Southern Baptist Leaders Mishandled Sex Abuse Crisis, Report Says - The New York Times

National leaders of the Southern Baptist Convention suppressed reports of sexual abuse and resisted proposals for reform over two decades, according to a third-party investigation published by the convention Sunday.

The report also said that a former president of the denomination was accused of sexually assaulting a woman in 2010, a claim the report described as “credible.”.

After mounting pressure from survivors of sexual abuse in Southern Baptist settings, delegates at the denomination’s annual meeting last summer voted overwhelmingly to commission the report, and demanded that its 86-member executive committee hand over confidential documents in cooperation.

The release of the report represents an extraordinary moment for Southern Baptists, the country’s largest Protestant denomination.

But the report alleged that a handful of powerful leaders had the ability to stonewall abuse reports and attempts at accountability and reform.

In an internal email, August Boto, an influential executive committee leader, described advocates’ efforts as a “satanic scheme to completely distract us from evangelism,” referring to the work of Christa Brown, a survivor, and the advocate Rachael Denhollander, who has worked with the denomination, as “the devil being temporarily successful.” Mr.

The report also revealed that an executive committee staff member working for Mr.

It said that leaders including Ronnie Floyd, a former president of the Southern Baptist Convention who resigned as the head of the executive committee in October, had resisted the creation of a task force to investigate the executive committee.

The report described revelations in recent years that senior leaders had “protected or even supported abusers.” The leaders included three former presidents of the denomination, Steve Gaines, Jack Graham and Paige Patterson, as well as a former vice president and Mr.

The report described the pastor and his wife as “credible,” and said that parts of their account were corroborated by four other credible witnesses.

When the denomination’s public policy arm, the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, compiled a report on sexual abuse, leaders of the executive committee and outside counsel “suggested changes to the report to avoid potential liability, including removing the word ‘crisis’ when referring to sexual abuse,” the report stated.

Leaders of the executive committee said in a statement that they would hold a meeting on Tuesday to discuss the report

“This is the beginning of a season of listening, lamenting, and learning how to address sexual abuse in the Southern Baptist Convention.”

The report also recommended that the Southern Baptists eventually create a new administrative group that would oversee “comprehensive long-term reforms concerning sexual abuse and related misconduct,” and that church entities should restrict the use of nondisclosure agreements and civil settlements that demand confidentiality unless requested by the survivor