As a fierce advocate of women and children, I’ve followed the sexual abuse scandal in the Southern Baptist Convention for years. One of my first articles investigated John MacArthur, a reformed Baptist, who told Beth Moore to “go home” after speaking at her church on Mother’s Day. Moore, a three-decade member of the SBC until 2021, had been a squeaky wheel in that organization, frequently forwarding the taboo topic of abuse in forums that preferred her silence. 

Indeed, “Go home” has been the desire of many in the SBC as well when it comes to such secrets.

On Sunday, those secrets came out of the house. A report by an independent third party has brought the abuse to greater light, and the findings were shocking. “Survivors and others who reported abuse were ignored, disbelieved, or met with the constant refrain that the SBC could take no action,” the report discovered, “even if it meant that convicted molesters continued in ministry with no notice or warning to their current church or congregation.”

This conclusion is mindboggling, especially considering that the recent report was in response to an explosive, six-part series by the Houston Chronicle published in 2019. I wrote in a previous article that this investigation “uncovered an ‘Abuse of Faith’ that spans 20 years, involved 380 male church leaders and volunteers, and affected 700 victims in the Southern Baptist denomination. There were 220 convictions or plea deals made. This bombshell of a story has rocked the denomination to its core. With such a large pool of abused women in a single corner of Christianity, the problem is systemic.”

Without question, the system failed to protect women and children in the SBC. 

To continue reading this article on Crosswalk, click on the image below.