Who Gets to Critique the Church?
The Southern Baptist Convention’s Executive Committee again shirks transparency that’s long overdue.
This week, the Southern Baptist Convention’s Executive Committee fell into deadlock again over whether it would waive attorney-client privilege in an investigation into allegations that the Executive Committee and its leaders covered up or dismissed legitimate cases of sexual abuse within SBC. To outsiders this may seem like a procedural issue. However, it is the only way to ensure the investigating firm, Guidepost, has access to relevant information.
Without waiving privilege, the investigation will be incomplete. It is also the will of church members.
In June, at the denomination’s annual convention SBC messengers — local church delegates — voted for the independent investigation and that the executive committee waive attorney-client privilege. The vote was the culmination work on the part of survivors desperate to expose clergy abuse. That process of exposure has taken years and was initiated by survivor-advocates like Christa Brown. By 2017, a joint exposé between The Houston Chronical and San Antonio Express-News showed rampant sexual abuse within SBC with at least 700 victims. Pastors were shuffled between churches to cover up abuse for decades.
