What you need to know about the SBC Sex Abuse Report
The Conservative Resurgence is Dead, according to Leftist agitator Russell Moore
The Conservative Resurgence is dead. Russell Moore reported it Sunday (within minutes of the Sex Abuse Task Force report going live.) It is almost like the conclusions were foreordained! As we’ve noted about David Platt—it seems the Woke forces are endowed by some type of power of divination.
In any case, Russell Moore revealed too much in his CT column. You can sense the glee as he declared to his cronies the Conservative Resurgence disgraced. In Moore’s revisionist history both Paige Patterson and Paul Pressler, architects of the Conservative Resurgence, weren’t interested in defending the Bible from liberals.
No, according to lifelong Democrat Russell Moore, “We were told they wanted to conserve the old-time religion. What they wanted was to conquer their enemies and to make stained-glass windows honoring themselves—no matter who was hurt along the way.”
You can almost hear in this Russell Moore validating all the old liberals who formed the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship. Of course, does anyone remember when Russell Moore lied about being attacked at the CBF convention? Now he is doing their political propaganda work. Interesting how things unfolded. His talking points are identical to the liberal radicals who denied the authority of Scripture.
Moore cannot know the motivations of Paige Patterson or Paul Pressler. What they may or may not have done that now has them “disgraced” is irrelevant to what they did to spark the Conservative Resurgence.
Also, note the way Moore trivializes the accomplishments of conservatives. This is how Leftists act. The action of conservatives must be delegitimized. Thus, the good things someone did in the past is discounted because of some bad thing they did or allegedly did at another time in history. Douglas L. Murray notes this is the Woke tactic inspired by radical mobs on social media.
According to Murray, “There seems little point in trying to do anything good ourselves. The attacks on Churchill make all human endeavor seem futile, because if even defeating the greatest evil in history will count as nothing, and you will not be lauded for it in your own country even half a century after your death, then what good deed could ever count for anything?”
And again, “The British may have actually overpaid in compensation for their involvement in the slave trade, but it appears to count as nothing; demands for reparations internationally and domestically still continue.”
Murray is right—no good thing counts because Leftists like Russell Moore demand absolute perfection from humanity and pounce on the any weakness. This tactic works because all humans have failings. So, saving the Southern Baptist Convention from radicals who did not believe the Bible was the inspired, inerrant Word of God means nothing to the contemporary mob.
So, this is what you need to know about the SBC Sex Abuse Report—it was a partisan witch hunt that uncovered little new information. The abuse cases discussed were already widely known. The lone exception was the bombshell allegation against former President of the Southern Baptist Convention Johnny Hunt. Hunt was also a Vice President for the maligned North American Mission Board (NAMB). Hunt denied the allegation of sexual assault and resigned his position at NAMB in light of the report.
That is not to say the report was without useful information. There were some damning findings. The report details staff run amok. The SBC bureaucracy was unaccountable. The trustee system does not work. (This will become more evident in the coming weeks as discovery unfolds in the Will McRaney lawsuit against NAMB.) Yet, the Guidepost report sets the stage.
The Guidepost investigators detail how even settlement details were withheld from the Executive Committee.
The Guidepost report said,
“Although the EC is governed by its 86 Trustees, those EC Trustees serve limited terms and meet only three times per year. Consequently, they generally are not privy to the dayto-day decision making by the EC Staff and Officers. During the investigation time period, those decisions were largely left to the discretion of the EC President/CEO and his closest advisors on staff, with high-level issues brought to the SBC President. Unlike the termlimited EC Trustees and even the term-limited SBC Presidents, the EC President/CEO and staff members could, and did, retain their positions for multiple years, even decades in some instances. Throughout the time period, there was no apparent effort to inform the Trustees or involve them in the decision-making process regarding the issue or existence of sexual abuse in the SBC. For example, EC Trustee Rod Martin noted the following on Twitter: https://twitter.com/RodDMartin/status/1462164607888470021
Rod Martin said, “Jennifer, the trustees of any organization have a legal duty to know the amount and terms of any legal settlement. The EC staff has withheld that and virtually all other knowledge of your case from the trustees.”
Interesting, isn’t it? People who have a fiduciary duty to know details were not given that information. Why?
SBC Elites do not think they owe the people in the pews any explanation. Also, SBC Elites worry more about preserving the status quo (in other words, the CP money must flow) and their jobs more than anything else.
So, this explains the repeated inaction on creation of any type of database of potential sex offenders. It is worth noting the reasons for not doing it were entirely plausible: liability, inadequate information. However, just because something might be hard to do right, is not necessarily a good reason to avoid doing it.
