Southern Baptist Leaders Quash Expansion Of Sexual Abuse Probe

Southern Baptist leaders are rejecting efforts to expand a probe into sexual abuse within the denomination.

The SBC’s annual meeting takes place this week in Nashville, and ahead of the start, members of the executive committee turned back an effort to look more deeply into their response to sexual abuse claims.

The proposal was introduce by pastor Jared Wellman of Arlington, Texas.

https://twitter.com/JaredcWellman/status/1404460853043372037

Executive committee president and CEO Ronnie Floyd says Southern Baptists are already responding appropriately. He says he’s “grieved” at the division within the denomination, though he says he welcomes the debate and scrutiny.

“But individuals and groups should do so in a Biblical manner without attacking one another and creating suspicion about the character of one another,” he said Monday to the 80-member executive committee, ahead of the annual meeting on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Last week, another minister from Texas released audio recordings that he said shows  Floyd and other Baptist leaders were more concerned about perceptions within the SBC than the claims of sexual abuse survivors.

Church delegates, known as messengers, are expected to vote on several new policies for Southern Baptist congregations this week. One would allow the convention to drop churches that don’t take appropriate actions when handling sexual abuse accusations.

Sexual abuse is just one of many hot button topics creating division within the SBC, which remains the largest protestant denomination in the country. Southern Baptists have also been divided on the role of women in leadership, how to handle LGBTQ members and racial reconciliation.

Floyd, who is seen as resistant to the convention’s more progressive voices, said he views the division as an important test.

“Don’t take this conflict as what’s bad in the SBC. Take it as iron sharpening iron,” he said. “We will be better as a convention because of it. Not despite of it.”

While the denomination has been shrinking in overall numbers, down to 14 million, the annual meeting may turn out to be one of its largest, after canceling the event last year because of the pandemic. Roughly 20,000 are expected to gather at the Music City Center Tuesday and Wednesday.