Recently three newspaper articles detailed the results of a long investigation intro sexual abuse at Southern Baptist churches. I attended one of the churches mentioned in the article when I worked at the Houston Public Library in 1981-1983. I did not know about any scandals there at the time.
There have been numerous responses. The three below are from a Southern Baptist seminary president, a university professor, and the head of their Ethics Commission.
The Reality of Sexual Abuse Hits Home: What Happened? What Do We Do Now?
Southern Baptists and the Scandal of Church Sexual Abuse
Sex Abuse Among Southern Baptists
These events are shocking and very discouraging.
I taught ethics to seminary students for about 15 years. Every term and multiple times each term we talked about how we can never hide crimes in the church from law enforcement. We also talked often about the power of the pastor and the potential for abuse in pastoral relationships.
Too many people are in church leadership who don’t belong there. Church leaders need to be constantly alert for any sign of distressing behavior.
The is a difficult issue but we need to be aware.
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