Southern Baptist Sexual Abuse Scandal Leads to Lawsuits

May 24, 2022 – San Diego, CA.  Various major news outlets have been reporting on sexual abuse allegations including grooming of children, misogyny, and other sexual misconduct that took place over a 20 year span has been covered up by the Southern Baptist Convention.

The first news stories appeared in 2019 at both the Houston Chronicle and San Antonio Express-News in a series of investigative reports exposing alarming numbers of Southern Baptist clergy and volunteers engaging of sexual misconduct, churches harboring offenders while shaming and shunning victims and dozens of leaders accused of sex offenses who went on to serve in another church.

Then on Sunday May 22 a scathing report was released by an independent firm, Guidepost Solutions, which issued this statement:  

“Survivors and others who reported abuse were ignored, disbelieved, or met with the constant refrain that the SBC could take no action, even if it meant that convicted molesters continued in ministry with no notice or warning to their current church or congregation.”

The Southern Baptist Convention is the largest Protestant organization in the United States, serving over 14 million members in more than 47,000 churches.  Last year its members voted to approve a task force to oversee an independent investigation into the stories of sexual abuse that began last February.   

Southern Baptist Convention issues this statement:

“To the members of the survivor community, we are grieved by the findings of this investigation. We are committed to doing all we can to prevent future instances of sexual abuse in churches, to improve our response and our care, to remove reporting roadblocks.”

How many Baptist sexual abusers are there?

A report by an SBC Executive Committee staff member, who started a list in 2007, “contained the names of 703 abusers, with 409 believed to be SBC-affiliated at some point in time.” Many of these are priests, clergy or staff members within the Baptist churches.

SBC Hiding from Litigation and Lawsuits.

Included in the timeline indicates some within the Executive Committee’s leadership tried to minimize or ignore the allegations to protect SBC’s reputation and “avoid the risk of legal liability for sexual abuse” at its churches.  The SBC isn’t the first religious organization to try and cover up allegations of sexual abuse; there are countless stories of clergy abuse lawsuits in the Catholic Diocese across the U.S.   

Do we know the Number of Sexual Abuse Victims?

At this time it is unclear how many Baptist sexual abuse victims there may be, since many may not have come forward.  We do know that victims who reported sexual abuse were told that the churches were autonomous, and the victim should “simply pray”.   

One example of abuse in reports have shown with shocking details of Johnny Hunt, a Georgia-based pastor and past SBC president, sexually assaulted another pastor’s wife during a beach vacation in 2010.

Another victim is the case of Dave Pittman, who from 2006 to 2011 made phone calls and sent letters and emails to the SBC and Georgia Baptist Convention Board reporting that he had been abused by Frankie Wiley, a youth pastor at Rehoboth Baptist Church when he was 12 to 15 years old.

Pittman and several others have come forward publicly to report that Wiley molested and raped them and Wiley has admitted to abusing “numerous victims” at several Georgia Southern Baptist churches.

Were you abused by a trusted church member, or know a victim?  Contact us by calling 1-800-631-5656 or use the 100% secure contact form on this page. 

How to Report Sexual Abuse in your Church.

If you suspect any form of sexual abuse in your church, you may report them by calling us at 1-800-631-5656, all calls are handled with the utmost privacy.  We fully intend to hold the Southern Baptist Convention accountable for the abuse its church members may have suffered.

If you are a Baptist sexual abuse victim and need a support group we recommend the tremendous work done by The SNAP Network.  Please visit their website at: http://www.snapnetwork.org

Today SNAP is the largest, oldest and most active self-help group for clergy sex abuse victims, whether assaulted by ministers, priests, nuns or rabbis. SNAP is a confidential, safe place for wounded men and women to be heard, supported and healed. SNAP works tirelessly to achieve two goals: to heal the wounded and to protect the vulnerable. The organization has more than 25,000 members and support groups meet in over 60 cities across the U.S. and the world.

Sources:

https://www.sataskforce.net/updates/guidepost-solutions-report-of-the-independent-investigation

https://apnews.com/article/baptist-religion-sexual-abuse-by-clergy-southern-convention-bfdbe64389790630488f854c3dae3fd5