There is no question that the Southern Baptist Convention is facing a moment of reckoning. The SBC is a free association of churches, and trust is its connective tissue. The release of the Guidepost Solutions report on the Executive Committee’s response to Sexual Abuse Allegations has revealed horrifying accounts of broken trust. It is clear that our local churches and some of our SBC leaders have at times failed by mishandling or even covering up abuse allegations involving their friends.
My heart breaks for those who have suffered abuse, which was made all the worse because it came from the hands of those they should be able to trust the most: their own pastors and convention leaders. I have sought to weep with those who weep, as we are instructed to do in Romans 12:15. I pray that justice — true justice — will be done in each and every instance of abuse accounted for in the report and for any that have gone unreported. There is no question that trust has been broken.
The question, then, is how should the SBC respond? Read more…
