Southern Baptist Convention will release internal list of ministers accused of abuse

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The Southern Baptist Convention’s Executive Committee announced they will release a list of ministers accused of sexual abuse. A bombshell report revealed the list has existed for a long time — but only internally to protect leadership from legal liability.

At a specially called meeting of the Executive Committee — an 86 member-body from across the country — the interim president and CEO Willie McLaurin issued a formal apology to survivors.

“We are sorry to the survivors for all that we’ve done to cause hurt, pain and frustration,” McLaurin said. “We’re committed today to gospel reconciliation that will lead toward peace.”

The majority of the Executive Committee voted to release a statement addressing some of the allegations laid out in the Guidepost Report. They addressed an email from a previous member, August Boto, to a survivor, which said that continued conversation about abuse “will not be positive or fruitful.”

“The SBC Executive Committee rejects this sentiment in its entirety and seeks to publicly repent for its failure to rectify this position and wholeheartedly listen to survivors,” the statement reads.

After much debate, a majority of the @SBCExecComm votes to issue this statement: pic.twitter.com/1GJBDt2f94

— Paige Southwick Pfleger (@PaigePfleger) May 24, 2022

In light of that, the SBC EC plans to leave the survivor hotline with Guidepost open, so that as more people come forward, they will be connected with the resources they need.

Of about 330 interviews conducted for the report, only 22 survivors participated. And those survivors proactively reached out to the third party investigators. There was no other active outreach by investigators.

The SBC EC also announced its plan to release a list of ministers and staff members credibly accused of sexual abuse that leadership was keeping internally. The report detailed how the SBC did not escalate these allegations of abuse. Instead, they used the list to protect themselves from legal liability.

Survivors of abuse have been advocating for a similar list for a long time, but SBC leadership pushed back and said it wouldn’t be possible.

Before the list is released, the SBC EC will redact survivor names to protect their privacy.

While it is clear that the SBC EC members want to move quickly in response to the report, the meeting was bogged down by bureaucratic rules and procedures that caused some disagreement among members in attendance.

The recommendations made in the Guidepost report will be assessed by the SBC’s Sexual Abuse Task Force. They will present those recommendations, and possibly some of their own, at the national meeting in Anaheim, Calif. on June 4.