Essay by SBC Presidential Candidate Bart Barber suggested Southern Baptist Convention could do nothing on sexual abuse. Further, Barber’s essay downplayed statutory rape.
In an article he published in 2007, SBC Presidential candidate Bart Barber said the Southern Baptist Convention had little hope of ever addressing sex abuse within its member churches because of its polity.
Jared Moore exposed Bart Barber’s old essay this morning.
In an article titled, ‘A Proposed Solution to the Sexual Predator Problem’ Bart Barber said, “In general, I believe that it is impossible for the SBC to do anything about this problem that both (a) enjoys any chance of making a substantive positive difference, and (b) does not violate Southern Baptist polity.”
Polity has long been used as an excuse for not doing anything on sex abuse. In fact, this morning Sex Abuse Survivor Advocate Christa Brown pointed out polity was used for years by SBC Elites.
Brown said, “Finally, lots of talk about what SBC can & can’t do because of – you know – polity. Never forget: For the sake of $$, SBC leaders LIED about polity. FOR YEARS. Almost all in SBC BELIEVED that propaganda: ‘we can’t…polity.’ So now, anything they say about polity is suspect. Every time an SBCer says the word ‘polity,’ remind yourself: They USED that word, EXPLOITED it, LIED about it, for the sake of $$ & without any care for the countless lives they were crushing. I can no longer hear ‘polity’ without wanting to puke. The word recalls vile lies.”
Barber’s essay also includes an element even he suggested would make him appear soft on sexual abuse.
Barber said in the essay,
“Finally, let me mention—at great personal risk of being accused of being soft on sexual predators—another reason I could not support federal legislation preventing churches from hiring convicted sexual offenders. Currently in Texas, if I understand the law correctly, there is no legal distinction made between the following two situations, as far as ‘sexual offender’ status goes:
“An eighteen-year-old boy falls in love with a sixteen-year-old girl, has sex with her, her parents find out and hit the roof, they call the police, and the boy is charged with and convicted of statutory rape.
“A thirty-five-year-old man molests his seven-year-old nephew.
“The latter should not serve in a church, but should federal law prevent the former from doing so? I am much more confident in churches making this decision (although many of them admittedly will do very dumb things) than I am with the federal government making this decision (who will do more and dumber things).”
And now Bart Barber is the choice of the Russell Moore fanboys wanting to crack down on Sex Abuse in the SBC. Now you know they aren’t really serious about sex abuse—they are exploiting sex abuse in the same way Grant Gaines used a sex abuse victim as a political prop.