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
In May, after release of Guidepost report, you indicated EC would investigate possibility of stripping Augie Boto of retirement benefits as well as others named in report. Please let us know what became of that possibility. Consequence for Boto? 4/7 baptistnews.com/article/sbc-pl…
Please publicly urge every SBC-affiliated church, seminary & school to publicize the Guidepost report & EC list of clergy abusers on websites & bulletins, & to make print copies readily available in libraries & church foyers. To better the future, people must know the past. 5/7
How about a public apology for the minimizing, insensitive & self-serving language of your Aug 12 statement about DOJ investigation? I’d suggest u HIRE someone like @wademullen or @netgrace_org to help in crafting transparent & non-offensive statement. 6/7
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
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