The Southern Baptist Convention Faces a Day of Reckoning

Russell Moore: This is the Southern Baptist Apocalypse

Southern Baptists Refuse to Act on Abuse Despite Database of Abuse Reports

Rachel Denhollander Calls for a Southern Baptist Reckoning on Abuse

It would be difficult to pinpoint the origins of the disaster that has occurred in the Southern Baptist Convention, characterized by the report from Guidepost Solutions on the manner which the SBC's executive committee handled allegations of sexual abuse within the Southern Baptist Convention.  The veneration of leaders of the denomination's "Conservative Resurgence," which began in 1979, and the subsequent "carte blanche" they were given within the denomination's executive level is at the bottom of the effort to cover up as much abuse as possible.  

Victims of the abuse have been trying to get the attention of denominational leaders for years, asking for some kind of resolution and solution to the problem.  In a Christian denomination that professes absolute belief in an inerrant, infallible Bible, they not only hit a stone wall, but they found their integrity questioned, accused of being tools of the Devil and accomplices in a Satanic attack on the SBC's mission efforts, and in some cases, wound up being accused themselves.  What transpired, and has now been reported by the Guidepost Solutions' investigative report, was not only inexcusable, but was contrary to every Christian principle on which the SBC claims to stand.  

The 2022 Annual Meeting in Anaheim won't be "The Reckoning" 

It's really too soon for reaction to this 300 page report from Guidepost Solutions to sink in and be read and understood by Southern Baptist leaders, and by those who will be elected to serve as messengers from their churches to the convention's annual meeting in Anaheim in a couple of weeks.  Reaction to it has been varied, from those who are calling for repentance and for reform of a system of committees and trustee boards which permitted the kinds of abuses of power that the report uncovered, to a faction that can't quite wrap their minds around the reality that the denomination they believed was spiritually superior to everyone else because of its conservative theology is experiencing something like this.  There's all kinds of distraction, from claiming that the SBC is drifting into "theological liberalism" to claiming that many of its current leaders are "woke."  Though neither allegation can be substantiated by a whit of proof, it's a distraction from the real problem. 

The Sexual Abuse Task Force, SATF, which is the group that commissioned, and then received, the investigation report from Guidepost Solutions, will be making recommendations for messengers to vote on at the convention in Anaheim in just a couple of weeks.  These recommendations deal specifically with the findings of the investigation and are aimed at correcting flaws and putting things straight when it comes to the Executive Committee's handling of sexual abuse allegations.  

There will be other motions, put forward by messengers, aimed at reforming an outdated, flawed system of committees and trustee boards, which run the denomination, its mission boards, its seminaries, its publishing house and its commissions.  There will be a call for all of the remaining executive committee members who voted against waiving privilege so the investigation could move forward unhindered to step down or be removed.  There is precedent for making such a motion, though the convention has never done something like that before, I wouldn't take bets on that not happening now.  

There were a number of executive committee staff, two former Executive Directors and several former SBC Presidents, including both of the "architects" of the Conservative Resurgence implicated in the report. I also suspect there will be a motion calling for the removal of anyone connected to all of those former leaders on a trustee board or committee, and there will be lists of who those members are and where they are serving.  That's also something I wouldn't bet against happening, nor against its success. 

The Reckoning Will Happen Over Time

Regardless of any action, or lack of it if a certain faction has its way, it will be the people in the churches who bring about the reckoning.  It will take time to see if the plans that are made have the desired effect in resolving the problem, and even more for people to trust that what convention and church leaders are doing will prevent abuse and protect victims.  That might not ever materialize.  

Depending on which faction gets its officers elected in Anaheim will also determine how much trust there will be.  If the faction that is throwing out the distractions, and looking at gaining the reins of power for other purposes, a group called CBN, (Conservative Baptist Network), then the report will not be taken seriously and a group of individuals who think that the victims of sexual abuse are really serving the Devil's purposes in interfering with SBC evangelistic efforts will be in control of denominational operations.  

