Four key takeaways from the bombshell Southern Baptist sex abuse report
1. Top leaders repeatedly tried to bury sex abuse claims and lied about what could do
“To some people, this is an eye-opener. Survivors knew,” said Vasquez. “We’ve been at it for over a decade. We already knew they were covering this up. I have yet to come across a leader who was willing to do something about it.” She said her abuser is still a pastor at a church that is no longer affiliated with the SBC.
Hunt, who was widely loved across the denomination and mentored young pastors, led something called the City of Refuge residential program that assisted “pastors in crisis,” many of whom had “moral failings.” The woman who accused Hunt of assaulting her told Guidepost that Hunt asked her if she was “wild growing up,” before he eventually “forced himself on her again by groping her, trying to pull her shirt down, and violently kissing her.
The report includes emails between leaders and employees of the SBC’s Executive Committee in which members of the survivor community were ignored or “shunned, shamed, and vilified.”In an internal email in 2019, Boto equated the focus on sexual abuse with the work of the devil, saying, “It is a satanic scheme to completely distract us from evangelism.” In an email, Oldham wrote to Boto, offering to bring him up to speed about the group Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests.
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