The Southern Baptists denomination’s leadership has tricked the organization into manufacturing the evidence that will be used to accuse it.
DOJ investigating clergy sex abuse, Southern Baptists say
h ttps://abc7news.com/southern-baptist-convention-investigation-church-abuse/12122284/
By AP, 13 August 2022
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Leaders of the Southern Baptist Convention said Friday that several of the denomination’s major entities are under investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice in the wake of its multiple problems related to clergy sex abuse.
The SBC’s Executive Committee has received a subpoena, but no individuals have been subpoenaed at this point, according to the committee’s lawyers.
“This is an ongoing investigation and we are not commenting on our discussions with DOJ,” they said.
The statement from SBC leaders – including Executive Committee members, seminary presidents and heads of mission organizations – gave few details about the investigation, but indicated it dealt with widespread sexual abuse problems that have rocked the largest Protestant denomination in the U.S.
They aren’t talking about the details even though the subpoena was issued around Friday. I’d say that the organization’s members have both a right and need to know what the FBI is demanding from the organization.
“Individually and collectively each SBC entity is resolved to fully and completely cooperate with the investigation,” the statement said. “While we continue to grieve and lament past mistakes related to sexual abuse, current leaders across the SBC have demonstrated a firm conviction to address those issues of the past and are implementing measures to ensure they are never repeated in the future.”
Having read the report, I suspect the boldfaced there is the motive.
There was no immediate comment from the Justice Department about the investigation.
Earlier this year, an SBC sex abuse task force released a blistering 288-page report from outside consultant, Guidepost Solutions. The firm’s seven-month independent investigation found disturbing details about how denominational leaders mishandled sex abuse claims and mistreated victims.
The report focused specifically on how the SBC’s Executive Committee responded to abuse cases, revealing that it had secretly maintained a list of clergy and other church workers accused of abuse. The committee later apologized and released the list, which had hundreds of accused workers on it.
I’ve blogged on that Guidepost report before. Here’s the TL;DR on that report: SBC national leadership did nothing about reports of sexual misconduct over several decades because they had no authority by which to investigate. Every time, they referred the matter to local church & law enforcement authorities. They did maintain a file on such accusations–that’s what bureaucracies do, is maintain records–but the implication, that they were the head of a highly organized rape-and-molestation ring infesting Christianity that has a history of protecting criminals, is pure fabrication.
Member churches are autonomous and the national rules as written, didn’t mention anything about potential criminal conduct as a requirement for a church to remain in good standing.
The report is 100% a hatchet job.
A Guidepost spokesperson declined to comment on news of the DOJ probe.
One should note that Guidepost Solutions is a Leftist organization, not Christian. Now that the SBC leadership paid the SJWs to find the servants of Christ lacking, the SJWs are calling in the artillery using their misleading “findings”.
Details will presumably follow… but this tactic resembles the Steele Dossier and possibly the Mar-A-Lago raid as well. One entity manufactures incriminating evidence and provides it to a supposedly independent co-conspirator in order to legitimize hostile action. Everything inside the State, nothing outside the State and nothing against the State. Something like that, eh Mussolini?
If a Christian invoked the FBI then he should be disfellowed for violating Scripture about involving secular authorities to judge believers regarding our practice of Christianity. But my hot-take guess is that a Guidepost employee did it after the SBC refused to enact their toxic ‘recommendations’. Would that be considered ‘proof’ that the SBC ‘protects sex offenders’?
May hellfire and brimstone rain down.