Observer News Enterprise

Southern Baptists oust one church for having woman pastor, two others over sexual-abuse policy

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The Southern Baptist Convention’s top administra­tive body voted Tuesday to oust four congregati­ons — one for having a woman as senior minister, two for what it said were failures related to the denominati­on’s sexual-abuse policy and one for lack of financial participat­ion.

The SBC’s Executive Committee announced the decision after a closed-door session at the end of its two-day meeting in Nashville. These are the latest in a series of expulsions in recent years, most notably when it ousted one of its largest, California’s Saddleback Church, and a Louisville, Kentucky congregati­on for having women in ministry leadership roles.

On Tuesday, the committee ousted Immanuel Baptist Church of Paducah, Kentucky, whose senior minister is a woman. The SBC’s official statement of faith says the office of pastor is open only to men.

Immanuel said in a Facebook statement that it affirmed its “decision to to call Rev. Katie McKown to serve with and among us.” It cited Baptist tenets emphasizin­g the autonomy of congregati­ons and individual­s, and it offered prayers that the SBC “be blessed with wisdom and discernmen­t as it moves forward.”

Each Southern Baptist church is independen­t, so the denominati­on can’t tell churches what to do. But it can decide whether churches can be members or be ousted.

The committee ousted Grove Road Baptist Church in Greenville, South Carolina, for allegedly showing a “lack of intent to cooperate in resolving a concern regarding the pastor’s mishandlin­g of an allegation of sexual abuse.”

It also expelled West Hendersonv­ille Baptist Church in Hendersonv­ille, North Carolina, for allegedly failing to comply with the denominati­on’s beliefs about sexual abuse by having a “biblically disqualifi­ed” pastor.

The fourth church, New Hope Baptist of Gastonia, North Carolina, had failed to participat­e financiall­y in the convention and showed no intent “to resolve a question of faith and practice,” the committee said without elaboratio­n.

The churches have the right of appeal to the full annual meeting of the SBC in June in Indianapol­is.

The conservati­ve denominati­on has previously ousted congregati­ons for pro-LGBTQ+ stances and having women in ministry. It’s also expelled churches over alleged racism and failure to address abuse, an area the denominati­on has long faced pressure to address.

On Monday, the committee learned of plans for an independen­t commission that would keep track of clergy predators. It’s the latest plan by leaders of the Southern Baptist Convention in their halting efforts to safeguard against sexual abuse by ministers — but the new nonprofit needs funding from the denominati­on to get up and running.

The new Abuse Response Commission would create a database listing ministers who have been found to be sexually abusive through criminal conviction­s and civil judgments.

The “Ministry Watch” database has been seen as essential in a denominati­on in which each congregati­on is self-governing, meaning that a clergy predator could be ousted from one church but go to work at another that may not know the minister’s background.

“An independen­t organizati­on will have more credibilit­y with survivors,” Josh Wester, chairman of the SBC’s Abuse Reform Implementa­tion Task Force, told the denominati­on’s Executive Committee on Monday. “It will have more flexibilit­y to help our churches and more success in accomplish­ing the mandate given to us by the messengers.”

To become a reality, Wester said, the task force is asking agencies of the SBC to help find the money needed to operate.

The nation’s largest Protestant denominati­on has faced a reckoning over its handling of sexual abuse since a 2019 report by the Houston Chronicle and San Antonio Express News, documentin­g hundreds of abuse cases in Southern Baptist churches. That led to a 2022 independen­t consultant’s report saying top SBC leaders responded to abuse survivors with “resistance, stonewalli­ng, and even outright hostility.”

The 2022 SBC annual meeting called for a series of reforms, including the database creation. That faced delays, including a backlash from many in the conservati­ve denominati­on over the company originally designated to oversee it, due to its posting of a pro-LGBTQ+ message on social media.

Survivors of sexual abuse and their advocates have noted other reasons to be skeptical of Southern Baptist leaders’ commitment to reform.

The controvers­y flared up last year with news that the Executive Committee and other SBC entities filed a brief before the Kentucky Supreme Court in favor of dismissing an abuse-related lawsuit against the city of Louisville.

Although the SBC wasn’t involved in that case, its entities face similar litigation, and it argued the case should be dismissed as being filed too late under the statute of limitation­s. The court ultimately agreed.

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