Twitter Exchange on Sexual Abuse

Below is a Twitter thread I attempted to post. It failed miserably. The question pertained to sexual abuse in the church and whether a system that worked well in the Catholic Church could be used in a free church convention of churches like the Southern Baptist Convention. I’ve invited Jamieson Taylor (@JamiesonTaylor2) to come here if she wanted to exchange further.

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Twitter Thread on Sexual abuse in the SBC

Don’t need weeks. Apparently, it’s presumed that:

a) ground-breaking research has been uncovered that’s helpful for a rigidly hierarchical ecclesial polity that works perfectly w/i a free church convention of 47K+ *independent* churches. No argument, just assumption.

b) That somehow the #SBC can *force* compliance upon these churches or else. Consider the “or else”: we *disfellowship* the church, which, in our polity, functionally means, we don’t take their money anymore. That’s it. End of solution.

c) What does the “ex” #SBC church do? Most likely what they’ve always done. We’ve no redemptive barter. Nothing. Assuming the church *guilty* of insufficient guardrails for abuse, we can’t offer them assistance, training, counselling, exhortation, even correction. I don’t call that a solution. More kids will be at risk.

d) it’s also assumed that #SBC has been frozen in time over the years & have ignored child abuse at best and, at worst, which is what you’ve indicated, we’ve systemically “covered it up.” That’s blogs & low-grade newspapers talking not the historical record.

e) Not only do I anecdotally know this is false, as a Baptist historian, I know the historical record does not substantiate such a wildly irresponsible conclusion. Do we have churches, entities, and individuals within the #SBC that were abusive? Sweet heavens, of course!

f) But is there a glaring organizational systemic cause that can be identified as a visible pattern among these 47K+ churches, hundreds of entities, hundreds of thousands of leaders, and tens of millions of Baptists? Barring the notion of Original Sin, no, there’s no organizational systemic cause accounting for this.

g) BTW, the 99.99% I mentioned above is implied from Houston Chronicle’s alleged “Sex Abuse Crisis” in the #SBC wherein they claim they found some “380 #SBC leaders & volunteers” since 1998. While 1 is too many, 380 out of 47K churches with 15M members over a 20 year period adds up to an emergency crisis in what way?

h) Not only so, it’s highly questionable whether dozens of the 380 they found are even Southern Baptist. Check for yourself. I’ve already done it. But even supposing they were #SBC, very few of those reveal any “cover-up” whatsoever. In short, the church/entity acted morally & legally.

i) Hence, overall, there’s but a minuscule number of incidents (many times identical incidents are repeatedly offered as *more* evidence when it’s the *same* evidence being echoed) that were handled either morally or legally improper. How do we address these?

j) One way #SBC has handled this through the years is awareness training, workshops, conferences, etc. Far too many listen to the echo on Twitter and repeat it rather than doing a little research of their own. Condemning, shaming, & judging are easier. Plus it’s more popular and fun!

k) I could offer dozens upon dozens of times #SBC addressed child abuse, including sexual abuse, over the last several decades, thru training pastors, church leaders, and volunteers. All one has to do is look.

l) For example, as far back as Apr 1987, the #SBC sponsored an Advanced Training for Preschool/Children’s Workers Seminar a large part of which focused on sexual abuse of children. In the seminar, hundreds of pastors/leaders/volunteers were instructed…

m) Instructed in detecting common traits of a child abuser. “1st, the abuser spends time w/ the child, eventually gaining trust. Next, he slowly arouses their interest in sex, then introduces them to adult/child porn before engaging in sexual acts” Fairly advanced given it’s 30 old.

n) The child abuse prevention program embraced at the seminar was “Child Lures”. In it is still valuable insight into the methods child abusers still operate today. Included are the authority lure, assistance lure, emergency lure, hero lure, and bribery lure.” Still accurate in many ways!

o) Dozens of examples like these could be offered showing the #SBC has not had its head in the sand & has not systemically “covered-up” for child abusers through the years. These are talking points activists use to malign the convention.

p) Have bone-headed, depraved, sinful individuals done so? Yes. And we address those cases when there’s demonstrative evidence either moral or legal breaches were made.

q) Thus, this is why, in part, knowing both Baptist ecclesiology & #SBC history & heritage is so significant to this discussion. If one accepts the routine twitter version of the #SBC promoted by activists, frankly, I wouldn’t want to be a part either. Hope this helps.