Around the country, religious organizations have faced criticism for inappropriately handling allegations of abuse — or even actively covering it up.

According to critics, many religious organizations may have a history of ignoring or covering up church sexual abuse claims, and allegedly putting their organization’s reputation ahead of survivors’ safety.

Unfortunately, the Southern Baptist Convention may be no exception. In 2019, the group made headlines about abuse allegations that were reportedly mishandled.

What is the Southern Baptist Convention?

The Southern Baptist Convention is known for being the largest Protestant denomination in the United States. In total, more than 47,000 churches around the country are part of the convention. It has 14.8 million members.

In 2014, 5.3% of U.S. adults considered themselves to be a member of the Southern Baptist Convention, per information gained from Pew Research Center’s 2014 Religious Landscape Study. However, this number is decreasing. A years-long decline in affiliation with the convention has been noted, and in just one year, a 1% drop in affiliation was observed. 

The Southern Baptist Convention is related to the Baptists who were part of the 17th-century colonial settlement in America, explains the Pew Research Center. In 1845, the Southern Baptist Convention formed its own denomination. The organization broke off from the larger Baptist organization over conflict with the Northern Baptists, says the Pew Research Center, regarding slavery.

Indeed, the Southern Baptists broke off from the Northern Baptists specifically because the Northern Baptists would not allow slave owners to serve as missionaries, according to NPR. This information was included in a report put together by the convention on the racism and pro-slavery views that formed Southern Baptist history and the Southern Baptist Convention. The convention put together this report as a way of reconciling with its past, noted NPR.

Reportedly, the organization’s past included active opposition to political representation for Black Americans in the postwar Reconstruction, and an explicit advocacy of white supremacy, among other moral failures, says NPR.

More recently, the organization has attempted to reckon with its racist roots, apologizing officially to Black Americans in 1995.

In 2017, the convention created a resolution condemning white supremacy within the organization, to formally “denounce and repudiate” white nationalism and the alt-right movement, according to NPR. This resolution came only after the convention’s leadership initially bypassed the proposal, and subsequently received significant criticism. When the committee first failed to approve the resolution, it did successfully condemn both gambling and Planned Parenthood, notes NPR.

Now, the organization may have to have to reckon with another violent past — accusations of sexual abuse that allegedly were covered up by the Convention, despite attempts by survivors to bring the abuse to light.

Cases of Southern Baptist abuse

The Houston Chronicle conducted an investigation into the issue of possible abuse within the Southern Baptist Convention, and this effort revealed that hundreds of clergy, officials, and staff may have committed abuse or engaged in some kind of misconduct, says PBS. Reportedly, the allegations of abuse dated back twenty years.

One Southern Baptist congregation detailed in an investigation by USA Today reporters in February 2020 says it has been fractured by abuse allegedly committed by a former pastor. According to the investigation, pastor Donald Foose suddenly departed Oakwood Baptist Church, located in Camp Hill, Penn., in 2018 after a previous conviction for molesting an underage relative in 2000 was uncovered by a couple who attended the church.

Despite his record, Foose was able to find work as a pastor at the church, which also included a school, per USA Today. Eventually, he even went on to become the principal of a Christian school. Purportedly, the former pastor had been allowed to help in classrooms with children when other adults were unavailable.

After Foose resigned, church leaders reportedly revealed to the congregation that they knew the former pastor would not be able to pass a background check; leaders claimed that Foose told them he had been falsely accused. One leader who knew of Foose’s conviction claimed that Foose disclosed the event under “pastor-member confidentiality” and that the now-former pastor had promised not to become involved in the school.

The couple who discovered and disclosed Foose’s conviction told USA Today reporters that they will never attend Oakwood Baptist Church again because there is no sexual abuse prevention and they no longer feel safe.

Disgraced former pastor Foose also worked at other churches in Virginia and Pennsylvania in the years after his conviction for molesting a child, according to USA Today.

The parents of a 15-year-old girl filed a lawsuit against Bellevue Baptist Church in Memphis, Tenn., a Southern Baptist megachurch, alleging their child was sexually abused by a church staff member on church property.

Though many members of the public may be most aware of Catholic sexual abuse, the problem unfortunately is a large one in Protestant organizations as well, along with the Mormon church, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and more.

Protestant insurance companies deal with more claims of sexual abuse by Protestant clergy than the Catholic insurance companies receive, illustrating the magnitude of the issue of sexual assault in Protestant organizations, according to activist Rachel Denhollander, as quoted by PBS.

How did the abuse occur?

Critics says that the abuse was allowed to go on relatively unchecked because the church actively tried to cover up allegations.

Denhollander explained that according to a survey of abuse survivors, most survivors thought that the church would be a good place to go if abuse had occurred, perhaps to seek counseling or accountability. However, the survey also showed that this was far from the case. Allegedly, survivors indicated that in their experiences of abuse, the church was one of the least helpful resources in the wake of sexual assault.

Now, the convention is examining how to hold churches accountable for covering up abuse, but this does not undo the damage done to past survivors. Critics do worry, however, that the organization is attempting to undermine the efforts to increase accountability and reduce abuse, despite retaining the appearance of improving policies. This idea was laid out by Denhollander in her interview with PBS.

