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…
Church life is the perfect cover for abusers, Brown says in BNG webinar
The all-encompassing nature of church life can provide predators with the ideal cover for committing sexual abuse within congregations, abuse survivor and author Christa Brown said. “Access and trust. Pastors and churches have both access to kids and enormous trust…
Reminder: This week’s BNG webinar features Christa Brown, sexual abuse reform advocate
Christa Brown will be the guest on BNG’s next “change-making conversations” webinar on Wednesday, May 1, at 11 a.m. Central time. She will dialogue with BNG Executive Director Mark Wingfield. Brown is a frequent BNG columnist and author of the…
Twelve things the SBC should do now to address clergy sex abuse
The four of us have watched with dismay as Southern Baptist Convention officials repeatedly proclaim “progress” on sexual abuse reform while, at the same time, taking 10 steps backward. They bail with a thimble — and make a show of…
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…
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…
Prominent Arkansas SBC church accused of hiding knowledge of former staff member’s abuse of child
A former Southern Baptist children’s minister accused of child sexual abuse has asked an Arkansas court to seal his record, an effort critics say would hinder other potential victims from coming forward. Meanwhile, the Southern Baptist church where he last…
‘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…