Four years ago, the Southern Baptist Convention received a landmark report asserting that top leaders in the nation’s largest Protestant denomination had long minimized reports of sexual abuse by clergy, intimidated survivors and stonewalled reforms.The convention’s 2022 annual meeting passed a resolution apologizing to abuse survivors, several of them by name. It authorized reforms that included the creation of a database of credibly accused church workers.It appeared to mark a reckoning within the SBC in tandem with the wider #MeToo and #ChurchToo movements — and a recognition that clergy sex abuse extended far beyond the much-publicized scandal in the Catholic Church.But prominent survivors and advocates have largely given up trying to bring about change in the SBC after witnessing what they view as increasingly faltering efforts toward reform.And now a counternarrative has reached the highest levels of convention leadership. Prominent Southern Baptists are promoting the view that although sexual abuse has occurred in the SBC, it never rose to a “crisis” level.
SBC president says issue of sexual abuse has been ‘weaponized’ and politicizedThe SBC’s newly elected president, Florida pastor Willy Rice, has portrayed the 2022 report by consultant Guidepost Solutions as a “snipe hunt.” Rice said some people with political motives “weaponized” the issue against the large, conservative denomination.Texas megachurch pastor Jack Graham, a former SBC president, similarly denied there was ever a “systemic sexual abuse crisis” in the denomination.“The whole thing was a reckless hoax which has cost us not only millions of dollars but immeasurable damage to our witness,” Graham recently posted on the social media site X, alluding to costly lawsuits and impact on the SBC’s reputation.
