The Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee has been informed that the United States Department of Justice has initiated an investigation into the Southern Baptist Convention that will include “multiple SBC entities,” according to an Aug. 12 statement from all SBC entity leaders and SBC President Bart Barber.
The announcement comes two months after messengers [delegates?] to the SBC Annual Meeting in Anaheim passed a resolution, On Lament and Repentance for Sexual Abuse. Southern Baptists also voted overwhelmingly to adopt a report that approved recommendations toward addressing and preventing sexual abuse in the Convention.
The Southern Baptists spent nearly $2 million on an independent investigation conducted by Guidepost Solutions, which submitted its report in May. Send Relief, a charitable ministry of the Southern Baptist Convention, has committed $4 million for the implementation of messenger-approved actions and to support survivors of sexual abuse.
In the statement, SBC leaders say they will comply with the DOJ’s request:
The SBC Executive Committee recently became aware that the Department of Justice has initiated an investigation into the Southern Baptist Convention, and that the investigation will include multiple SBC entities.
Individually and collectively each SBC entity is resolved to fully and completely cooperate with the investigation. 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. The fact that the SBC Executive Committee recently completed a fully transparent investigation is evidence of this commitment.
We recognize our reform efforts are not finished. In fact, those efforts are continuing this very moment as the recently announced Abuse Reform Implementation Task Force begins its work and as each entity has strengthened its efforts to protect against abuse. Our commitment to cooperate with the Department of Justice is born from our demonstrated commitment to transparently address the scourge of sexual abuse.
While so many things in the world are uncertain, we can be certain that we serve a mighty God. Nothing, including this investigation, takes Him by surprise. We take comfort in that and humbly ask you be in prayer in the days and weeks ahead.
Specifically, we ask God to grant wisdom and discernment to each person dealing with the investigation.
Comment:
A DOJ investigation? Really? The Southern Baptists are a denomination of some 14 million members in the United States, which is about 14 times larger than the American Adventist Church. Every denomination, and indeed every organization, has allegations and cases of sexual harassment and abuse, because humanity is fallen, and sexual sin is a permanent part of the fallen human condition. Is there any evidence that the number of sexual harassment and abuse cases in the SBC is unusually large, more than you would expect in a group of that size?
The leaders of the SBC are being naive in welcoming the DOJ to this party. As we have seen in recent years, the DOJ is controlled by, and operated for the benefit of, globalist/Marxist enemies of the American people. They have signaled an intent to destroy, by any and all means available, the half of the population that is resisting the globalist agenda. The DOJ well understands that Southern Baptists are overwhelmingly conservatives and Trump voters, and you can be certain the DOJ will act accordingly. I will be surprised if the SBC still exists in its current form in three to five years.
For several years, it has seemed that the Leftist leadership within the SBC had decided to use the sex scandals to effectively destroy the denomination. Inviting in the DOJ and FBI is a good way to finish the job.