But there's a vacuum in the leadership as the old line Conservative Resurgence faction fades, and has been dealt what I would consider to be a fatal blow by their handling of this scandal.  Who steps into that vacuum?  The younger pastors and church leaders who are the next generation after the resurgence group ages and retires have not expressed any interest in taking up the bureaucratic mantle of leadership.  Those who have given it a shot get discouraged by the infighting and jockeying for power among the good-ole-boys and don't seem to be interested in the same kind of power politics.  And when they do step up, their critics abandon their Christian principles and beliefs to castigate and criticize, spewing vitriolic resentment over their choices and ways of doing things.  They are neither liberal nor woke, but they've been accused of being both and that's not always good for their ministry. 

Many of the younger pastors and leaders with the potential to exercise visionary leadership for the denomination because they're having success with it in their churches are just leaving the SBC because they see that it is holding them back. David Platt, who was the youngest executive director ever appointed to the International Mission Board, left the bureaucracy and what was considered one of the most "prestigious" positions in the denomination behind to go back to pastor a church, this time a non-denominational one.  

What the SBC needs, and whoever it chooses as its leaders, is humility.  That's a Biblical value, by the way, something that the denomination has not been known to exhibit.  When the current SBC president, Ed Litton, exhibited humility, admitted to a highly publicized mistake he had made, and asked forgiveness, the response from his fellow pastors and denominational leaders wasn't a humble one. As right wing politics have infused the convention and confused its values, humility has been replaced by arrogance and divisiveness and what happened to Pastor Litton was an egregious example of the shift in values.  

Denominations Have A Lot of Unnecessary Baggage and This is a Good Example

Southern Baptists always point to their Cooperative Program as the reason that justifies the existence of a Baptist denomination known for its squabbles, fights and issues.  A unified giving plan for missions seems like justification for all of the unbiblical aspects of denominationalism. But the Cooperative Program is a bureaucracy in which a massive amount of the money that is received from the churches goes to maintaining the structure of the bureaucracy.  There's no argument against that claim.  The administration of the SBC takes a lot of money, not only contributions from the churches, but money from investments made over the years, in property held by the denomination and profits from Lifeway, its publishing house.  

What happens among Southern Baptists is a competition between prominent pastors in "prestigious" pulpits, networks of individuals who can use their influence and the power of certain denominational positions to get their friends and relatives into those denominational jobs like seminary administrators, field administrators of the mission boards, executive positions like the seminary presidencies, Lifeway execs, the ERLC and the executive board.  Paige Patterson and Paul Pressler, when they organized the Conservative Resurgence, created a hierarchy and rewarded loyalty, claiming it was all about belief in the inerrancy and infallibility of the Bible.  

If it is to be successful, and at this point, success is anything that leaves the SBC somewhat intact, the reckoning that is coming has to purge this system of the worldly temptation to power and influence, making leadership positions servants, not Lords of the manor, and basing the qualifications on skill and spiritual calling, not on connections and influence, or money.  Unfortunately, I don't think the SBC is capable of getting to that point.  The appeals to "missions support" have been veiled demands for loyalty to individual leaders for too long.  Those churches with younger, visionary leaders have been in the process of finding other ways to engage in evangelism and missions outside the restrictions of SBC rules and the percentage of undesignated giving from SBC churches to the Cooperative Program has steadily declined ever since the Conservative Resurgence took control of the denomination.

The SBC, as a bureaucracy, will continue to exist.  Bureaucracies have self-preservation modes built in.  They will downsize, combine, merge, explain away, recall missionary personnel from the field before they will close the doors of the headquarters building and dissolve the executive committee. Their next executive director will be in the same mold as the most recent ones, white, older, a pastor of a larger church who is well connected and well known, because they won't be able to find a younger, more visionary leader who would want this or who is willing to endure being labeled a "liberal" or "woke," even though such a person doesn't likely exist in the SBC at the moment.  And what will distinguish Southern Baptists, aside from a declining, aging membership, will be the stain of the sexual abuse scandal.