Leaders of the Southern Baptist Convention’s abuse reform task force announced plans Monday to launch a recent, independent nonprofit to host a database of abuse pastors and to implement other reforms.
They still need the cash to run it.
The recent nonprofit will oversee a proposed Ministry Check website listing abusive pastors, which has stalled since an internet site for the abuse reforms was launched last yr. Currently, no names of pastors are included on the web site, sbcabuseprevention.com.
Josh Wester, a North Carolina pastor who chairs the SBC’s abuse reform implementation task force, said the brand new nonprofit, which he called an abuse response commission, shall be independent of the SBC’s current structure.
He said the job of abuse reform was too big for a task force of volunteers to perform on their very own. That led to the plan to launch a recent organization.
“Given the present legal and financial challenges facing the SBC and the Executive Committee, the formation of a recent independent organization is the one viable path that can allow progress toward abuse reform to proceed unencumbered and immediately,” Wester told members of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Executive Committee during a commonly scheduled meeting on Monday night. “To do that, we now have to do that together.”
Wester said the Ministry Check website will include the names of Southern Baptists convicted of abuse and people who have had civil judgments against them. The task force has run into legal and financial delays in getting those names published, Wester said in his report.
The commission may even create an expanded “Ministry Toolkit” designed to assist churches prevent abuse and to take care of cases of abuse once they occur. That toolkit will give a step-by-step plan for churches to deal with abuse, members of the duty force said at Monday’s meeting. They plan to have video-based training materials for churches available in time for the SBC’s annual meeting.
“We really imagine this may very well be a watershed moment for the SBC,” said task force member Brad Eubank.
During his remarks, Wester recounted the recent history of the SBC’s abuse crisis, including the 2019 “Abuse of Faith” investigation by the Houston Chronicle and San Antonio Express-News, a follow-up investigation and report from Guidepost Solutions, and a series of reforms passed in 2022 aimed to assist prevent abuse and to look after survivors.
He said the reforms might lose momentum if Southern Baptists try to maneuver on from the abuse crisis too quickly.
“But after a while passes from these events, we’re tempted to maneuver on,” he said. “We grow fatigued and weary of the problem. In extreme cases, a few of us prefer to pretend like we never really had an issue in any respect.”
Wester mentioned two recent high-profile cases that show the scope of the issue—the settlement of a lawsuit against legendary SBC leader Paul Pressler, who was accused of a long time of alleged abuse, and the recent story of megachurch worship pastor and creator Aaron Ivey, who was fired for allegedly exchanging inappropriate texts with men and, in a single case, a youngster.
Abuse will not be a giant church or a small church problem—and never a theology problem, he said.
“It’s heroes from the past like Paul Pressler,” he said. “It’s heroes from the current like Aaron Ivey.”
Wester’s report didn’t include any plan to permanently fund the brand new nonprofit. Currently, the duty force’s work is being paid for by funds put aside by the SBC’s two mission boards. He did say that Brent Leatherwood, president of the SBC’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, plans to ask ERLC’s trustees to contribute to the brand new group.
He also said SBC president Bart Barber and leaders of the SBC’s national entities have been supportive and he was confident a plan could be in place in time for the SBC’s annual meeting in June.
“We are asking President Barber and other SBC entity leaders to help the ARITF in securing the financial resources required to launch this recent organization,” he said.
