Guidepost Solutions, an independent firm hired by the SBC’s executive committee under pressure from outsiders at the denomination’s national meeting last year, conducted the seven-month investigation that produced Sunday’s report.
“Our investigation revealed that, for many years, a few senior (executive committee) leaders, along with outside counsel, largely controlled the … response to these reports of abuse … and were singularly focused on avoiding liability for the SBC,” the report said.
The report added: “In service of this goal, survivors and others who reported abuse were ignored, disbelieved, or met with the constant refrain that the SBC could take no action due to its policy regarding church autonomy – even if it meant that convicted molesters continued in ministry with no notice or warning to their current church or congregation.”
An executive committee staffer maintained a list of Baptist ministers accused of abuse, but there is no indication anyone “took any action to ensure that the accused ministers were no longer in positions of power at SBC churches,” the report asserted.
Source: Southern Baptist leaders ‘stonewalled’ sex abuse victims, scathing report says | Christianity | The Guardian
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