The newest task force appointed to address sexual abuse in the Southern Baptist Convention shares one key thing in common with the first Sexual Abuse Task Force that wrapped up its work this summer: Only two women are represented on both groups.
Proportionately, there are fewer women on the second task force than the first. The original task force had only seven members, including two women. The new task force has nine members, including two women. That’s 22% representation for women on the new task force.
Proportionately, there are fewer women on the second task force than the first.
Yet according to the extensive documentation of sexual abuse cases within the SBC produced by Guidepost Solutions, the victims are overwhelmingly women and the perpetrators are overwhelmingly men. Not only that, those who cover up known cases of sexual abuse also are overwhelmingly men.
Women account for well more than 50% of the churchgoers sitting in the pews of SBC churches every Sunday but have nothing approaching equal representation on the task force.
Bart Barber
Neither the chair nor the vice chair of the first task were women, and the same is true of the new task force announced Aug. 8 by new SBC President Bart Barber.
At the same time, the SBC is engaged in a public debate over the role of women in church leadership, with the most conservative wing wanting to expel the denomination’s largest church because it ordained three women as ministers — although not senior pastors — last year. That effort failed at the SBC annual meeting in June but is still under advisement by the SBC’s Credentials Committee.
The official theological position of the SBC favors complementarianism, which is the belief that God created men and women for distinctly different roles in church and home, with men always required to be the leaders. The fullest expression of this doctrine is preached by a group called the Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood, which has a large presence of Southern Baptists among its leadership.
In 177 years, no woman has led an SBC agency, and no woman has been elected president of the convention.
In 177 years, no woman has led an SBC agency, and no woman has been elected president of the convention.
The new task force — called the Abuse Reform Implementation Task Force — was approved by messengers to the June annual meeting. Its creation was recommended by the first task force, which had only a one-year mandate.
“The purpose of this task force is to assist the churches of the Southern Baptist Convention in our efforts to shut the doors of our churches to those who would act as sexual predators and to wrap our arms around survivors and those who love them,” Barber said in announcing the appointees.
The new task force will oversee development of a “Ministry Check” website to give churches information on known abusers and will determine what other actions should be taken in responsive to the damning 300-page report from Guidepost.
Barber named two male pastors to lead the new group. Marshall Blalock, senior pastor of First Baptist Church in Charleston, S.C., was named chairman, and Mike Keahbone, pastor of First Baptist Church in Lawton, Okla., was named vice chair. Blalock served as vice chairman of the first task force. Keahbone is a member of the SBC Executive Committee and currently serves on a search committee that will nominate that agency’s next president.
The new task force also includes no member who lives anywhere west of north central Texas. All but one member live in the traditional Southern base of the convention.
In addition to Blalock and Keahbone, those named to the task force are:
- Todd Benkert, pastor and lead elder of Oak Creek Community Church in Mishawaka, Ind.
- Melissa Bowen, member of First Baptist Church in Prattville, Ala.
- Brad Eubank, senior pastor of Petal First Baptist Church in Petal, Miss.
- Cyndi Lott, member of Catawba Valley Baptist Church in Morganton, N.C.
- Jon Nelson, lead pastor of Soma Community Church in Jefferson City, Mo.
- Jarrett Stephens, senior pastor of Champion Forest Baptist Church in Houston.
- Gregory Wills, member of Travis Avenue Baptist Church in Fort Worth, Texas, and professor of church history and Baptist heritage and dean of the School of Theology at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary.
Barber said in his announcement that these task force members “will be assisted in their work by a few consultants, whose names will be released later.” That group will include survivors of clergy sexual abuse, pastors, lawyers, educators and one person who was the object of a false accusation of sexual abuse in the past, he said.
The new task force is authorized for one year of work but may be extended for additional years by a vote of messengers to future annual meetings.
Related articles:
Progress on sexual abuse in the SBC? Not so fast | Opinion by David Clohessy and Christa Brown
Guidepost report documents pattern of ignoring, denying and deflecting on sexual abuse claims in SBC
Unexpected $4 million gift takes away one criticism of SBC response to sexual abuse
Remember the women: The Southern Baptist cover up of sexual abuse | Opinion by Pam Durso