The SBC embarked on sexual abuse reforms last year. What's at stake at 2023 meeting?

The Southern Baptist Convention decided a year ago it would take steps toward abuse reform and as the denomination gathers for its annual meeting this week in New Orleans, questions remain whether it can sustain the changes. 

Thousands of Southern Baptist voting delegates, called messengers, will decide whether to renew the SBC Abuse Reform Implementation Task Force and allow it to continue its work for another year, a key element in the convention’s ongoing response to a historic report published May 2022.

But there’s more to it. Abuse reform in the SBC has become a major political issue, meaning it will weigh heavily in the SBC presidential election and a vote on a church ousted from the SBC for abuse-related concerns.

There’s been majority support at recent SBC annual meetings for actions that abuse survivors and experts in reform consider necessary — and the bare minimum, they add — to addressing the abuse crisis. But there’s been pushback that entire time, often from a more conservative faction in the SBC that has raised new criticisms over the past year amid a shift in focus on the abuse response.

It’s harder to predict the outcome of key decisions at this year’s annual meeting, but the stakes are either the work progresses after just a year-long trial run or it comes to a halt.

Abuse reform year one

Messengers voted at last year’s SBC annual meeting in Anaheim, California, to create the SBC Abuse Reform Implementation Task Force that would carry out changes making it harder for predators to evade accountability and to empower churches to better respond to abuse reports.

To achieve that, the task force’s highest priority was designing and launching the “Ministry Check” database of ministers credibly accused of abuse.

“There are a lot more moving parts than people realize in that Ministry Check website, so it’s taken a little longer than I hoped to get it ready,” said Marshall Blalock, a South Carolina pastor and chair of the abuse reform task force.

At the upcoming SBC annual meeting, Blalock’s task force plans to present an early version of Ministry Check that satisfies some requirements, according to the project’s design approved at last year's annual meeting. One major, incomplete requirement is the website will not contain the names of ministers accused of abuse by an independent third party, which the task force said in a recent news release it still needs to study the best approach.

Instead, the database will only include the names of people who have received a criminal conviction or civil judgment or have confessed to abuse in a non-privileged setting.

Though an idea long debated in the SBC, the database ultimately received approval following the May 2022 report of an investigation by Guidepost Solutions, a third-party firm, into past SBC leaders’ actions. Guidepost found leaders who rejected calls for a database were maintaining their own list of publicly available records.

Critics of the database have expressed concerns about due process and local church autonomy, a key Southern Baptist tenet. As the task force came to realize the complexity of its work, the opposition intensified and contributed to public relations snafus the task force found itself responding to.

Notably, amid protests against Guidepost for a Pride Month tweet and allegations in its report about former SBC president Johnny Hunt, the task force walked back its decision to hire a division of Guidepost to create and maintain Ministry Check.

"I've had some disappointments with ARTIF but have also felt that they've listened well to my concerns, fears, and hesitations regarding those issues," said abuse survivor Jules Woodson, a longtime advocate for reform in the SBC, in a statement. "They need more resources to get things accomplished."

Abuse survivors Valerie Swop and Meighan McCammon, both of whom shared their stories with The Tennessean for the first time in the past year amid ongoing reform, echoed Woodson.

"I think there are lots of good people who mean well, but little concrete action," Swope said. McCammon and Swope both emphasized the need for Ministry Check to include the names of all ministers who the database is designed to include.

Abuse reform year two?

The abuse reform task force is scheduled to present a major report at the SBC annual meeting this week.

Blalock said the task force will update messengers on Ministry Check, its work this past year with state Southern Baptist conventions, and a toolkit on practical steps for churches to combat abuse.

Also, because it only received approval for a year, the task force will ask the messengers to vote on renewing the task force for another year.

If approved, the task force plans to focus on creating staff positions to assist the SBC Credentials Committee, an oversight group that evaluates reports of churches mishandling abuse. The task force would also work to complete outstanding requirements for Ministry Check to add names of ministers accused of abuse by a third party.

The abuse reform task force is currently assessing permanent solutions for a legal review panel that decides whether to add a name to Ministry Check. The legal review panel temporarily exists under the task force’s purview but will need a permanent home, Blalock said.

Abuse survivor Christa Brown, a longtime advocate for reform in the SBC, challenged Southern Baptists to vote at the annual meeting to expand Ministry Check’s scope and improve reporting procedures.

“Under the SBC’s church-centric system, survivors will have to wait for the local church to commission an inquiry,” Brown said in an opinion article co-authored by David Clohessy, former director for SNAP (Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests). “This asks too much of survivors.”

A president and a precedent

In addition to task force recommendations, Southern Baptists will further shape the trajectory of abuse reform with their choice for SBC president and whether to uphold a church’s ouster.

SBC President Bart Barber, who is running for reelection, has been a proponent of the current approach to abuse reform. Following his election at the 2022 SBC annual meeting, Barber appointed the abuse reform task force and has since backed the group’s work to launch Ministry Check.

But Barber’s challenger, Georgia pastor Mike Stone, has criticized the task force for underemphasizing due process for ministers accused of abuse and for Ministry Check impeding on local church autonomy.

Stone, who made an unsuccessful bid for SBC president in 2021, is a leader with a more conservative faction in the SBC. He has recently campaigned on a vision for abuse reform reliant on fewer checks and balances and a greater trust in churches to do the right thing. Stone said at a recent public event if elected he would try to change the composition of the abuse reform task force.

Florida pastor Willy Rice, who will nominate Stone for president in New Orleans said in a statement last Monday, "Mike has assured me he will only appoint people who identify with Southern Baptists, who care about the work and health of our churches and will guide us to a thoughtful approach that can unite our churches, not divide them."

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In response, abuse survivors have come out against Stone’s candidacy.

“The narrative that Stone has spun, the one that sounds as if he swept in and saved the day and saved the church and saved the children simply isn’t accurate,” abuse survivor David Pittman said in a recent video.

Pittman was responding to comments by Stone on the campaign trail about a major abuse case in Georgia, which Stone brought up to illustrate his alternative model for abuse reform. But Pittman, and Georgia pastor Troy Bush in a subsequent column, said Stone exaggerated his involvement and influence in the case and its outcome.

Stone responded in a statement online that Pittman and Bush are “slandering people who simply advocate for a different approach.”

Last, the messengers will vote on upholding a decision to disfellowship Freedom Church in Vero Beach, Florida, originally for exhibiting "a lack of intent to cooperate in resolving concerns regarding a sexual abuse allegation.”

Following an inquiry by the SBC Credentials Committee, the SBC Executive Committee approved a recommendation in February to disfellowship Freedom Church. A pastor at the church denied allegations of wrongdoing in statements to the media. It’s unclear if that pastor still works there, according to Baptist Press.

Aside from the credentials committee’s one-sentence recommendation, the oversight group has not made other information from its inquiry publicly available.

Freedom Church then decided to appeal its ouster, a first for its kind scenario since a 2019 bylaw change empowered the credentials committee to recommend disfellowshipping a church for mishandling abuse.

An elder with Freedom Church will make a case at this week’s annual meeting that messengers should permit the church’s reentry in the SBC.

Either outcome will set a precedent for Southern Baptists tolerance for churches that, due to the public exposure under the credentials committee process, have at the very least a questionable reputation involving abuse.  

Liam Adams covers religion for The Tennessean. Reach him at ladams@tennessean.com or on Twitter @liamsadams.