Thread by @SBCForSuchATime

Two of the @SBCExecComm members who voted "no" on the @JaredcWellman motion are John Yeats and James Freeman. It's important to know how these men are connected to major sexual abuse cases in @mobaptists churches.

Yeats is the Exec Director of the Missouri Baptist Convention. Freeman was / is the attorney for the former pastor of FBC Greenwood, Mike Roy. Mike hired now-convicted pedophile, Shawn Davies, as associate pastor. Davies was under sex abuse investigation in Kentucky when hired.

Davies was ultimately convicted of sexual abuse in both Kentucky & Missouri back in 2006. A parent came to Pastor Mike Roy to report abuse. This is what happened at the first meeting.

The mother tried to follow up to get the church to take action. What happened at the second meeting? Pastor Mike Roy didn't show up.

Who was that attorney that would not allow a pastor to speak to a family whose child was brutalized IN THE CHURCH BUILDING BY A CHURCH PASTOR?

By his own admission in an 2019 article in the MBC newspaper, The Pathway, the attorney was EC member, James Freeman.

The first time that police or Children's Services knew about the case was when this mother filed a report. Although Roy and Freeman have gone on record saying that the abuse was reported to the child abuse hotline,state officials have a different story as reported by @Sojourners

The criminal investigation began only after the mother's report. If Roy reported earlier, there would have been an investigation earlier. There was not.

So surely the church, Roy and Freeman did everything possible to help convict this pedophile, right?

Wrong.

Not only did Roy & his attorney James Freeman not jump into help police, but Davies was allowed to continue working at the church for months following the Kentucky indictment while the Missouri investigation was pending.

Lead detective Leslie made public pleas for Roy to help.

Even without help from the church, Davies was convicted of molesting EIGHT boys at the church with most of the abuse occurring in the church building. Pastor Roy forced police to obtain a search warrant to access the crime scene/church.

This all occurred in 2005 - 2007. Fast forward to 2019. Missouri Baptist Executive Director John Yeats oversaw an annual meeting where Mike Roy was nominated to serve as trustee at @SBUniv and Roy has also served as an adjunct professor at @MBTS teaching a new crop of pastors.

In early 2020, Freeman and Yeats went on the attack against For Such A Time As This survivors by insisting that nothing had been mishandled at Greenwood. Despite police reports and in-depth reporting and public record, they declared the "allegations" against Mike "untrue."

James Freeman doubled down in a 2020 Baptist Press interview.

@SBUniv trustees also "investigated" and determined that Mike Roy didn't act wrongly, and SBU President @ceturner4 was forced to resign in large part for bringing this up.

Don't let anyone or any cleverly crafted posts convince you that the EC members who voted "no" really take sexual abuse disclosures seriously. They don't. Yeats and Freeman are prime examples. Worse, they still think their actions were fine.

But wait... there's more.

Another more recent @mobaptists sex abuse case involved now-convicted pedophile, Spenser Farr, the son of another @SBUniv trustee and pastor, Kevin Farr. The elder Farr nearly helped his son get away with the crime.

Spenser Farr worked at the city pool. According to the @springfieldNL, when the first report came in, Daddy Farr gathered city big wigs and met with Spenser's boss to shut down further action.

Fortunately Spenser Farr was charged years later when a police report was made by an additional victim to police in a larger town nearby that couldn't be influenced by Daddy Farr. Spenser was convicted in 2018, but not before a stint as a youth pastor in a MBC church.

These cases aren't ancient history. Roy, Farr, Yeats and Freeman continue to climb the ladder of success and power within the SBC. This is why survivors continue to cry out for change and justice.

We call on the @mobaptists executive board (@PastorCLW and others) and all Missouri messengers to take action later this month at their annual meeting to remove these trustees. We trust action will similarly be taken on a national level with Yeats and Freeman.

This is a better screenshot of the James Freeman quote from the 2/24/19 article in The Pathway where Freeman says he directed Roy's actions & also blamed law enforcement and the "unethical media" trying to "create drama" when suggesting Roy had mishandled abuse @ FBC Greenwood.