “Properly and biblically responding to this circumstance is not a distraction from our mission, but rather it is part of our mission.”