The only solution for the Southern Baptist Convention to solve its sexual abuse problem is to dismantle the denomination entirely, according to Boz Tchividjian, one of the nation’s best-known attorneys representing abuse survivors.
“They tried to put some Band-Aids on it, and they were more concerned about public perception than anything else. When a denomination cares more about public perception than a person, they’ve lost focus of who Jesus is and they’re not going to care about the abused people.”
This is true partially because of the way the SBC is organized — with autonomous churches — “but in addition to that there hasn’t been the focus of litigation on the SBC itself,” he said. “It’s mostly been litigation on SBC churches.
“I can tell you the day a court holds that the SBC itself can be held liable for the abuse that occurs within a church or within one of the SBC ministries, that will be a huge opportunity for survivors to step forward and begin holding the SBC financially accountable and maybe that will cause them to make some changes.
“The SBC will claim every church is autonomous and that they have zero control until a woman becomes the pastor of a local church.”
Tchividjian is an outspoken advocate for the people who have become his primary clients — survivors of sexual abuse, sexual assault and sexual harassment. His current practice focuses almost exclusively on representing child and adult abuse survivors throughout the country.
Previously, he served as an assistant state attorney in the 7th Judicial Circuit of Florida, where he created the first Sex Crimes Division at the Office of the State Attorney.
“The SBC will claim every church is autonomous and that they have zero control until a woman becomes the pastor of a local church.”
He also is founder and former executive director of GRACE, whose name is an acronym for Godly Response to Abuse in the Christian Environment. This nonprofit equips faith-based organizations to correctly respond to allegations of sexual abuse and educates them on how to create safeguards to protect children and other vulnerable people.
Most recently, Tchividjian was involved in the high-profile case of influential televangelist Robert Morris, former pastor of Gateway Church in Dallas who was accused of serial sexual abuse of a minor that was covered up for years. The attorney’s work included a meeting with the nondenominational church’s elder board that led to what he considers an appropriate outcome.
On top of all this, Tchividjian is a grandson of the late Billy Graham. His mother, Gigi Graham, was the eldest child of the famous evangelist and his wife, Ruth. She was married to the late Stephan Tchividjian, with whom she had seven children.
Despite what outsiders might assume, the extended Graham family is not all on the same page on social and political issues.
“Here’s the thing,” he explained. “Everyone assumes we’re not like other families. We’re not all in agreement about stuff. There are public statements made by certain family members that I am not in agreement with.”
As a result, he noted, “we don’t have a ton of extended family gatherings, mostly funerals but that’s OK with me.”
But he proudly identifies as the grandson of Billy Graham: “One of the most wonderful and humbling blessings of my life is to have been related to Billy Graham.”
His current work representing sexual abuse survivors is not because he had a bad childhood, he said. “I didn’t have a bad church experience. I grew up in a good home. I had a good childhood, went away to law school, and ultimately became a prosecutor. It really was during those days as a prosecutor that my eyes were open to the horror that I knew very little about regarding sexual abuse. Not only sexual abuse of adults but sexual abuse of children.”
Finding this calling was “a God thing,” he said. “The issue grabbed my heart in a short period of time. I had started a sexual crimes unit in our district attorney’s office and was the chief of that unit for several years.”
“I had a front row seat to a lot of dark horrible stuff.”
“I had a front row seat to a lot of dark horrible stuff. I also had a front row seat of meeting with some of the most amazing people who are alive and people who have survived against all odds, along with how many of my cases were connected in some way to a faith community,” he explained. “I thought churches are supposed to be places of safety and refuge, but I learned quite the opposite.”
That led him to launch GRACE in 2004.
By 2020, he decided to step down from all of that and “go back to what I started my profession as — a litigator — because I realized there were a lot of survivors who needed legal representation. There are a lot of survivors who needed to reclaim their agency by holding institutions and offenders accountable in civil courts around this country. I understand the culture and dynamics of so much of the Protestant faith community. I started the law firm, which I run now, and that goes across the country representing sexual abuse survivors.”
Some of those claims are against the SBC, which has made national headlines for four years because of its alleged mishandling of sexual abuse claims.
“There were some valid, genuine voices within the SBC that wanted to see change but were really outnumbered by those who just didn’t see this as that important or who reframed the narrative as those who are complaining about sexual abuse are exaggerating it,” he said. “Organizations build walls up and defend themselves.
“A huge percentage of the SBC were some of the earliest supporters of Donald Trump, who is a sex offender, so why would we think a denomination that largely supports a sex offender would then turn around and make significant strides in addressing sexual abuse within their own denomination? They did that initial report, the Guidepost investigation. It was only the Executive Committee that was under investigation.
“I remember when that report came out thinking, ‘The SBC is finished with this issue, they’re done. I have zero hope that the SBC as a denomination will ever get this issue. Because they just simply don’t care about it. If you don’t care about it, you’re not going to do anything to change it. I’m glad to see many people are leaving the denomination.”