According to the Southern Baptist Convention’s latest statistical report, the SBC has lost more than 3.3 million members since 2006, which happens to be the year I did my first sidewalk press conference outside SBC headquarters, talking about clergy sex abuse and coverups.
In that year, 2006, the SBC had 16.3 million members, but its membership has been declining ever since.
No doubt there are multiple factors involved in the SBC’s decline, but I do think the never-ending news of clergy sex abuse and coverups has had an impact.
The SBC’s total membership has now dropped below 13 million for the first time in nearly half a century.
So, that’s the good news. I say that because, in my view, a faith group that is cavalier about protecting kids is a faith group that doesn’t deserve to have families in the pews.
Now here’s the bad news. The data confirm the SBC is indeed cavalier about protecting kids against clergy sex abuse.
That’s not a surprise to many of us who continue to hear story after story of lives decimated by clergy sex abuse and religious institutional betrayal. But it’s still disheartening to see this data.
On average, only 58% of SBC churches say they require background checks for staff and volunteers working with children and youth.
“Only 58% of SBC churches say they require background checks for staff and volunteers working with children and youth.”
Background checks are the most basic of bare-bones steps. Yet barely more than half of Southern Baptist churches bother with even this most minimal of precautions. (Keep in mind this data was derived from churches’ self-reporting, which suggests the actual number could be even less than 58%.)
Every family who sits in a Southern Baptist pew should be deeply concerned by this data. Background checks are essential but they’re a very low bar. If so many SBC churches don’t even do this, how much more are they not doing?
The data hold still more disturbing news. Few SBC churches have staff who have been trained regarding sexual abuse. Only 38% of churches say their staff have been trained in reporting sexual abuse, and only 16% say their staff have been trained in caring for sexual abuse survivors.
So how much does the SBC really care about dealing with sexual abuse? With these numbers so low, I can only conclude not much.
It’s not only the local churches who are failing, it’s also Southern Baptist leadership. As if on cue to provide illustration of the denomination’s inability to earnestly reckon with sexual abuse, just this past week, SBC presidential candidate David Allen said sexual abuse cases are a “distraction,” and incoming Executive Committee President Jeff Iorg suggested the SBC’s issues with sexual abuse are a “shortcoming.”
Such minimizing language lands hard on the ears of many clergy sex abuse survivors, who already have struggled for years to have their concerns taken seriously within this faith group. It appears Southern Baptists have learned very little.
It’s not as if Southern Baptists don’t have the resources to reckon with abuse if they truly wanted to. SBC donations were reported at $10 billion last year. Yes, that’s “billion” with a “b.”
Yet even with $10 billion a year in revenues, the SBC hasn’t managed to come up with any permanent funding plan for abuse reforms.
“Even with $10 billion a year in revenues, the SBC hasn’t managed to come up with any permanent funding plan for abuse reforms.”
And, even though it’s now been two years since the Guidepost report, five years since the “Abuse of Faith” series and 17 years since the ABC 20/20 exposé, the SBC still has not managed to create an effective database to prevent clergy sex abusers from church-hopping. The Ministry Check database remains an empty shell, without the name of a single credibly accused abusive pastor.
Again, everyone who sits in a Southern Baptist pew should be concerned about this. The vast majority of sexual assaults are never criminally prosecuted, which means an ordinary background check will be unlikely to uncover a record of them. So, even if you’re in one of those 58% of SBC churches that claim to do background checks, you’ve little reason to feel safe. Without an institutional mechanism for record-keeping and information-sharing on credible accusations, most clergy sex abusers will be able to slip through the cracks and move on to find new prey.
Despite all this, SBC president Bart Barber says, “We are making progress.”
That is, of course, the same Bart Barber who took it upon himself to authorize that awful anti-survivor amicus brief, effectively telling the elected judges of the Kentucky Supreme Court that the whole of the 13-million-member SBC is against allowing child sex abuse survivors the possibility of seeking civil justice against abuse-enabling institutions.
So, maybe Barber’s definition of “progress” is contrary to the usual. Maybe it’s one of those up-is-down and black-is-white kind of definitions.
In any event, when abuse reform “progress” is so glacial that it resembles inertia, it’s a good indication that reform is not really a priority.
Christa Brown
Christa Brown, a retired appellate attorney, is the author of a new book called Baptistland: A Memoir of Abuse, Betrayal, and Transformation. Follow her on Twitter @ChristaBrown777.
Related articles:
How Southern Baptists got ‘distracted’ from the gospel | Opinion by Mark Wingfield
Church life is the perfect cover for abusers, Brown says in BNG webinar
Candidate for SBC president stirs a storm by saying sexual abuse cases are a ‘distraction’