SBC Guidepost Report Calls For Establishment of Sex Abuse Bureaucracy

Guidepost Solutions has released its “Independent Investigation of the Southern Baptist Convention”, a 288 page report that details the issue of sexual abuse in the convention. The report includes a sexual assault accusation against former SBC President Johnny Hunt, who partnered with Ravi Zacharias to open up massage parlors, as well as numerous other accusations of sexual abuse within the SBC. As one might expect, the Guidepost report sided with leftist Russell Moore, who pushed the convention to investigate claims of sexual abuse in a letter that claimed the problem was ongoing within the convention for many years, even as Moore did nothing to stop it while he was at the helm of the ERLC. The move by Moore has been exposed as a political hit job against conservatives within the convention.

While the accusations themselves will be the subject of much debate over the next three weeks, leading up to the denominational convention in Anaheim, the most disappointing part of the report is the unbiblical and destructive recommendations made by Guidepost:

Baptist Press As SBC Pravda

Baptist Press previously reported on former Vice President of Lifeway Jennifer Lyell’s admission of having a “morally inappropriate relationship” with a seminary professor that lasted 12 years. Following the report, the executive committee issued Lyell an apology for an alleged “misunderstanding” about the nature of the relationship. In the apology, Lyell’s relationship was portrayed as “non-consensual”, despite the age of the victim and the duration of the “abuse”. Baptist Press retracted the article and Lyell received a settlement in 2020 from the executive committee, and then a second settlement from the executive committee in 2022. Guidepost recommends that the convention should utilize Baptist Press to continue reporting on sexual abuse, while “balancing the public’s need for information against potential harm or discomfort”. Thus, the way that Baptist Press spun the Jennifer Lyell story will serve as a model for how it will manage stories that contain inconvenient facts in the future.

Sexual Abuse as Primary Focus of Credentials Committee

The credentials committee is responsible for investigating matters related to a church’s qualifications to be a part of the SBC. In recent times, churches and local associations have been removed for issues related to the acceptance of homosexuality and other cultural downgrades that violate the Baptist Faith and Message. Guidepost would like to remake the committee so that its primary focus is on sexual abuse, rather than doctrinal fidelity. This includes social engineering of the committee’s makeup to increase the representation of women and the social science practitioners.

Creation of a Sex-Abuse Bureaucracy

Guidepost’s recommendations include the creation of a new “administrative entity” to regulate and process sex-abuse allegations, because the best people to deal with sex abuse allegations apparently aren’t local law enforcement, or local leadership who understand the nature of the situation. Inevitably, such a bureaucracy will infringe on the autonomy of local churches. Guidepost doesn’t just want the SBC to establish a bureaucracy using the normal 2-year procedure that the SBC normally follows to create a new entity. Instead, the consultant agency recommends that the SBC create the bureaucracy at the upcoming June convention, in 3 weeks, using bylaw 25 to bypass the normal process that would be used to critically think about such an undertaking before rashly moving forward.

One Registry for Both Convicted and Accused

The Biblical standard for accusations against an elder requires 2 or 3 witnesses (1 Timothy 5:19). Guidepost would like the newly created sex-abuse bureaucracy to lump those convicted together with those who have been “credibly accused” in an offender blacklist.

“Credible” is defined as “not manifestly false or frivolous”, meaning that the burden of proof is on those who are accused to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that the accusation is false. The list would also include those who “aided and abetted in the cover-up of such conduct”, which means that all of the conservative executive committee members who resigned in protest would also likely be a target of the blacklist.

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The system would be publicly accessible, meaning that those individuals who are “credibly” accused, but not convicted, would receive the same treatment within the SBC as a convicted sex offender.

The #MeToo movement took the standards of determining guilt and innocence and turned them on their head. Now this movement is on the doorstep of the SBC in the form of the #Churchtoo movement. Proponents of the movement are rejoicing at the Guidepost report. They can’t wait to dance on the grave of the SBC.

Establishment of a Sex-Abuse Compensation Slush Fund

The executive committee used critical theory to redefine sexual abuse, making the case that grown women in consensual affairs could be considered sex-abuse victims. With that precedent set, Guidepost recommends that the SBC set up a “Survivor Compensation Fund Program” that will be funded by cooperative fund giving, the liquidation of SBC assets, and a special giving drive that would likely be similar to the Annie Armstrong or Lottie Moon Offerings. The fund would be administered by the newly created bureaucratic sex-abuse entity, whose master would determine the amount of compensation from the comfort of an ivory tower.

Guidepost understands that this move will be very costly. The cooperative fund will likely become a black hole for the cooperative giving of the convention. The consultant agency would also like local churches to add sex abuse prevention as a line item in their annual budgets.

Guidepost proposes that an “independent fund administrator” or “special master” be appointed to administer the fund, meaning that the final say on who receives money from the sex-abuse fund wouldn’t be in the hands of a jury, local church, or an elected SBC official, but rather an appointed bureaucrat.

Permit Outside Influences From Public Theologians and Consultants

Guidepost recommends that the Credentials Committee be given the authority and funding to retain a “panel of theologians” and Support Specialists, to support the decision-making processes of the committee, meaning that the committee that Guidepost would like to infuse with a significant number of sex-abuse survivors, social workers, and victim’s rights advocates could potentially be advised by the likes of Russell Moore.

The Credentials Committee would use advice from these so-called outside experts to determine the standards by which local churches are deemed either friendly or unfriendly.

While many of its local church recommendations are excellent, Guidepost’s recommended standards for cooperation would also require churches to fire anyone who is listed in the Offender Information System, which would include those who could not disprove an accusation, but were never charged with a crime. This would inevitably lead to a system where accusations are weaponized against innocent individuals in the church. If a pastor cannot disprove a false accusation, he will lose both his job and career, as part of the blacklist system.

Accept Anonymous Accusations

Guidepost recommends that the newly-created sex-abuse entity change the current policy of the credentialing committee to require that the committee accept anonymous submissions about sex abuse in a church, meaning that anyone, even pagan activists could manipulate the reporting system to devastate a church and pastor.

Anonymous accusations should never be permitted by the credentialing committee. If false accusations are proven to be false, the accuser should receive the punishment that he or she intended for someone who was innocent.

The judges shall inquire diligently, and if the witness is a false witness and has accused his brother falsely, then you shall do to him as he had meant to do to his brother. So you shall purge the evil  from your midst.

Deuteronomy 19:18-19

The way that the convention deals with the Guidepost report will be key over the next few months. The annual SBC Convention meeting in Anaheim is sure to be a turning point, either for better or worse, as the messengers will either choose to change course and elect leaders that will reform SBC institutions; or double down on the tomfoolery and continue onward with denominational downgrade in a manner that is irreversible. God is sovereign over the SBC. He will either reform the institution, or it will become just another dashed piece of pottery beside the potter’s wheel. He will not be mocked.

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Editor’s Note. This article was written by Paul Brown for Protestia

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