The saga of how a prominent Southern Baptist church in Little Rock, Ark., mishandled knowledge of child sex abuse continues to reverberate through a denomination already at odds with itself over how to respond to abuse claims.
What makes the story even more headline grabbing is that the pastor of Immanuel Baptist Church is the son of Southern Baptist Convention royalty and has worked at two SBC seminaries. In the past, he has been endorsed by other prominent SBC leaders.
Steven Smith
On Dec. 10, Pastor Steven Smith apologized to his congregation for failing to tell members about an accusation that a former ministry staffer had sexually abused a child. Those accusations have now grown to involve alleged abuse that has touched three families, amid speculation there could yet be other victims to come forward.
Smith was not yet pastor when the alleged abuse occurred but arrived shortly thereafter and was in charge as the allegations came to light among him and certain church leaders.
Now in response to a very public controversy, Smith and church leaders have clamped down on communications and are giving conflicting messages about who knew what when.
The president of the Arkansas Baptist State Convention, Brad Lewter, voiced concern Dec. 19 about the church’s handling of the sex abuse accusations and its response to the victims and their families.
Lewter, pastor of Grand Avenue Baptist Church in Fort Smith, Ark., said: “It seems as though things are coming out that aren’t above reproach, and we just need to get more information before we can answer the question: ‘What can we do as it pertains to the state convention?’ And I can assure you, from the president’s standpoint, I’ll do everything in my power to take steps to look into it and to answer that question when it’s all said and done.”
The SBC has removed churches from its membership over sexual abuse claims, and such a move against Immanuel by either the state convention or the national convention would send a strong message to other churches. Immanuel is a tall-steeple church where former Arkansas governor and U.S. President Bill Clinton previously worshiped. It is one of the largest and best-known churches in the state.
While all Baptist entities are autonomous — unlike hierarchical denominations — each Baptist body has the right to determine who it will affiliate with, which allows state conventions and the national body to set limits on what churches are included.
Responding to clergy sexual abuse has been a hot-button issue in the SBC for three years now, with an outside investigation finding the SBC Executive Committee had knowledge of many abusive pastors and did nothing to prevent them from being hired in other churches.
That’s one of the problems facing the Little Rock church, too, as former staff member Patrick Stephen Miller, now 37, left Immanuel and went to serve First Baptist Church of Moore, Okla., for two years — apparently without the Oklahoma church being told anything of what Miller had done in Arkansas.
Miller initially was charged with second-degree sexual assault, a felony, but later pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of misdemeanor harassment and now is attempting to have the case sealed from public view.
“Three deacons with family members who Smith acknowledges have been abused were barred from attending (that) meeting, and the head of church security was on hand as they waited outside the chapel, one deacon said.”
All roads now lead back to Smith, the senior pastor at Immanuel since 2017, and what he did or did not do with knowledge of allegations against Miller. The former pastor of the Oklahoma church, Kevin Clarkson, told the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette Immanuel failed to notify him that Miller was suspected of harming children.
Since the Little Rock newspaper broke the story two weeks ago, a series of things have come to light, as reported by the paper:
- The public learned that Courtney Reissig resigned as the church’s discipleship content coordinator in September, saying the “lack of transparency, accountability and handling” of a recent “abuse situation makes my position here untenable.” This apparently involves an incident separate from Miller’s alleged abuse.
- On Dec. 17, Smith told worshippers “a party outside the church” would be examining what had occurred and would communicate findings to the deacons later in the day so they could share them with the church. The outside party was an attorney for Immanuel’s insurer.
- Information shared at that deacons’ meeting was limited by the insurance company’s lawyer, out of concern for protecting the church in future litigation.
- “Three deacons with family members who Smith acknowledges have been abused were barred from attending (that) meeting, and the head of church security was on hand as they waited outside the chapel, one deacon said.”
- The paper reported that Miller’s father-in-law is a deacon at Immanuel.
- “On Dec. 5, 2018, Oklahoma officials told Little Rock police they were launching a ‘threat of harm’ case based on the Arkansas allegations. That same day, Oklahoma officials removed the two foster children for whom the Millers had been caring, Little Rock police records show.”
Exactly how many alleged victims there are is not clear. However, there are apparently other cases of mishandling abuse claims apart from Miller’s alleged crimes. The Arkansas newspaper reported that Smith had reinstated “a ministry volunteer who had previously engaged in an ‘inappropriate texting relationship’ with a 15-year-old high school student that led to “inappropriate ‘physical contact’ as well.”
In that case, the adult female leader — a school teacher by vocation — is reported to have texted nude photos of herself to the 15-year-old boy.
Smith has been criticized by church members for not taking appropriate steps to notify others of that alleged abuse of the teenage boy.
Smith is the son of the late Bailey Smith, a well-known Southern Baptist pastor and evangelist in Oklahoma and a former president of the SBC.