SBC Rotten to the Core with Church Abuse

A third party report on behavior in the SBC was released today find extensive abuse, with leaders at the highest levels systematically hiding what was being done.

From The Washington Post

“I knew it was rotten, but it’s astonishing and infuriating,” said Jennifer Lyell, a survivor who was once the highest-paid female executive at the SBC and whose story of sexual abuse at a Southern Baptist seminary is detailed in the report. “This is a denomination that is through and through about power. It is misappropriated power. It does not in any way reflect the Jesus I see in the scriptures. I am so gutted.”

The report also names several senior SBC leaders who protected and even supported alleged abusers, including three past presidents of the convention, a former vice president and the former head of the SBC’s administrative arm.

From The Hill:

The seven-month investigation was conducted by Guidepost Solutions, an independent firm contracted by the Executive Committee after delegates to last year’s national meeting pressed for an independent probe.

“Our investigation revealed that, for many years, a few senior EC leaders, along with outside counsel, largely controlled the EC’s response to these reports of abuse … and were singularly focused on avoiding liability for the SBC,” the report said.

From Christianity Today:

Armed with a secret list of more than 700 abusive pastors, Southern Baptist leaders chose to protect the denomination from lawsuits rather than protect the people in their churches from further abuse.

Survivors, advocates, and some Southern Baptists themselves spent more than 15 years calling for ways to keep sexual predators from moving quietly from one flock to another. The men who controlled the Executive Committee (EC)—which runs day-to-day operations of the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC)—knew the scope of the problem. But, working closely with their lawyers, they maligned the people who wanted to do something about abuse and repeatedly rejected pleas for help and reform.

“Behind the curtain, the lawyers were advising to say nothing and do nothing, even when the callers were identifying predators still in SBC pulpits,” according to a massive third-party investigative report released Sunday.

The investigation centers responsibility on members of the EC staff and their attorneys and says the hundreds of elected EC trustees were largely kept in the dark. EC general counsel Augie Boto and longtime attorney Jim Guenther advised the past three EC presidents—Ronnie Floyd, Frank Page, and Morris Chapman—that taking action on abuse would pose a risk to SBC liability and polity, leading the presidents to challenge proposed abuse reforms.

Ravi Zacharias - Apologetics of Abuse

It is now becoming clear that Ravi Zacharias, famed apologeticist, was also an abuser. The evidence of his abuse is widespread and global. In fact, even while settling one abuse case, he was continuing to abuse others. “According to the investigative report, however, Zacharias continued soliciting sexual images of women as he settled the case with the Thompsons, defended himself publicly, and assured the RZIM leadership and staff he did nothing wrong and there was no need to investigate.” (CT, 2.11.21)

A detailed report tells the story of a man who integrated abuse into ministry and life.

“A 12-page report released Thursday by Ravi Zacharias International Ministries (RZIM) confirms abuse by Zacharias at day spas he owned in Atlanta and uncovers five additional victims in the US, as well as evidence of sexual abuse in Thailand, India, and Malaysia.

Even a limited review of Zacharias’s old devices revealed contacts for more than 200 massage therapists in the US and Asia and hundreds of images of young women, including some that showed the women naked. Zacharias solicited and received photos until a few months before his death in May 2020 at age 74.” (CT, 2.11.21)


Lori Anne Thompson, who was a victim that was silenced with an NDA, told her story this week: https://julieroys.com/open-letter-to-rzim-from-brad-lori-anne-thompson/

For all the people looking for a hidden ring of abusers, consider looking inward. Things are not well inside the church. And until people are ready to face them head on, abuse will continue. Abuse that destroys its victims. Abuse that happens in the name of Christ. This must stop.

Southern Baptist Sex Abuse of Teens

From the Houston Chronicle

Current as of June 2019

In the past 20 years, about 400 Southern Baptist church leaders and volunteers have faced allegations of sexual misconduct, according to our investigation. They were pastors. Deacons. Ministers. Youth pastors. Sunday school and Christian school teachers. Church program volunteers. They left behind more than 700 victims.

Part 1: Southern Baptist sexual abuse spreads as leaders reject reforms

Part 2: Southern Baptist churches hired ministers accused of past sex offenses

Part 3: Preying on Teens: More than 100 Southern Baptist youth pastors convicted or charged in sex crimes

Part 4: Missionaries left trail of abuse, but leaders stayed quiet

Part 5: Southern Baptist churches harbored sex offenders 

Part 6: Survivors of Baptist sexual abuse come forward to help others

More on Bill Hybels

Published today in the New York times, a new allegation is made against Bill Hybels. 

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/05/us/bill-hybels-willow-creek-pat-baranowski.html

“That first back rub in 1986 led to multiple occasions over nearly two years in which he fondled her breasts and rubbed against her. The incidents later escalated to one occasion of oral sex. Ms. Baranowski said she was mortified and determined to stay silent.”
— NY Times, 8/5/18
“Ms. Baranowski said that during the years of harassment, Mr. Hybels never kissed her, and they never had intercourse. She was particularly ashamed about the oral sex. She grew increasingly wracked by guilt and tried to talk with him. One day in his office, she told him that it was unfair to his wife, that it was sin, and that she felt humiliated.

That night she recorded in her journal what he had said in response: “It’s not a big deal. Why can’t you just get over it? You didn’t tell anyone, did you?”

His attitude toward her slowly began to change, she said. She moved out of the house after two years. In the office, he began to suggest she was incompetent and unstable. He berated her work in front of others. She grew depressed and poured out her feelings to God, filling 20 spiral-bound journals.

