The leadership arm of the Southern Baptist Convention has picked a new chairman seen as a reformer. The Nashville-based denomination holds its annual meeting this week in Anaheim, and the focus remains on responding to revelations that the church silenced sexual abuse victims for decades.
There were two candidates for chairman of the Southern Baptist Executive Committee, which handles the denomination’s financial affairs. The first voted several times to shield communication with attorneys from the third-party investigation that exposed systematic silencing of sexual abuse victims. And he lost.
The winner was Jared Wellman, the Arlington, Texas, pastor who pushed the leadership panel to drop attorney-client privilege — a decision that ultimately led to a wave of resignations. All three new officers, like Wellman, supported more transparency.
Even with the stark choices, Monday’s meeting — which preceded the gathering of nearly 9,000 church representatives — had no fireworks.
“Our prayers together got us to this point today, where we can have an executive committee meeting that was probably pretty boring to watch on livestream,” said Rev. Rolland Slade, the outgoing chairman. “It’s been a while.”
Southern Baptists still have to pick a new president, which is more representative of the denomination’s rank-and-file. And there has been some campaigning by a conservative faction that has been more resistant to reforms on several fronts, including sexual abuse.
Messengers, as the church representatives are known, may also vote on whether to compensate abuse victims or launch more extensive inquiries into sexual misconduct by ministers. Abuse survivors, including several attending the meeting this week, have released a list of proposals.
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