“Allegations of sexual violence and assault were placed, the report concludes, in a secret file in the SBC Nashville headquarters. It held over 700 cases. Not only was nothing done to stop these predators from continuing their hellish crimes, staff members were reportedly told not to even engage those asking about how to stop their child from being sexually violated by a minister. Rather than a database to protect sexual abuse victims, the report reveals that these leaders had a database to protect themselves.”
Just more of those in power under the guise of the church committing sickening crimes of sexual abuse.
One of the pastors named is a former pastor of mine and a former president of the SBC. I have since left the church because of his backing of Trump, but said backing makes a lot more sense now. A lot easier to back someone with the lifestyle of Trump when your own house isn’t in order.
Catholic Church scandal was the tip of the iceberg. SBC scandal is another layer. School scandals another. Hollywood, corporate, the rich and famous…
I would have expected that SBC would have drawn lessons from the Catholic scandals. Surprisingly, a lot of the incidents are quite recent. SBC has now committed itself to walk the same rocky roads the Catholic Church did (and continues to do in some cases). Cover-up was the typical MO for any entity – religious, political, corporate, entertainment – generations ago. I don’t really fault any of them for taking that route because it was simply the way things were done, almost universally. (Please note: I absolutely fault the perpetrators of abuse. My statement was about the handling of abuse cases by authorities once the abuse was found.) But current incidents (anything since the situation was really brought to light with the Boston cases in 2002, for example) have nothing to hide behind any more. Media will not allow it to hide. None of us should. So I find SBC to be rather blind to do the same thing they must certainly have seen the Catholic Church take a beating for doing. (Never mind the higher moral expectations we should expect from any religious institution.)
So now we’re seeing another layer of the iceberg. Will other religious institutions with similar problems take note and clean up their respective houses before their issues become scandals too?
I recommend caution with that. (To anyone of any faith expression who is dealing with scandal at the top of their leadership.) Do you believe in the actual tenets of your faith expression? (I’m not talking about the sins of individuals, but rather the actual teachings of faith and morals of that denomination?) Or are you willing to abandon things and adopt others to move to some other denomination? Do the teachings of your faith expression change because a leader has violated tenets?
Some general questions for personal discernment if someone want to take this approach:
No doubt it is a common human reaction to cut ties. But what are you losing in doing so? What was it that tied you to that faith (and not some other denomination) before the scandals surfaced? Was the set of assets that attracted you to that creed unequivocal? If so, what does abandoning them now mean to you?
I was drifting away from religion anyway by my teens, but it really was the evangelical scandals that gave me the final impetus to cut ties with religion and become non-theist.
I would left anyway, those scandals, particularly the Bakker’s and Swaggert, just sped the process up.
I checked the Indiana statutes. The statute of limitations for forcible and statutory rape both ran out many years ago. The statute of limitations for filing a civil lawsuit has also expired.
So I assume she just confronted him to “out” his past misbehavior, since she can neither see him prosecuted nor sue him.
