In this exceptional piece, @sarahposner pulls together a lot of pieces to show how the SBC got to this place of merging religion & Trumpism and what it's meant for their abysmal response on sexual abuse.
2/ When Brown saw SBC leaders "giving support to a president who bragged about assaulting women," she said "it felt like déjà vu. Their minimization of horrific conduct was a pattern that we had already seen up close." #SBCtoo
3/ "They normalized & minimized the sexual predations of a president in much the same way that they normalized & minimized the sexual predations of their clergy colleagues." - me #ThisistheSBC#SBCtoo
I’m named dozens of times in Guidepost’s report. Awful conduct by YOU the @SBCExecComm & your members. YOU did me harm – separate & beyond harm of sexual abuse. Do you intend to make any effort toward making amends for YOUR harms? 2/7
What about accountability for Morris Chapman? If he’d done what messengers directed in 2007 – a legit database study – countless kids could have been spared great harm. Consequence? How about just stripping him of honorary EC President Emeritus title? 3/7
3/ In 2022, immediately after Anaheim, I again called for a federal investigation (along with state attorney general investigations) because I was devastated by how alarmingly little was done in response to the Guidepost report. #SBCTruthandJustice#SBCtoobaptistnews.com/article/progre…
When my pastor wanted service of my body & I balked, he chastised me: "Where would we all be if Mary hadn't trusted God even when her special role was something she couldn't understand?"
As a faith-filled young girl, I pondered that a lot. 1/5
Pastor said I too was "chosen" for a special role & I needed to "live by faith." So, like Mary, I too said "according to God's will."
It was incomprehensible but I trusted God knew best & I trusted the pastor as God's emissary. So, I answered the call of God & complied. 2/5
It was an impossible bind for a faith-filled kid raised to "lean not to thine own understanding." How could I say No to God?
This is the horror of a pastor-predator. He will twist EVERYTHING holy, even the #Christmas story, into a weapon for his unholy ends of child rape. 3/5
I’ve got fire coming out the top of my head today. According to their own public statement, @TexasBaptists destroyed information about clergy sex abuse.
2/ For 15 yrs @TexasBaptists “maintained a confidential file of ministers who were credibly accused.” They accepted info for the file only FROM CHURCHES, not from victims, & by their policy, info went into the file based on confession, conviction or substantial evidence of abuse.
3/ In 2016, @TexasBaptists stopped keeping this file AND (what I just realized) they also DESTROYED the evidence. In their own words: “Information that needed to be reported…was identified & passed on. ALL OTHER INFORMATION WAS DESTROYED." #SBCtoobaptiststandard.com/news/texas/tex…
🧵I give thanks for the #SBC21 vote for investigation of @SBCExecComm & audit re #SBC abuse. But I want to also be clear about the limitations of this vote. It carries POTENTIAL but for that potential to eventually be realized there must be bird-dogging & follow-up. 1/
The #SBC21 vote does not serve to expose a single clergy abuser or enabler; nor does it create a database of clergy predators. It doesn't provide communal validation to #SBCtoo survivors by naming their abusers. It doesn't provide any aid or therapy costs to #SBCtoo survivors. 2/
It does not make public institutional apology to any #SBCtoo survivor for grotesqueries of #SBC officials.
These much-needed steps are wholly left up in the air. Moreover, rather than helping #SBCtoo survivors, the vote is actually asking that survivors help the #SBC. 3/
🧵re @toddbenkert motion at #SBC21. It's referred to @ERLC. Todd shared this strategy with me in advance. Yes, I'm wary of ERLC, no getting around it. You know me. Long history has dug a deep well of skepticism. Still...This is something substantive & real. It's earnest effort...
...that holds POTENTIAL to bring #SBC institutional reform, accountability for abusers & enablers, and true care for survivors. The word POTENTIAL is critical. THIS IS A BEGINNING, NOT AN END. There will be many possibilities for derailment. SBCers: You must persist. #SBC21
Concerns & possible stumbling points: 1) Sooo much will depend on WHO @ERLC hires for the audit. GRACE has strong track-record of trust in survivor community. 2) Funding may be a HUGE issue. 3) Aim of this 3-yr audit is broad-spectrum data & analysis. #SBC21