Sex abuse tops Baptists’ agenda
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — The Southern Baptist Convention opened a national meeting Tuesday that was expected to be dominated by discussion of a large-scale sex-abuse crisis. Delegates were expected to adopt new abuse-prevention measures and consider a proposal making it easier to expel churches that mishandle abuse cases.
The Rev. J.D. Greear, president of the nation’s largest Protestant denomination, said the SBC faced a “defining moment” that would shape the church for generations to come.
“This is not a distraction from the mission,” Greear said of the fight against sex abuse. “Protecting God’s children is the mission of the church.”
The SBC’s meeting comes as U.S. Catholic bishops convene in Baltimore to address a widening sex-abuse crisis in the Catholic Church. The Southern Baptist Convention says it has 14.8 million members in 2018, down about 192,000 from the previous year. The Catholic Church is the largest denomination in the U.S., with 76.3 million members as of last year — down from 81.2 million in 2005.
Sex abuse already was a high-profile issue at the SBC’s 2018 national meeting in Dallas, after which Greear formed an advisory group to draft recommendations on how to confront the problem.
Pressure on the SBC has intensified in recent months, however, due in part to articles by the Houston Chronicle and San Antonio ExpressNews asserting that hundreds of Southern Baptist clergy and staff have been accused of sexual misconduct over the past 20 years, including dozens who returned to church duties, while leaving more than 700 victims with little in the way of justice or apologies.