Also, this is where a robust trustee system is needed. Lawyers exist to tell you why something MIGHT get you sued. It is unsurprising that lawyers worry about lawsuits and recommend doing things to avoid being sued. Leadership is knowing when that advice should be taken and when it should be ignored.
Yet, there is no accountability for SBC leaders because the trustee system is dysfunctional.
SBC trustees operate at worst like enablers for wicked men (NAMB) and at best like fan clubs for their superstar entity heads. They scratch each other’s backs—sometimes with a single trustee authorizing a $1 million severance package. All the while the CEO is publishing the trustee’s books.
And when trustees want information or try to help? They are attacked. Does anyone remember what happened to one trustee who asked a question that wasn’t approved by Russell Moore?
CLAIM: Baptist Press libeled Mike Stone
The entire report was rumored to be the death blow for the Conservative Baptist Network. Woke radicals spread rumors the report would expose the CBN as a nest of abusers and abuse supporters. However, the report did no such thing.
In fact, the report did not even include the juicy gossip spread at last year’s SBC the night before the vote for SBC President—when Woke radicals used a sex abuse victim to mislead messengers about an encounter with Mike Stone.
Notice—the report did not contain even a hint of that. Why? Because Guidepost knew it was bogus. Otherwise, given how reckless Guidepost was with some things, it would have been included. That it was left out tells you all you need to know.
Yet, Guidepost appears to have seriously erred in its dealing with Mike Stone on another issue.
Stone released this statement to Pravda, err Baptist Press, “The allegation that I knowingly assisted a sexual abuser in Georgia (page 77) is demonstrably false. While I did speak to church leaders dealing with an issue with their pastor in the Fall of 2019, the first I ever heard of alleged sexual misconduct came on March 24, 2022, in the GuidePost interview. I stated this unequivocally to GuidePost.
“On January 12, 2022, I offered, in writing, to provide documentation for any question GuidePost had as we prepared for my March 24 interview. No request for documentation was ever made in this matter. Yet to them, this allegation warranted a full page of the report and the libelous accusation in Baptist Press that I have ‘protected or even supported abusers.’
“At the proper time and in the proper forum, I will most likely provide the documentation and objective Southern Baptists will be able to see the truth for themselves. For now, let me be clear. I have never and would never knowingly support a church retaining a pastor in sexual misconduct.”
Conclusion: The Bolsheviks in the SBC
One Southern Baptist pastor posted an insightful commentary on the SBC of today compared to the SBC of 2010. He noted in 2010 the SBC preferred to tear down bureaucracy and in 2022 the SBC is rushing toward the creation of a new bureaucracy.
Of course, the new bureaucracy will be funded by Cooperative Program money.
Guidepost calls for the institutionalization of the Revolution.
The report says, “At the 2021 SBC Annual Meeting, the Messengers supported the creation of a Sexual Abuse Task Force to oversee this investigation. However, once this investigation is complete with the final report delivered to the Convention, the Task Force’s assignment will be complete… To ensure the effective implementation and oversight of suggested reforms, we recommend that a new task force/commission be created to continue the work of the next phase.”
And if the SBC refuses to institutionalize partisan witch hunts like the Bruce Frank committee, then it has recommendations for that too. (Read about Bruce Frank attacks CBN; Read how Bruce Frank did not advise Willie Rice to drop out of the race; Read how Woke SBC pastors said the task force was needed to guarantee a Woke outcome.)
So, even if the SBC rejects the institutionalization of the Woke bureaucracy, Guidepost calls to use CP money for more bureaucrats: “We recommend that the SBC EC establish and facilitate a Survivor Compensation Fund Program and the SBC EC will retain an independent Fund Administrator or special master to administer the fund.”
This is little more than a plan to enrich lawyers and bureaucrats.
So, naturally, the SBC will be pressured to do just that.
Is it the right thing to do for abuse victims? Is it the right thing to do for the Southern Baptist Convention? Would the creation of this bureaucracy hasten the SBC toward a hierarchy?
These are questions that must be pondered. And just because the Woke advance their agenda, it does not mean all recommendations are necessarily to be rejected. However, the average SBC church should carefully consider if giving more power to bureaucrats is the correct course.
As we noted above, SBC employees routinely kept trustees in the dark. What would make things different in this new bureaucracy?
Nothing.
And that might just be the ultimate plan. Initialize the revolution and make Russell Moore’s vision of the SBC the guide for the future because once the bureaucrats are in charge there is no holding them accountable. Well, there is one thing, if messengers vote to Change the Direction of the SBC.