Autonomy no excuse for SBC inaction

The Southern Baptist Convention needs to revisit the recent actions of its bylaws group, which gave short shrift to attempts to launch an investigation into the activities of certain member churches. Without conducting any investigation, the SBC Bylaws Workgroup quickly began walking back attempts by the SBC president to address public concerns about handling of sexual abuses in its ranks. A monthslong investigation by the Express-News and Houston Chronicle published last month detailed hundreds of incidents of rape, molestation and other sexual misconduct within the largest coalition of Baptist churches in the U.S., documenting more than 700 victims, many of them minors. This correctly opened a national dialogue on sexual abuse within Baptist churches.

At the center of the discussion was the SBC’s failure to address the festering problem because of the autonomy the organization gives its member churches.

It was a great relief to hear SBC President J.D. Greear publicly acknowledge the abuse and demand scrutiny of the 10 churches identified in the newspaper articles for their handling of sexual abuse to determine if they should be removed from the group.

Greear said all the things one would expect from someone trying to manage a crisis.

“This is not a fabricated story made up by people with a secular agenda. We’ve not taken reports of abuse in our churches as seriously as our Gospel demands, and sometimes even worse, outright ignored or silenced victims. It’s time we back up our words with actions,” he said in speech to SBC leaders in Nashville, Tenn., on Feb. 18.

Less than a week later, Ken Alford of Valdosta, Ga., chairman of the SBC’s bylaws workgroup, announced his group was removing seven of the 10 churches and asked Baptist leaders to refrain from publicly criticizing churches without giving them an opportunity to respond.

The backlash from SBC pastors and sexual assault survivors was swift and loud. They decried the lack of investigation and the workgroup’s failure to contact many of the survivors.