In the wake of a scathing report about an abuse coverup, the archbishop of Canterbury has announced his resignation. “It is very clear that I must take personal and institutional responsibility,” said the archbishop, Justin Welby, in a Nov. 12…
SBC leader offers little hope for change on addressing clergy sex abuse
Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee Chair Philip Robertson gives his thoughts on the clergy sex abuse problem within the Southern Baptist Convention in this video. Spoiler: He doesn’t think it’s much of a problem. Robertson attempts to discredit and sow…
‘Bad Guys’ vs. ‘Good Guys’ narrows the framing on SBC and sexual abuse
The Southern Baptist Convention’s Abuse Reform Implementation Task Force disbanded without having implemented much of anything. The database they purported to “launch” last year — even hyping it as “historic” — remains empty. It holds not a single name of…
New data show SBC not really reckoning with sexual abuse
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…
Hope roots in truth-telling and grows with action
“People speak of hope as if it is this delicate, ephemeral thing. … It’s not. Hope has dirt on her face, blood on her knuckles, the grit of the cobblestones in her hair, and just spat out a tooth as…
About that SBC sexual abuse hotline; it just gets worse
The more time goes by, the more concerned I get about the Southern Baptist Convention’s sexual abuse hotline. For anyone who may be trying to make some kind of risk-benefit analysis in deciding whether to call the hotline, the balance…
Dragging the SBC into court drags truth into light
The Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee is now involved in more than a dozen lawsuits relating to allegations of sexual misconduct and abuse. That’s in addition to the investigation by the Department of Justice. Hallelujah. I wish it were 100….
Every member of the SBC’s abuse reform task force should resign in protest
When a member of the Southern Baptist Convention’s prior Sexual Abuse Task Force emailed me to apologize, I felt grateful for the candor and honesty. “I want to personally apologize to you,” the person wrote, “if anything I did ever…
‘It was futile … nothing will change’
“Apology.” That was the subject heading. It was an email from a member of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Sexual Abuse Task Force, the committee that was created in the summer of 2021 and given a one-year term to oversee a…