By Jennifer Davis Rash
The Baptist Paper

Bruce Frank, chair of the SBC Sexual Abuse Task Force, shares about the revised recommendations during a video announcement June 8. — Screenshot / The Baptist Paper

Funding and polity revisions have been made to the two recommendations coming from the SBC Sexual Abuse Task Force, according to a video announcement June 8. These recommendations will be proposed to messengers during the June 14–15 annual meeting in Anaheim.

“(We have a) new funding mechanism through Send Relief that will fund the reforms entirely the first year without use of Cooperative Program dollars,” said task force chair Bruce Frank, pastor of Biltmore Baptist Church in Arden, North Carolina. “(The revisions also provide) a more bottom-up approach to the third party investigations of alleged abusers and give greater definition to Credentials Committee standards on sexual abuse.

“We’ve listened to the questions and concerns of Southern Baptists (since the original wording of the recommendations was released),” he said. “Your task force has been hard at work to take that feedback and use it to strengthen our recommendations. [Read more…]

By Scott Barkley
Baptist Press

NASHVILLE — The Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee (EC) voted June 2 to revise previously recommended budgets in order to fund recommendations made by the Sexual Abuse Task Force (SATF).

A special-called Zoom meeting, attended by 57 of 67 current members, addressed reallocating funds given in excess of the 2021-22 national Cooperative Program Allocation Budget approved at last year’s annual meeting in Nashville as well as the 2022-23 budget passed by the EC in February 2022, which was included in the current Book of Reports. A third motion authorized additional funding for legal fees to be taken from EC operating reserves.

All three motions were brought forward by the EC’s Committee on Convention Finances and Stewardship Development. Messengers to the 2022 SBC Annual Meeting in Anaheim are scheduled to consider recommendations from the SATF and subsequently, the funding of those recommendations.

Discussion Thursday included clarity of language in the motions as well as the potential ramifications of the EC’s directly addressing sexual abuse and thus positioning itself for litigation.

EC Chairman Rolland Slade acknowledged those concerns before voicing his own perspective. [Read more…]

The Baptist Paper

Southern Baptist leaders and others mentioned in the sexual abuse report released May 22 continue to come forward to refute allegations made by Guidepost Solutions, which led the independent investigation into claims the SBC Executive Committee mishandled reports of sexual abuse.

In addition to these responses, the Association of State Baptist Publications has requested access to the full archive of evidence for the report to review. Earlier this week, Johnny Hunt and attorneys Jim Guenther and Jaime Jordan released statements refuting allegations made against them in the report (See their responses here and here). And today (May 27), former EC Vice President for Communications Roger ‘Sing’ Oldham — who has been accused of being part of an effort to compile a secret list of sexual abuse offenders from media reports — issued an “Open Letter to Southern Baptist Leadership” refuting these claims.

“I specifically deny being a knowing participant in creating an alleged secret database of sexual offenders,” Oldham said in his statement. “I did not know that such a list existed. I had no knowledge that my email forwards were being folded into a larger list of alleged sexual predators. I do not know the reason such a list would have been developed. I do not know the process used to create such a list. I did not have access to such a list.” [Read more…]

Editor’s note: This story was updated after its initial publication.

By BP staff

NASHVILLE — Baptist Press has compiled a list of public statements from Southern Baptist leaders regarding the findings of an investigation by Guidepost Solutions into the SBC Executive Committee’s handling of sexual abuse claims.

First, are statements from each of the three men running for president of the SBC. Following that are public statements from either a group of state Baptist convention leaders or from the state’s executive director-treasurer. Where the statement is from one person, he is named. A link also is provided to the full statement where possible.

Baptist Press intends to add to this compilation as we receive more information. [Read more…]

The Baptist Paper

The Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee has made public the alleged abuser list found in the recent investigation.

Rolland Slade, SBC Executive Committee chairman, and Willie McLaurin, interim president and CEO of the SBC Executive Committee, released a statement along with the list May 26, a little before 9 p.m. CT.

“The recently released Guidepost report revealed a list of alleged abusers compiled by a former employee of the SBC Executive Committee. This list is being made public for the first time as an initial, but important, step towards addressing the scourge of sexual abuse and implementing reform in the Convention,” they said. “Each entry in this list reminds us of the devastation and destruction brought about by sexual abuse. Our prayer is that the survivors of these heinous acts find hope and healing, and that churches will utilize this list proactively to protect and care for the most vulnerable among us.” [Read more…]

Editor’s note: In response to the recent task force report, Roger “Sing” Oldham, who formerly served on the SBC executive committee as vice president for convention relations and communications, has released the following letter to SBC leadership, members of SBC sexual abuse task force, the SBC executive committee and various Baptist media outlets. 

An Open Letter to Southern Baptist Leadership
Roger S. Oldham
May 27, 2022

To: Dr. Ed Litton, President of the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC)
Rev. Rolland Slade, Chair of the SBC Executive Committee
Dr. Willie McLaurin, Interim President and CEO of the SBC Executive Committee
Members of the SBC Sexual Abuse Task Force
Members of the SBC Executive Committee

Dear Leaders of the Southern Baptist Convention,

I was invited to meet with Krista Tongring and Russell Holske, representatives of Guidepost Solutions, on March 25, 2022. When we met, Baptist Press had reported that the Guidepost final report was already being written. I raised this question with these two representatives. Ms. Tongring replied they had already reviewed 5 terabytes of information, so had enough material to begin developing the report. [Read more…]

SOUTHEASTERN SEMINARY BEGINS REMOVING NAME ASSOCIATIONS WITH HUNT, PATTERSON

By Scott Barkley
Baptist Press

WAKE FOREST, N.C. — In a letter issued May 25, Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary President Danny Akin informed students that a process has begun to disassociate the campus from Johnny Hunt and Paige Patterson regarding buildings, programs, facilities “and other items.”

Hunt, an SEBTS graduate and longtime pastor of First Baptist Church in Woodstock, Ga., has his name associated with an academic chair, the school’s BA/M.Div. program “and a variety of other things” Akin wrote in a May 23 letter addressing the “SEBTS Family,” presented one day after an extensive report by Guidepost Solutions outlined a 20-year pattern of SBC leaders downplaying or ignoring concerns from sexual abuse advocates.

Hunt, described in Akin’s letter as “a close friend,” resigned from his vice president position with the North American Mission Board May 13, nine days before the report presented an account of his sexually assaulting a pastor’s wife. [Read more…]

By Texas Baptist Communications

Members of the Baptist General Convention of Texas family are responding following a mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas. Nineteen students and two adults were killed by a gunman on Tuesday.

Joe Aguilar, BGCT area representative for the Rio Grande Valley, was meeting with church leaders nearby and responded to the call to provide pastoral care following the shooting.

He was onsite Tuesday evening and prayed with members of law enforcement outside the school building.

“They went through a lot,” Aguilar said.

People from the community were gathering outside the school awaiting information from officials who were still processing the scene. A staging station was set up at the civic center in town. [Read more…]