“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…
Four things the SBC Executive Committee should do right now to address clergy sex abuse
The Southern Baptist Convention’s Executive Committee will meet next Monday in Nashville. Here are four things it could do to address clergy sex abuse. All are within its own power and could be done without bumping up against church autonomy….
SBC annual meeting reveals little progress on sexual abuse, not even ‘bare minimum’
When a pace of change is so glacial as to resemble inertia, it means people don’t really care about change. This is what we are seeing in the Southern Baptist Convention with its reform efforts for addressing clergy sex abuse….
What we know and don’t know about the SBC’s sexual abuse hotline
“I gave her the name of my perp, I sent the scanned felony paperwork, the link to his being on the Texas sex offender list, and still, I do not see his name on the SBC list.” That’s what…
SBC’s sexual abuse hotline raises ethical issue
Editor’s note: On Monday, Jan. 9, the SBC task force published a response to this opinion column. Callers to the Southern Baptist Convention’s sexual abuse hotline are often routed to a person who also serves the SBC’s abuse reform implementation…