In the past all the abuse issues that the Catholic church as been dealing with has the protestants condemning the church for allowing….basically covering up the abuses by the clergy…..
Personally I am no fan of organized religion basically because it is hypocrisy at its highest….the leaders lie and cheat….and that is where this post picks up…..
Now the Southern Baptist Convention is at the heart of a controversy…..
An outside investigation released Sunday by the Southern Baptist Convention found that survivors of sexual abuse were ignored, or worse, for decades by clergy. The almost 300-page report mostly addresses leaders’ handling of reported abuse, the Washington Post reports, but includes details on individual cases. “While stories of abuse were minimized, and survivors were ignored or even vilified,” the report says, “revelations came to light in recent years that some senior SBC leaders had protected or even supported alleged abusers.” Members expressed shock at the scope of the problem in the nation’s biggest Protestant denomination.
“I knew it was rotten, but it’s astonishing and infuriating,” said Jennifer Lyell, whose abuse case is included in the report. She once was the convention’s highest-paid female executive. Internal fights over how to handle abuse cases have gone on for years, and leaders have objected to comparisons with the abuse in the Catholic Church, arguing that the number of Southern Baptist cases is much lower. “This is a denomination (that) is through and through about power,” Lyell said, per the Post. “It is misappropriated power. It does not in any way reflect the Jesus I see in the scriptures.”
In an opinion piece that went up Sunday on Christianity Today, Russell Moore writes that “crisis is too small a word” for what the Southern Baptist Convention faces now. “It is an apocalypse.” Moore has been on the convention’s Executive Committee and called for the investigation; he was expecting bad behavior to be found. But “the investigation uncovers a reality far more evil and systemic than I imagined it could be,” he writes. Moore says he’s attended his last committee meeting and likens the leaders’ behavior to a criminal conspiracy. “It’s even more than just a crime,” he writes. “It’s blasphemy.” You can read the full piece here.
The SBC has decided to head off the bad news as best they can…..
The depth of the problem surprised almost everyone, but the themes revealed in Sunday’s bombshell report on sexual abuse and coverups within the Southern Baptist Convention are not new to Christa Brown. She says she was sexually abused as a child by a minister, and she has been fighting for decades to bring light to the issue. Prompted by a motion Brown posted on Monday, the SBC’s Executive Committee voted Tuesday to publish a previously secret database of people accused of committing abuse. Per the Washington Post,the committee also voted to issue a public apology and direct rebuke of former General Counsel August Boto.
“I’m grateful for what we saw today, truly. I am also waiting and hoping for real action and not just words,” Brown said, according to the Post. “Not words, not lament, not thoughts and prayers, real meaningful action that will help survivors.” The decision to release the list was made during a Zoom meeting of the 68-member board that serves as the administrative arm of the SBC. During the meeting, interim committee President Willie McLaurin said: “Now is the time to change the culture. We need to be proactive in our openness, in our transparency from this moment forward.”
The committee’s statement of apology focused on a 2006 letter in which Boto decried Brown’s use of “hyperbole, argumentative language, strident tones, [and] pejorative adjectives” and said “continued discourse between us will not be positive or fruitful.” That letter is seen as emblematic of a systemic, longstanding dismissiveness and hostility toward abuse survivors by SBC leaders. Per the Tennessean, the committee said in its apology that it “rejects this sentiment in its entirety and seeks to publicly repent for its failure to rectify this position.” According to Kentucky Today, SBC counsel says the list will be reviewed prior to release, “with names of abuse survivors, names of potential confidential witnesses, and uncorroborated allegations of abuse redacted.”
So sad that clergy use their position of power and influence to abuse….when caught they cry and beg…..but how much crying did these people do before they were caught? And how long have they been preying on their flock?
I may be a bad person but their is no forgiveness from me…..ever.
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“lego ergo scribo”
