Southern Baptist Convention sexual abuse report details cover up, decades of inaction

'Ignored, disbelieved': Southern Baptist Convention sexual abuse report details cover up, decades of inaction

Quote:

Southern Baptist Convention leaders perpetuated a cycle of abuse for two decades by ignoring reports of sexual abuse and dismissing recommendations for reform, enabling a culture that retraumatized survivors, investigators found in a historic report released Sunday. The nearly 300-page report from Guidepost Solutions contains explosive details about how the nation's largest Protestant denomination responded to a growing sexual abuse crisis within its ranks. The report publicly details, for the first time, a credible allegation of sexual assault against former SBC President Johnny Hunt a month after his term ended in 2010 and how high-ranking staff maintained a list with hundreds of names of ministers accused of sexual misconduct, but did nothing with it. Meanwhile, leaders spoke poorly about abuse survivors behind their backs and downplayed the extent of the crisis. The SBC's law firm repeatedly advised leaders not to take action when they were approached with concerns about abuse or reform, the report concluded. "Almost always the internal focus was on protecting the SBC from legal liability and not on caring for survivors or creating any plan to prevent sexual abuse within SBC churches," Guidepost said in its report.

This just hit the internet about an hour ago. I think we're going to hear a lot more about it in the mainstream press, but I'm sure the right wing press will do everything in their power to cover up. This might rival the similar issues in the Catholic Church in terms of size and importance. And get the lawyers warmed up. There's a lot more at the link.

via International Skeptics Forum https://ift.tt/SsKZC83