The Southern Baptist Convention and the Sexual Abuse Task Force

To my church family at Raymond Road Baptist Church:

Be in prayer with me about the Annual Meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention on June 14-15, 2022, in Anaheim, California.

This post is long and a bit complex, but I want you to know what is happening in our beloved Southern Baptist Convention. If you choose not to read through all this, just know that the SBC is currently trying to make reforms to how they handle sexual abuse allegations at the national office in Nashville. There is misinformation out there about the things that have occurred recently, and some news articles misrepresent the situation.

Among other things, there will be discussion and voting at the Annual Meeting on June 14-15 about what to do in response to the report from Guidepost Solutions (not affiliated with Guidepost magazine), an independent investigative firm that released a lengthy and detailed report about the SBC Executive Committee and about the Executive Committee staff in Nashville.

The report showed, among other things, that 2 former SBC CEO's and a few high-ranking executive staff and lawyers in Nashville (none of whom work for the SBC anymore, thanks be to God) refused to respond when confronted with the issue of sexual abuse by pastors/ministers/volunteers happening amongst our churches. Their chief concern was avoiding lawsuits, and their stated rationale was that the autonomy and independence of our individual SBC churches prevented them from action in Nashville.

Furthermore, for more than a decade, the Executive Committee staff has considered whether or not to create a website containing a list of sexual abusers, and decided not to, because they did not want to be legally liable. But in their Nashville offices, a few staff members began actually making their own confidential list, just in case they ever decided to move forward with the creation of a list in the future. After all this came to light in the report, the interim CEO of the Executive Committee did indeed release that list of alleged sexual abusers.

As we discussed at our prayer meeting last night, at the 2021 Annual Meeting, Southern Baptists formed a committee (the Sexual Abuse Task Force) to investigate the Executive Committee. That task force hired Guidepost Solutions for the investigation, and the report is now public in its entirety.

Now that the report has been released, this SATF is making 2 recommendations (and a host of other suggestions) to the 2022 Annual Meeting.

First, they recommend that the SBC create a "Ministry Check" list of SBC abusers that churches can use to ensure they do not hire an abuser.

Second, they recommend that since their time as a Sexual Abuse Task Force (which is basically a committee) is ending, that we create a new committee called the Abuse Reform Implementation Task Force to serve for 3 years and to bring recommendations for us to make some reforms at the Annual Meetings in June 2023, June 2024, and June 2025.

Keep in mind the Annual Meeting is basically a huge Southern Baptist business meeting of thousands of people. So these recommendations will now have to be discussed and voted on.

Also keep in mind that nothing done at an Annual Meeting is binding upon Raymond Road Baptist Church. We are completely autonomous. We CHOOSE to cooperate with the SBC because of SOUND BIBLICAL DOCTRINE and because the SBC is the largest MISSIONARY SUPPORT SYSTEM in the world.

We send 8% of our RRBC budget to MS Baptist Convention (who then sends 39% of all their budget to SBC), and 2% of our RRBC budget to Metro Baptist Association (which serves Baptist churches in Hinds and Madison counties, led by our friend, Dr. John Taylor).

We also send 100% of our annual Lottie Moon Christmas Offering directly to the IMB (International Mission Board), and 100% of our Annie Armstrong Easter Offering directly to the NAMB (North American Mission Board).

At the national level, the SBC also spends 73.2% of its budget directly on missionaries (IMB and NAMB), and there are currently 3,597 missionaries overseas (IMB) and 2,218 missionaries domestic (NAMB).

Pray with me, that Southern Baptists will be led by the Holy Spirit on June 14-15 to help all of our churches be places that protect the vulnerable and that tell the truth and that champion the grace of Jesus Christ and his mission to save the world.

Your pastor and servant, 

Aaron Tucker

If you want further reading for yourself, here are some direct sources of information:

The announcement containing the Guidepost Solutions Report  

https://www.sataskforce.net/updates/guidepost-solutions-report-of-the-independent-investigation

An article describing the content of the report  

https://www.baptistpress.com/resource-library/news/satf-report-shows-ec-pattern-of-resistance-to-addressing-abuse-claims/

The Sexual Abuse Task Force recommendations based on the Guidepost report that they will present at the Annual Meeting June 14-15  

https://www.sataskforce.net/updates/task-force-challenges-and-formal-recommendations

Some reactions from some pastors and churches about the report  

https://www.baptistpress.com/resource-library/news/%ef%bf%bcrepentance-and-change-pastors-lead-churches-in-response-to-sex-abuse-report/

 

A statement from the SBC Executive Committee about the now publicly released list of alleged abusers

https://www.sbc.net/on-the-release-of-a-list-of-alleged-abusers%ef%bf%bc/