Southern Baptist president outlines reform plans after report of widespread child sex abuse

Houston Chronicle details sexual abuse crisis in Southern Baptist churches

(Image credit: Loren Elliott/AFP/Getty Images)

published 19 February 2019

On Monday night, Southern Baptist Convention President J.D. Greear outlined plans to improve how America's largest Protestant denomination handles sexual abuse, especially of minors. His proposals, presented to the Souther Baptist Convention's executive committee at a meeting in Nashville, include providing free training for pastors and other ministry leaders, encouraging member churches to revisit their sexual abuse policies, breaking fellowship with member churches that show "wanton disregard for sexual abuse," and taking a look at how Baptist ministers are ordained.

Greear's presentation follows a bombshell report by the Houston Chronicle and San Antonio Express-News about widespread sexual abuse in Southern Baptist churches, including by some ministers who are both registered sex offenders and active pastors. But Greear, elected president in June following the surprise resignation of a previous leader who stepped down amid sexual misconduct and a broader #MeToo furor, had commissioned a study on the topic months before the reports were published. "The reason I formed this group last summer was we have known there was a problem and whatever had been done in the past, clearly was not enough," he told his fellow Southern Baptist leaders.

"If we don't get this right, our churches will not be a safe place for the lost," Greear said, according to his prepared remarks. "That's not something I'm okay with, and I know it's not something you're okay with." Southern Baptists "need to regard any exposure, any shining of light on abuse, as our friend, even if it makes us ask some uncomfortable questions about ourselves, publicly," he added. "This is not a fabricated story made up by people with a secular agenda. We've not taken reports of abuse in our churches as seriously as our gospel demands, and sometimes even worse, outright ignored or silenced victims." You can learn more about the Southern Baptist abuses and abusers in the sometimes disturbing Houston Chronicle report below. Peter Weber

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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.