Some survivors worry that because there is no centralized body in the Southern Baptist Convention like there is in the Catholic Church, there is less accountability and fewer opportunities to implement convention-wide policies to protect survivors. Susan Codone, a survivor of abuse and a member of the Southern Baptist Convention, hopes that the organization’s shared faith and objectives can make real change possible, however, per an interview with NPR.

Codone did point to what she called a “catch and release policy” for abusers as part of why abuse has gone on for so long. She says that even when the church did identify abusers, they were then “released” discreetly, either through dismissal or firing. Allegedly, the Convention did not adequately report or prosecute the abusers, and left them able to abuse other members of the public.

Survivors have also pointed to the power of authority possessed by leaders in the Southern Baptist Convention as a reason why abuse reporting has been such a challenge. By many accounts, the Convention has a culture of positioning these leaders above other authority figures, including law enforcement.

This same culture allegedly contributes to survivors’ not feeling able to stand up to church authority, or perhaps a culture of giving officials a pass for abuse or misconduct.

How are survivors responding to Southern Baptist abuse?

In recent years, survivors of abuse in the Southern Baptist Convention and other religious organizations have shared their stories. These stories are a powerful way to identify abuse and attempts to cover it up. As a large number of survivors shared their stories, the #MeToo movement gained traction, further highlighting the epidemic of abuses across industries and organizations.

Survivors have also filed lawsuits over sexual abuse, which can be a way to receive compensation for harm done, and to hold organizations legally accountable for wrongdoing.

How is the Southern Baptist Convention responding to abuse allegations?

Pressure from survivors and advocates has been powerful enough to encourage the Southern Baptist Convention to attempt to change policy. These policy changes are still in the works, and may not be as effective as advocates hope, as pointed out by Rachel Denhollander in her PBS interview, but they represent a step in the right direction.

In February 2020, the New York Times reported on additional steps that the Southern Baptist Convention has taken to deal with allegations of sexual assault. The Convention has even expelled a church for employing a registered sex offender as a pastor, says The Times.

The decision to remove the church was made by church leaders who held a vote in Nashville, Tennessee. The church in question is Ranchland Heights Baptist Church in Midland, Texas.

Reportedly, Pastor Phillip Rutledge was hired by Ranchland Heights in 2016, even though church officials were aware that Rutledge was a registered sex offender who had been convicted of sexually assaulting two preteen girls in 2003. The Times noted that a deacon at Ranchland Heights had stated that the church hired him believing that God had forgiven his actions.

Speaking to the convention’s attempts to address sexual assault concerns, the president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s executive leadership committee Ronnie Floyd, said “We have spoken against matters of sexual abuse, and we have taken some major, demonstrative steps as a convention of churches.” 

The Times calls the choice to remove the church the “first significant action” the Convention has taken to make good on promises to change how they handle sexual assault and abuse claims. Advocates for survivors have criticized the convention for still not doing enough. Some of these critics are within the denomination itself, says The Times.

Digging into the Southern Baptist Convention’s approach to abuse by pastors, The Times noted that executive committee spokesman Jon Wilke said that though Ranchland Heights was expelled for hiring a registered lifetime sex offender, the denomination does not enforce employment requirements for churches that are a member of the denomination, because it does not participate in the hiring or firing of pastors.

The Southern Baptist Convention hosted the Caring Well conference in October near Dallas, featuring victim advocates, attorneys, therapists, and survivors of sexual abuse. Anti-abuse advocates — including some who participated in the conference — had mixed feelings about the conference. Some indicate that, while the conference indicates a step toward addressing the sex abuse problem within the church, it is not enough.

But at the very least, the convention pushed toward embracing survivors instead of blaming or denigrating them.

“It is wrong to characterize someone as ‘just bitter’ because they raised their voice when their warnings were not heeded,” SBC President J.D. Greear told the conference crowd. “Anger is an appropriate response, a biblical response, in that circumstance.”

Filing a Southern Baptist sexual abuse lawsuit

A growing number of people are coming forward with allegations of sexual abuse within their church, sometimes years or even decades after the abuse occurred. Many states have recently expanded their statutes of limitations to allow victims more time to file litigation, and have even opened lookback windows for victims who cases have already expired to file a lawsuit. California’s lookback window, for instance, allows survivors until a deadline of Dec. 31, 2022 to file their previously expired claims.

While abuse within the Catholic church has arguably gotten the most media attention, this kind of abuse is not limited to one faith or organization. If you or someone you love have suffered from sexual abuse by a Southern Baptist church leader, you may be able to file a lawsuit and pursue compensation, as well as hold those responsible for this suffering accountable for their actions, and even push for change in how allegations of abuse are dealt with within these organizations in the future.

Filing a lawsuit can be a daunting prospect, especially concerning something as traumatic as child sexual abuse, so Top Class Actions has laid the groundwork for you by connecting you with an experienced attorney. Consulting an attorney can help you determine if you have a claim, navigate the complexities of litigation, and maximize your potential compensation.

This article is not legal advice. It is presented
for informational purposes only.