Hundreds of Southern Baptist Leaders accused of sexual misconduct

[sid]

Here it is:

https://www.foxnews.com/us/hundreds-of-southern-baptist-church-leaders-volunteers-accused-sexual-misconduct

[S.A. Boggs]

I am a Southern Baptist and this report does alarm me! First thing is that the individual Church is not governed by any board save our Deacon's. In my Church if this would happen our local police would be immediately involved and the offender shown the jail house door. Curious that a newspaper would do this type of examination, how about doing one on our sitting house's of government as well. Now that would be news!
Sam

[Clark Howard]

I have always heard that if a Baptist preacher shows up at your house, he is always there for fried chicken or pu$$y.

[bruce]

It is a always a tragedy when vulnerable persons are abused, assaulted, etc. There is no excuse for it. There should not ever be any tolerance for it.

There are a nominal 47,000 Southern Baptist Churches w/ approximately 15 million members. It is reasonable to expect that the number of pastors and staff would be at least times three of that number ... say 150K or more as these churches would have at least a pastor with many local churches having one or more staff members. The 700 assaults detailed are inexcusable criminal acts that should and must be handled according to law. The 700 assaults over 20 years are remarkably few given the large number of churches/staff involved. Again, this is not to say at all in any way that these assaults are anything but criminal acts that should be handled according to the law w/o regard for who or where or when they occurred.

Have been a full-time vocational minister serving in the local church setting since 1982. Have served churches w/ no staff and multiple staff. Have had to deal w/ everything from suicides to murders, etc. Have in all that time had exactly one single issue with a staff member accused of sexual impropriety with a adult female church member. In that case, the matter was found to be groundless. The accusation stemmed from a willingness on the part of the accuser to use such a charge to seek to destroy the credibility of the staff member and get them fired.

For far to long there has been a willingness on the part of people in institutional positions of power/authority to ignore/discount sexual abuse that is nothing less than criminal. Have absolutely no willingness to protect the perpetrators of such criminal acts. Absolutely refuse to treat the accusers as somehow complicit. Fact is that the accusers are not in the position of power/authority/control. The assailant is. Report the matter to the police. Let the matter be handled by the appropriate authorities. This sort of thing is not a matter for the personnel committe/church board to decide. JMHO. Sincerely. bruce.

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"I've always heard ..." Hum. Sounds like the second cousin of, "They say ...," etc. Must be a large family. Always wondered who was the father of such a large family of loosely related comments. JMHO. Sincerely. bruce.

[Art]

I am a Southern Baptist and this report does alarm me! First thing is that the individual Church is not governed by any board save our Deacon's. In my Church if this would happen our local police would be immediately involved and the offender shown the jail house door. Curious that a newspaper would do this type of examination, how about doing one on our sitting house's of government as well. Now that would be news!
Sam

Anything that brings discredit on the Church or any denomination of it is a problem.

One of the problems with the Baptists, regarding this issue, is that they are congregational, that is, as you pointed out, each church runs its own shop with minimal oversight. My mother gave me an example of this in the 1930s in one little southeast Texas Baptist church. They had a pastor who turned out to be a fellow who could put butts in the seats. He preached a great sermon, was a good administrator but was an inveterate womanizer. His personal proclivity was to go after women on his staff or the wives of prominent members and seemed to be able to pick out the ones who looked on the preacher as a "notch in her gun." I must emphasize these were all adult women. Well inevitably the truth came out and he was asked to resign to avoid a scandal. The next church therefore had no idea about his past and had to find out about him the hard way. He went from church to church this way until his wife finally divorced him and thus became ineligible for another pastorate. The Union Baptist Association which oversees all Southern Baptist Churches never had a clue until he was divorced and may not have even then.

The most dangerous people for children are people who put themselves in positions of trust where there's a target rich environment. Scout leaders, school teachers (especially coaches, band leaders ect.,) and church leaders, especially youth leaders. The vast majority of these people are ok but it never surprises me to hear about misconduct, more's the pity.

[m1ashooter]

Another news story to smear Christians.

[Vern Humphrey]

It's not a smear -- some priests and ministers do commit sexual offenses. The real crime is the coverups.

[dryheat]

I was never big on church as a kid. I like it even less these days.

[bruce]

It's not a smear -- some priests and ministers do commit sexual offenses. The real crime is the coverups.

It is not a smear. It is simply investigative reporting. No different than investigative reporting that has been directed by the MSM at President Trump and of course the brilliant investigative work done by the MSM directed toward the demokrat party and its social/political agenda. Sincerely. bruce.

[blackhawknj]

Again, accusations. For some people, a mere allegation is proof.
The government won few convictions in the Deepwater Horizon cases.
Easier and more fun to accuse those who at least claim a high moral standard of hypocrisy and not adhering to their ideals.