Posted on 08/14/2022 8:56:27 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
If you’re Southern Baptist, you should know that the federal government is looking into your organization.
As relayed by Fox News, the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) has announced it’s under investigation by the Department of Justice. And though the Convention is being a bit vague, the revealed reason is particularly disconcerting.
Apparently, the DOJ’s probe is related to how the largest Protestant denomination in America has managed allegations of sexual abuse.
From the SBC Executive Committee’s statement posted online:
[The Committee] recently became aware that the Department of Justice has initiated an investigation into the Southern Baptist Convention, and that the investigation will include multiple SBC entities. … While we continue to grieve and lament past mistakes related to sexual abuse, current leaders across the SBC have demonstrated a firm conviction to address those issues of the past and are implementing measures to ensure they are never repeated in the future. The fact that the SBC Executive Committee recently completed a fully transparent investigation is evidence of this commitment.
A report in May by third-party firm Guidepost Solutions logged 200+ pages worth of abuse claims within the church.
In response, the Convention voted in June to track pastors who’ve been “credibly” accused of sexual abuse.
CNN explains:
The measure [defined] “credibly accused” as a “pastor, denominational worker, or ministry employee or volunteer … who has confessed to sexual abuse in a non-privileged setting, who has been convicted in a court of law, or who has had a civil judgment rendered against them”…
The SBC also commissioned the Abuse Reform Implementation Task Force to oversee changes to how abuse cases are handled and set up a fund for victims.
But other potential initiatives were left out. More from Fox News:
Thousands of Southern Baptists voted to support the new measures, though several additional reforms sought by abuse survivors were not adopted.
The additional measures that not enough members supported included a compensation fund for victims who were abused by church leaders and an independent commission to monitor churches’ internal affairs.
Bruce Frank, who led the task force that initialized the reform process, told members at the convention the steps they voted to implement were the “bare minimum” and he would continue to push for additional reforms.
As for federal investigations in general, the DOJ might be seen by some as increasingly more interested in probing entities on the Right side of the aisle, and the Southern Baptist Convention isn’t exactly Democrat-dense. Regardless, of course, charges of abuse within a religious organization are extremely disturbing. And a wealth of egregious errors must have been committed to result in the Guidepost Solutions report.
The SBC — which boasts roughly 14 million members across 47,000+ churches — has vowed to fully cooperate. Here’s the remainder of its statement:
Individually and collectively, each SBC entity is resolved to fully and completely cooperate with the investigation. … We recognize our reform efforts are not finished. In fact, those efforts are continuing this very moment as the recently-announced Abuse Reform Implementation Task Force begins its work and as each entity has strengthened its efforts to protect against abuse. Our commitment to cooperate with the Department of Justice is born from our demonstrated commitment to transparently address the scourge of sexual abuse.
While so many things in the world are uncertain, we can be certain that we serve a Mighty God. Nothing, including this investigation, takes Him by surprise. We take comfort in that and humbly ask you be in prayer in the days and weeks ahead. Specifically, we ask God to grant wisdom and discernment to each person dealing with the investigation.
Folks, humans can do evil things.
Christians are not immune from having humans in their
midst.
Every group has problems. Epstein helps filled out that
picture. From poor families, to some of the most wealthy
people in the world, there are evil men among us.
Perhaps the Southern Baptist groups will get some black
eyes over this and deservedly so. I don’t pretend to think
they should be immune to answering for their actions.
At the same time, there are tens of millions of people who
go to church every Sunday or Saturday in their quest to
live better lives in accordance with God’s word. They
are your neighbors, and they do plenty of good in the
world.
This isn’t intended to exonerate anyone. I just don’t want
every parishioner to be saddled with blame when a lot of
them didn’t know what was going on. Some certainly
did.
Asking for penalties where deserved, I also want to say
that the same time, I think we’ve come to the fork in the
road where the FBI and the Justice Department MUST open
up the Epstein can of worms, and put some people away
for life.
Perhaps that should be the remedy for some Southern
Baptist leaders, but don’t go after them if you’re not
going to go after the trafficking of minors and the
JOHNS who took advantage of them over and over.
If it’s not equal justice, there is no justice.
Someone from the SBC must have left a laptop at a repair shop with a large amount of incriminating pictures and documents.
As a Baptist and former RC, it has been a mostly Catholic issue when it comes to the sexual abuse of children. The SBC has no power like an Archdiocese, which can hide pedophile priests by moving them from congregation to congregation when allegations come up. Each Baptist Church is it’s own entity and has the ability to hire and fire pastors based on the desires of the congregation. From reading some examples posted here, many of these cases in the Baptist churches appear to adulterous situations between two adults and not the rape of minor children which was the dominant issue with the RC churches.
F the DOJ. Why don’t they investigate all the elite involved with Epstein?
My guess is being religious and of the Christian persuasion the SBC won’t get a pass like the Olympic coach or Epstein’s many clients.
At the very least the fibbers will drag a few off in chains in predawn raids for process crimes like getting mixed up over what they had for breakfast two years ago.
BFLR
Right, they can expel churches from their membership but they cannot control what they do internally.
The polity of the SBC is much different that some other denominations.
If DOJ were honest, if the press were honest, they would be investigating sexual abuse in government schools and they would be investigating (instead of covering) sexual abuse by government officials. Epstein would still be alive. They aren't, so they aren't.
Sexual abuse in private religious organizations needs to be investigated, exposed, and eliminated. Sexual abuse in government organizations needs to be investigated, exposed, and eliminated. Leftist press and leftist government do not have clean hands, and have motives other than protection of children behind their "investigations".
The feebs are totally in bed with Morris Dees's hate group.
Garland is an anti-Christian and he will do what anti-Christians do.
It’s more likely that they are investigating because someone tipped them off that there are Trump supporters among the Southern Baptists.
I have secondhand (no pun intended) knowledge of some of the cases in which SBC denomination has mishandled serious moral issues.
In the days when Jesus walked on the earth a millstone might be used to solve the problem/s. Not so sure why so-called Christians oppose capital punishment.
Associate pastors and especially choir directors prey on youth
This is nothing more than the corrupt DOJ trying to destroy its enemies.
The Southern Baptist Convention is accused of child abuse. The Roman Catholic Church is accused of child abuse. The U.S. Government supports child abuse through its diversity and inclusion BS. Where are we headed; I am confused?
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