One of the most outspoken critics of the Southern Baptist Convention’s handling of alleged clergy sexual abuse has been named a special adviser to the seven-member task force mandated by messengers to this summer’s SBC annual meeting.
In 2019, Rachael Denhollander appeared as a keynote speaker at the “Caring Well” conference planned by the SBC’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission. There, she charged that Baptist Press, official news service of the SBC, “trampled on” an abuse survivor who trusted her denomination to tell her story well but instead wrongly portrayed her as part of a consensual affair.
The task force will be led by two men, and only two of the seven members are women.
Denhollander’s comments — and the conference itself — became a flashpoint for some SBC leaders, especially leaders of the SBC Executive Committee, who accused both her and the ERLC’s then-leader, Russell Moore, of causing harm to the SBC’s image. This saga played out over the next year and a half, culminating in Moore’s resignation from the ERLC and a series of leaked letters and recordings that showed Executive Committee leaders slow-walking concerns about sexual abuse survivors and saying it was more important to “protect the base” than to care about those survivors.
Tensions came to a boil in June at the SBC annual meeting in Nashville. Just days before the meeting began, Executive Committee President Ronnie Floyd announced that he had hired an outside firm to investigate the Executive Committee’s handling of sexual abuse claims and report their findings back to the Executive Committee. That didn’t sit well with convention messengers, who overruled the Committee on Order of Business and demanded that the incoming SBC president name a special task force to oversee the investigation and report back to the convention, not to the Executive Committee.
Ed Litton
Ed Litton, an Alabama pastor, was elected president over Mike Stone, a Georgia pastor who had been chairman of the Executive Committee at the time of the alleged mishandling of some sexual abuse claims. However, Stone’s advocates from the moment of Litton’s election have sought to discredit him — most recently by advancing allegations that Litton plagiarized some sermons.
Illustrative of that effort, Corey Smith, senior pastor of Heritage Baptist Church in Shreveport, La., tweeted after the task force was announced: “How can we trust this task force to hold leaders accountable of something as important as sex abuse if they can’t hold @EdLitton accountable for sermon plagiarism?”
Smith is a leader in the Conservative Baptist Network, an ultra-conservative group that backed Stone for SBC president over Litton and has said the SBC is sliding into liberalism. The network and another ultra-conservative group, Founders Ministries, are staunch advocates of a theological view that requires male headship over women in church and home. One of the organizers of the Conservative Baptist Network was Paige Patterson, who was removed as president of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in part because of mishandling of sexual abuse claims brought to his attention by others.
Other immediate response to the task force ranged from supportive calls to prayer to worry about some of those named to the group.
“I’m not a fan of Chris Moles or much of the task force. I wish the task force had included individuals that represented the wants and needs of all SBC survivors. But in the game of SBC politics, this is what we get,” tweeted Hannah Kate Williams, a clergy sexual abuse survivor who is active in advocacy within the SBC.
Moles and Denhollander — the two special advisers to the task force — come at the issue from different (but not necessarily conflicting) perspectives. Denhollander is a female whose testimony helped put serial sex offender and former U.S. gymnastics doctor Larry Nassar behind bars. She lives in Louisville, Ky. Moles is a male who works with other men, helping them stop abusive behaviors. He is an ordained minister with the Christian and Missionary Alliance and serves as senior pastor of The Chapel in Winfield, W.Va., in addition to being a counselor.
The task force will be led by two men, and only two of the seven members are women.
Bruce Frank
Bruce Frank, lead pastor of Biltmore Baptist Church of Arden, N.C., was named chairman, and Marshall Blalock, pastor of First Baptist Church of Charleston, S.C., was named vice chairman.
In 2013, Frank was nominated and elected president of the SBC Pastors Conference. His nominator was Ronnie Floyd, then a pastor in Arkansas. Frank is a graduate of Texas Tech University, Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and Luther Rice Seminary.
Biltmore Baptist Church ranks among the largest churches in the SBC — and in the top 100-largest churches in the nation — with about 7,000 in weekly worship attendance.
In addition to Frank and Blalock, the other five members named to the task force are:
- John Damon, chief executive officer of Canopy Children’s Solutions, Jackson, Miss., and member of Broadmoor Baptist Church in Madison, Miss.
- Liz Evan, judicial law clerk at Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals in Nashville, and member of Hilldale Baptist Church in Clarksville, Tenn.
- Heather Evans, director of Evans Counseling Services in Coopersburg, Pa., and member of Cornerstone Presbyterian Church in Center Valley, Pa.
- Andrew Hébert, lead pastor of Paramount Baptist Church in Amarillo, Texas.
- Bucas Sterling III, senior pastor of Kettering Baptist Church in Upper Marlboro, Md.
According to the motion adopted by convention messengers last month, the task force must report back to next year’s convention, with findings published in advance. What is not clear is whether, or how much, the task force will continue the relationship with Guidepost Solutions, the firm Floyd had hired days before the annual meeting.
Within the task force, three members bring particular expertise related to the work. Damon has extensive experience as a therapist and advocate for children and mental health. Evan drafted a Tennessee law to criminalize clergy sexual abuse that unanimously passed the state Legislature this year. Evans is a licensed clinical social worker with a specialization in women’s issues, particularly sexual trauma, sex trafficking and care for its victims. Her doctoral dissertation focused on complex trauma and post-traumatic growth in victims of domestic sex trafficking.
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