Southern Baptist Convention leaders pushed aside abuse allegations to protect their reputations, a new report reveals

Interviews with more than 300 people and a review of documents across two decades show that senior leaders at the nation’s largest protestant denomination pushed aside allegations of abuse to protect their own reputations and avoid legal liability.

The Southern Baptist Convention ignored reports of sexual abuse for decades, a third-party investigation found. Instead of pursuing allegations, the report shows how survivors were met with “resistance, stonewalling, and even outright hostility.”

The investigation was conducted by Guidepost Solutions, an independent firm contracted by the SBC.

At nearly 300 pages, the report details how staff kept a list of ministers accused of sexual misconduct but did nothing with it.

They even slowed reform efforts to avoid liability, “even if it meant that convicted molesters continued in ministry with no notice or warning to their current church or congregation,” the report states.

It also includes a sexual assault allegation against former convention president Johnny Hunt. He denied the allegations to investigators, and after the report was released. But the firm deemed he wasn’t credible.

SBC President Ed Litton issued a statement Sunday saying that he is “grieved to my core” for the victims. He called on Southern Baptists to prepare to change the denomination’s culture and implement reforms.

“We must be ready to take meaningful steps,” Litton wrote.

The report follows 2019 investigative journalism by the Houston Chronicle and San Antonio Express-News that documented hundreds of cases of sexual abuse in Southern Baptist churches. Last year, delegates to the denomination’s national gathering in Nashville voted to create a task force to oversee the third-party review.

The new report ends with sweeping reform recommendations, including to create the offender registry that survivors have long requested. The Associated Press summarized additional recommendations, including to:

• form an independent commission and a permanent administrative entity to oversee comprehensive long-term reforms
• create protocols and training to combat abuse
• restrict the use of nondisclosure agreements and civil settlements that bind survivors to confidentiality

The denomination will meet for its next national meeting on June 4 in Anaheim, Calif., where it’s likely some recommendations will come up for vote.