The story of the Southern Baptist Convention’s sex abuse crisis is not going away.
At least not anytime soon.
Southern Baptists delegates overwhelmingly adopted abuse reforms this past summer, but some within the nation’s largest evangelical denomination remain oblivious.
Case in point: Religion News Service’s Bob Smietana broke this news:
Disgraced former Southern Baptist Convention President Johnny Hunt plans a return to ministry after completing a restoration process overseen by four pastors, according to a video released last week.
That news, just seven months after the allegations against Hunt were made public, prompted Bart Barber, the current SBC president, to release a lengthy statement via Twitter. Barber declared:
I would permanently “defrock” Johnny Hunt if I had the authority to do so. In a fellowship of autonomous churches, I do not have the authority to do so. Yet it must be said that neither do these four pastors have the authority to declare Johnny Hunt to be “restored.”
At The Tennessean, Liam Adams reports:
The news of Hunt’s return to ministry is the latest high-profile example of an issue the Nashville-based SBC is wrestling with: if and how pastors accused of abuse can return to the pulpit.
In his own follow-up report, Smietana delves into the outcry over the Hunt news:
Tiffany Thigpen, an abuse survivor and longtime advocate of abuse victims, said Hunt’s return to ministry is a sign that the legislated reforms have yet to change Southern Baptist culture.
“We are always going to have this network of powerful men who can do whatever they want and think they can get away with it,” she said. “And they are right.”
Thigpen said Hunt, like anyone, can be forgiven by God. But that does not mean he should be given power and a platform in the church. She said pastors like the ones who endorsed Hunt dole out cheap grace in order to protect their friends.
“They don’t care,” she said.
As noted by the Washington Times’ Mark A. Kellner, two of the four pastors involved in Hunt’s “restoration” serve churches affiliated with the SBC.
Most pastors believe clergy involved in sexual misconduct should withdraw from public ministry permanently, according to a 2021 Lifeway Research study.
In reviewing coverage of the latest SBC news, I discovered that Robert Downen — the lead reporter on the 2019 “Abuse of Faith” series that detailed hundreds of cases of sexual abuse within the denomination — has left the Houston Chronicle. Somehow I missed this earlier.
Downen moved to the Texas Tribune this fall to tackle the democracy beat, but that doesn’t mean he’s left religion stories behind entirely. The headline on his latest story, published this week: Jewish Texans see surge in antisemitism as a precursor to fascism. Congrats to Robert on his new gig, which he describes as a dream job!
Back to the SBC: The Hunt news isn’t the only recent development in the abuse crisis.
Despite admitting sexual misconduct, a former seminary professor has sued SBC leaders and entities, claiming they conspired with an abuse survivor to ruin his reputation, as reported this week by both Adams and Smietana.
Meanwhile, Adams details 21 SBC state conventions addressing abuse at their recent meetings. For more on those actions, see coverage by The Oklahoman’s Carla Hinton and the Birmingham News’ Greg Garrison.
Power Up: The Week’s Best Reads
1. Asian faiths try to save swastika symbol corrupted by Hitler: “The equilateral cross with its legs bent at right angles is a millennia-old sacred symbol in Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism that represents peace and good fortune, and was also used widely by Indigenous people worldwide in a similar vein,” The Associated Press’ Deepa Bharath reports.
“But in the West, this symbol is often equated to Adolf Hitler’s hakenkreuz or the hooked cross — a symbol of hate that evokes the trauma of the Holocaust and the horrors of Nazi Germany. White supremacists, neo-Nazi groups and vandals have continued to use Hitler’s symbol to stoke fear and hate.”
CONTINUE READING: “Despite Sex Abuse Reforms, Some Within Southern Baptist Convention Remain Oblivious” by Bobby Ross, Jr., at Religion Unplugged.