by Dave Pittman, with Christa Brown
Once again, the powerful have prevailed and the vulnerable cast aside. Such is the way with the Southern Baptist Convention.
The latest version of the sexual abuse task force has released their latest recommendations. This one weaker than the last. And why? Because those in power just want this all to go away. More words that’ll result in no real action. And they’ll place the foxes in charge of the hen house…again.
In the latest communique from the latest version of the sexual abuse task force, they began with self-praise, claiming they “worked aggressively” and “vigorously pursued” priorities and “made substantial progress.” All of that may sound good to the SBC base, and perhaps it keeps the donations flowing, but to us survivors, it sounds as though they’re using some bizarre up-is-down kind of dictionary. In reality, abuse reform progress is nearly non-existent and at best wholly stalled. Worse, the purported “effort” appears to have been designed to fail from the get-go because the volunteer task force never had the resources, support from leadership, or the expertise to accomplish the task.
In other words, from the very start, the SBC was never really serious about reform.
After all the self-praise, the task force then went so far as to recognize the most ardent opposers of reform with this statement: “Some have disputed whether the SBC ever faced a crisis at all.” With this line, they embolden and validate those who say abuse isn’t as bad as survivors have been saying.” These words are beyond the pale, and typical.
Next, they outlined their plan for “helping churches.” They’ve put together a packet of information on abuse and have instructed each church to have the following five people review them: pastor, deacon, children’s worker, youth worker, a parent. Having five people watch a PowerPoint or read some materials about abuse does not constitute or create a “culture change” – which is what the ARITF claims the SBC has been going through.
There is a culture change occurring in the SBC. But its not for the better. It appears that more often, SBC churches and leadership have pivoted back toward harm rather than forward in protection. Their next recommendation proves this.
Instead of having a database with the most dangerous of sexual predators, the credibly accused, which even the Catholic church lists, they’ve chosen to bow down to powerful voices within the SBC and only include these two categories: Those “convicted of sexual abuse in criminal court” and those “found liable for sexual abuse in civil court.”
Whether an individual falls into one of these two categories can typically be learned by anyone with a basic internet search. These individuals will not clear a background check. So, institutionally listing these does not significantly move the needle toward keeping SBC children safe.
Over and over again, the words “low to no cost” come up as an excuse for why SBC churches say they can’t or won’t be able to address abuse issues. This should tell you how little importance and what a low priority most SBC churches place on the safety of children. They will spend and give hundreds, even thousands per church on things like coffee and flowers. But set aside a little time and money to better protect kids? Evidently that is just not within their budget.
Also in this proclamation were these words:
“The church should be the last place abuse occurs and the first place people turn to for safety and care. Turning this vision into a reality requires…deliberate action.”
Of course The Church should be these things. As survivors, we’ve been saying this for decades! Tragically the most deliberate actions by the SBC have been in opposition to abuse reform, and in obstruction to the victims and survivors.
It’s the SBC who has been blocking reform at almost every turn. With every closed-door session, with every lobbying effort to keep status quo the statute of limitations, and most recently with the #AmicusBrief that protects predators and eviscerated survivors legitimate and truthful cases. Do y’all remember what truth is, SBC? Do you remember Jesus saying, “I am the way, the truth…”
The consistent adversarial actions by the SBC make SBC churches the last place anyone would turn to for help! And why? Because there’s been no truth in your arguments against survivors or abuse reform.
Another line in the task force recommendations that caught our attention said this: “It is important to underscore that the SBC deliberately has no mechanism for coercing local churches.”
Really? Tell that to the churches with women pastors. Tell that to the pitifully few churches disfellowshipped for harboring sexual predators. When something REALLY matters to the SBC, they most certainly have mechanisms for applying pressure. Your choices reveal to everyone watching that child sexual abuse just doesn’t matter.
Oh sure, they love to TALK about it and wave little yellow cards around. But when it comes to taking substantive action – putting real skin in the game – they balk. They blame it on their attorneys or “too high a cost” or anything other than the real reason, which is this: they don’t believe abuse occurs in their churches – and certainly not in any way that represents a “crisis” – and they want to spend their money on anything other than child protection.
That’s the cold, hard reality.
A handful of the SBC’s 47,000 churches have sought out legitimate trauma-informed care, education and training about sexual abuse, and we acknowledge those. They are the rare exceptions because they understand what the rest don’t or won’t – that caring for the vulnerable is a mission and ministry of The Church.
No doubt many Southern Baptists will refute what we say and insist that they really do care. Pride and self-image may require it of them, or maybe it’s just that denial runs deep. But the next time you hear some SBC person tickling your ears with what you want to hear – that sexual abuse isn’t really a “crisis” – just know that we survivors hear those messages too, and they land hard as false and uncaring.
As children, we were both part of the SBC, but after we were repeatedly raped by ministers, we were cast aside. As adults, when we sought help from dozens of church and denominational officials, we were told again and again: “Go away, there’s nothing we can do. But we’ll pray for you.”
The uncaring callousness of that has left us with a lot of skepticism about the performative nature of many Southern Baptist prayers and proclamations of caring. Whatever SBC officials may consider to be “caring” – and however they may be defining that word – it seems like just some abstract self-serving notion in their heads. It has not been caring in action. Far
from it.
“For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.”
May Jesus have more mercy on the people of the SBC than the people of the SBC have ever shown to us as #SBCtoo survivors.
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