On May 11, 1989, she wrote, “I feel like an abused wife.””
— NY Times, 8/5/18

This ongoing abuse changed the course of her life. She was never able to fully recover from the encounter with Bill Hybels.

“The entanglement with Mr. Hybels “altered the trajectory of her life,” said Mr. Cousins, a well-known evangelical leader who worked at Willow for 17 years.

“She had been a very high-performing person, committed, high-caliber, responsible,” said Mr. Cousins, now a pastor in Orlando, Fla. “And the church was her life.””
— NY Times, 8/5/18

 

 

 

#ChurchToo an Abuse Reality

Hannah Paasch wrote an article on Huffington Post that talks about the #churchtoo hashtag and what it represents for women abused by the church. In, Sexual Abuse Happens In #ChurchToo — We’re Living Proof, she states: 

“The deep cognitive dissonance of purity culture demands that women trust men as leaders, protectors and providers while blaming ourselves when our boundaries are inevitably crossed.”
— Hannah Paasch, Huffington Post

For many women raised inside the conservative church, they have no understanding about what abused, discrimination, and bias look like. They may know that something is wrong, but don't have the ability to name it. And, on top of that, they often have no ownership over their own bodies, in that they were taught that their bodies ultimately belong to the men they will one day marry. Ignorance and bad theology create an environment where women, especially but not exclusively, are abused by the church.

“ChurchToo is a platform not only where survivors can out their abusers — yes, names and all — but also where Christians, ex-evangelicals and agnostics alike can ask one another: How can we do better? What would a theology of consent and autonomy look like? How would we build a world in which that sort of church was not the exception?

The stories that have poured in through the hashtag prove to me that the evangelical church, in its current iteration, actively supports the confessing abuser over the victim and, in the name of “having no appearance of evil,” has managed to silence thousands of sexual and physical abuse allegations throughout the years.

We are saying “enough” now. There are decades-old stories with this hashtag. The rot has metastasized, and with #ChurchToo, we are digging it out. No rock shall remain unturned. ”
— Hannah Paasch, Huffington Post

Andy Savage

From Christianity Today: "Andy Savage, the pastor who disclosed his decades-old assault on a teen in his former youth group to an applauding congregation, stepped down from his position at a Memphis megachurch on Tuesday."

“Woodson’s story reignited the conversation over how church leaders can better address abuse allegations by alerting the police and/or allowing outside firms to investigate.

“When people see churches trying to handle investigations of their own leaders internally, it leads many to doubt whether the church really desires to bring the truth to light,” wrote researcher Julie Zamzow. “Even if you think you can be objective, if the public views your actions as trying to sweep things under the rug, this does real damage, not only to your church but to the entire Christian community.”

In Savage’s case, Billy Graham Center for Evangelism executive director and CT blogger Ed Stetzer wrote, “so much damage is already done—most of all (and most importantly) to Jules, but (again) to the broader Christian witness.””
— Christianity Today

The need to listen to women in these situations is clear.

“The backlash over Savage’s response and the ways other churches have mishandled abuse cases are reminders to listen to victims and to be mindful of language used to characterize rape, assault, and harassment when allegations arise.

Christian advocates have emphasized the importance of recognizing abuse as abuse, rather than using language to downplay what happened or to suggest that a sexual relationship between a youth pastor and a teen in a youth group could be consensual.”
— Christianity Today

Bill Hybels

The Chicago Tribune ran the story around Bill Hybels. The well loved and highly influential pastor of Willowcreek is a name few evangelicals, or post evangelicals, can escape. Disappointment is thick around this story. It's just hard.

The Chicago Tribune

“What much of the church didn’t know was that Hybels had been the subject of inquiries into claims that he ran afoul of church teachings by engaging in inappropriate behavior with women in his congregation — including employees — allegedly spanning decades. The inquiries had cleared Hybels, and church leaders said his exit had nothing to do with the allegations.

An investigation by the Chicago Tribune examined those allegations and other claims of inappropriate behavior by Hybels, documented through interviews with current and former church members, elders and employees, as well as hundreds of emails and internal records.

The alleged behavior included suggestive comments, extended hugs, an unwanted kiss and invitations to hotel rooms. It also included an allegation of a prolonged consensual affair with a married woman who later said her claim about the affair was not true, the Tribune found.”
— The Chicago Tribune

A Response to Bill Hybels: Hey, Bill Hybels

“So, Bill, it’s fair to say that, in this case, the fire has come—the Jesus kind of fire. I hope your intention in building powerful women was to build on the foundation of Jesus and not so that you could enjoy a position of power over them. I hope you will honor those who pursue justice and consider the importance of allowing an investigation to continue, so the church can be found blameless. I hope you will consider the different ways in which you interact with women and men. And, Bill, I hope you will remember your own meme-worthy words: “Your culture will only ever be as healthy as the senior leader wants it to be,” and always remember our senior leader is Jesus.”
— EEWC
“Anyone who may have been victimized by people in power needs to know that the church of Jesus is their refuge and champion. In this case, the tremendous courage of several women has been met with an inadequate process that has left them without a refuge and with no way to be assured of a fair hearing. Just one week after the Chicago Tribune reported claims of misconduct that had not been investigated by the church, by women willing to be named and by others as yet unwilling to be named, the church held “family meetings” presenting the senior pastor’s and elders’ position. It is clear they hope this will put all these matters to rest.

In a family, all voices should be heard, and every story should be told. This should happen in a setting where there is a balance of power and independent judgment can be made about their accounts.

The women cannot and must not be silenced.”
— John Ortberg