If you’re Southern Baptist, you should know that the federal government is looking into your organization.
As relayed by Fox News, the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) has announced it’s under investigation by the Department of Justice. Although the reasons given by the Department of Justice are a bit unclear, they’re particularly troubling.
Apparently, the DOJ’s probe is related to how the largest Protestant denomination in America has managed allegations of sexual abuse.
From the SBC Executive Committee’s statementPublished online:
[The Committee]Recent news made it clear that the Department of Justice was conducting an investigation into Southern Baptist Convention. This investigation will involve multiple SBC entities. … While we continue to grieve and lament past mistakes related to sexual abuse, current leaders across the SBC have demonstrated a firm conviction to address those issues of the past and are implementing measures to ensure they are never repeated in the future. This commitment is evident in the fact that the SBC Executive Committee has just completed an open investigation.
Guidepost Solutions reported in May that there were 200+ pages of allegations against the church.
In response, the Convention voted in June to track pastors who’ve been “credibly” accused of sexual abuse.
CNN explains:
Measurement [defined] “credibly accused” as a “pastor, denominational worker, or ministry employee or volunteer … who has confessed to sexual abuse in a non-privileged setting, who has been convicted in a court of law, or who has had a civil judgment rendered against them”…
SBC also authorized the Abuse Reform Implementation task force to supervise changes in abuse cases and establish a fund to help victims.
However, other possible initiatives were overlooked. Fox News: More
Many thousands of Southern Baptists voted in support for the new measures. However, abuse survivors did not want to see additional reforms.
The additional measures that not enough members supported included a compensation fund for victims who were abused by church leaders and an independent commission to monitor churches’ internal affairs.
Bruce Frank, who led the task force that initialized the reform process, told members at the convention the steps they voted to implement were the “bare minimum” and he would continue to push for additional reforms.
As for federal investigations in general, the DOJ might be seen by some as increasingly more interested in probing entities on the Right side of the aisle, and the Southern Baptist Convention isn’t exactly Democrat-dense. It is not surprising that abuse allegations against religious organizations are highly concerning. Guidepost Solutions must also have contained a lot of serious errors.
The SBC — which boasts roughly 14 million members across 47,000+ churches — has vowed to fully cooperate. Here’s the remainder of its statement:
Each SBC organization is determined to cooperate fully with the investigation, individually and collectively. … We recognize our reform efforts are not finished. We recognize that reform is not over. This is because the Abuse Reform Implementation Task Force, which was recently announced, begins work. Each entity has increased its efforts to prevent abuse. Because of our transparent commitment to addressing the problem of sexual abuse, we have pledged to collaborate with the Department of Justice.
Although many things are not certain in this world, it is possible to be sure that our God is Mighty. He is not taken by surprise at any part of this investigation. This gives us comfort and we ask for your prayers in the weeks and days ahead. We ask God for wisdom and discernment in all aspects of the investigation.
-ALEX
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