America’s largest protestant evangelical denomination, the Southern Baptist Convention, received a report it commissioned that investigated instances of sexual abuse by church leaders within the denomination. An independent firm, Guidepost, was hired to investigate allegations of sexual abuse by SBC church leaders, as well as perform an audit regarding the SBC’s practice of responding to such allegations.

Guidepost produced and released a 288-page report that covers nearly two decades. Beyond the numerous instances of abuse and the trail of very wounded people, one troubling finding was the SBC leadership’s decision in 2007, after it had begun compiling a list of pastors within the denomination who had been accused of sexual abuse, to essentially cover it up rather than make it public.

The report noted that the SBC’s list named some 585 ministers, but found that few of the SBC’s Executive Committee members knew the list even existed. Why many SBC leaders were unaware of the list, and therefore the extent of sexual abuse allegations that had been raised against pastors, evidently had to do with the denomination’s doctrine of church autonomy. It would seem that the first instinct of the SBC’s leadership at the time was to hide the sin.

In a 2007 memo, church attorney James Guenther explained the SBC’s “dilemma”: “I fear that a request from a Baptist general body to a church, or a church’s voluntary report to the general body, will be argued to show that the church had a duty to report.” He added, “If the church has a duty on the church’s part to report to the general body, then the general body has control over the church, and control, of any kind, breaks the principal and the legal shield of church autonomy.”

Furthermore, there were public image and legal concerns that seemed to inform the SBC leadership’s decision-making. As World Magazine reports: “The Guidepost report emphasized that the desire to protect the image of the SBC and shield it from legal liability drove the Executive Committee’s response to sexual abuse allegations for decades. [Former Executive Committee general counsel Augie Boto] and attorney James Guenther, the SBC’s outside counsel from 1966 to 2021, set the tone for handling allegations and focused on ‘avoiding any potential liability for the SBC,’ the report stated. That included keeping many of the elected members of the Executive Committee in the dark about the breadth of abuse allegations brought to SBC leadership.”

The keeping of many EC members in the dark leads back to the SBC’s unofficial 11th commandment not to publicly criticize other SBC leaders. The hush-hush attitude toward these sexual abuse sins committed by ministers let the problem fester, also allowing for the abuse of more individuals.

SBC leadership has responded to the report by expressing grief and calls for repentance. “There are not adequate words to express my sorrow at the things revealed in this report,” said SBC President Ed Litton. “I am grieved to my core for those who have suffered sexual abuse in Southern Baptist contexts, both for those named in this report and the many who are not.”

R. Albert Mohler Jr., president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, called on the SBC at its upcoming convention to fully engage the findings of the report. “The weight of truth calls for repentance, broken-hearted concern, and a concerted determination to make things right,” he said. “We will not get — and will not deserve — a second chance at this.”

While the report may tarnish the reputation of the SBC in the eyes of many, that should not be the primary concern of the SBC. The primary concern needs to be the church’s standing before God. One of the marks of the Christian is the fear of the Lord over and against the fear of man. In this instance, it appears that the fear of man rather than the fear of the Lord was guiding the SBC leadership and got the denomination into this current situation. But with the Lord, there is abundant mercy and forgiveness for all those who do repent and turn from their sins, for ultimately it is not the world that will be the judge but Jesus himself.

There is also great comfort and hope for the victims. Though they may have been wounded by and then invisible to church leadership, that is not so with the Lord, who sees them and helps them even now.

Addendum: The SBC has a Credentials Committee for reporting from victims. That page and information can be found here.