The SBC and Guidepost solutions recently released a list of individuals who have been accused of sexual abuse. Reporting on abuse in the SBC has been sensationalized, and many media outlets have glossed over the details of the investigation, resulting in a mischaracterization of the facts that surround the story. Here are the facts surrounding the sex abuse list, including the bad and the ugly.
Not All of the Accused Are Part of the SBC
The report contains more than 700 entries. More than 300 of the entries are against individuals who are either not part of the SBC or their denomination is unknown. The Southern Baptist Convention is the largest denomination in the United States, with approximately 14 million members.
| Reported Sex Abuse Accusations by Denomination | ||
| Denomination | Total | |
| SBC | 396 | |
| Freewill Baptist | 2 | |
| Baptist Union of GB | 1 | |
| American Baptist | 3 | |
| Other Baptist | 6 | |
| Unknown Baptist | 179 | |
| Redacted | 66 | |
| Independent Fundamental | 24 | |
| Independent Baptist | 19 | |
| Missionary Baptist | 4 | |
| Unknown | 5 | |
| Baptist Type-Nondenominational | 1 | |
| National Baptist | 1 | |
| Baptist-Full Gospel | 1 |
The Report Is “Not Adequately Researched”
A quick review of the report shows that the data presented has not been thoroughly reviewed or vetted. Referenced news sources include Fake Baptist news site, Baptist News Global. The report itself clearly states that its data is incomplete, not proofed, and not properly researched:
The information is largely pulled from news articles complied from 2007 until 2022. It is incomplete. It has not been proofed. It has not been adequately researched. It is not Southern Baptist specific.
The name of the individual who produced the report, a “former employee of the executive committee” has been redacted from the report.
Report contains records that are completely redacted
The report contains numerous items that are either partially or fully redacted.
The fact that 66 records are redacted indicates that either some or all of these entries are either completely unrelated to sex abuse or could not be verified in some way.
Sex Abuse Falls On The Woke
While the egalitarian hordes on Twitter have been busy blaming the patriarchy for all of the “systemic” sex abuse in the SBC, they ignore the fact that sex abuse scandals also affect the woke and progressive. The list of churches affected by sex abuse includes the woke First Baptist, Venice CA, a bastion of liberalism whose youth pastor, Demetrius Allen, sexually abused a 14-year-old student, before the now-defunct church became a museum for cultural Marxism.
First Baptist, Venice CA. Where Demetrius Allen was youth pastor.
Some Incidents Occurred Long Ago
While the target date of the investigation related to sex abuse from 2000 to 2021, a number of cases on the list occurred prior to 2000. The sex abuse committed by pastor Dale Dickie Amyx occurred in 1974. The victim settled a civil suit against Amyx in 2008.
Other accusations that were 30 years old, include a current employee of the International House of Prayer, who was accused of abusing a victim in 1988.
Abuse From Across the Pond
The report includes the case of Anthony Akers, a deacon in the Cary Baptist Church in Preston, Langshire UK. Akers abuse took place in England in the 1970s. The Baptist Union of Great Britain is not affiliated with the SBC.
Not All Incidences Are Related to a Church
The case of Sergio David Bezerra took place at Waco Baptist Academy, a school that appears to be an independent Christian School with its own facilities. It is unclear why such a case was left in the report, as the school doesn’t seem to have any affiliation with a specific church or the SBC.
Not All Offenders Are Clergy
The report lists teacher Tonja Stovall-Fishcer as an offender, for sexually assaulting a male student. The entry for Stovall-Fishcer states that it is not sure about her association with the SBC. Such an entry brings into question the parameters of the SBC report. If the report was intended to include sex abuse by all members of the SBC, including laypersons who commit abuse in a setting outside of the church, the report would undoubtedly contain thousands of entries. The executive committee seemed to only include Stovall-Fishcer’s entry because she was included in the Houston Chronicle Database.
Kurt W. Sturtevant, another entry that is listed as “Baptist Type- Non-Denominational” (whatever that means) lists the sex abuser as a member of a Baptist Church, but then goes on to ask the statement “Did he do anything at the church?”
The “Secret List” Isn’t Really a Secret
The list compiled by the Executive Committee employee isn’t really a secret. The majority of the accusations were documented by media sources at the time that local law enforcement either brought charges or the perpetrators were convicted. The list acts as a rough “database” for sex abuse, but the data is shoddy, because it fails to stay within the defined parameters of SBC-related cases and the sources are unvetted. Anyone who can google “Baptist Sex Abuse” would have the ability to develop a similar list.
The entries that don’t have media sources show the difficulty faced by bureaucratic ivory-tower institutionalists who try to discern the truth of what happened when thirty years have passed and the information is merely “he said” versus “she said”.
Perhaps, with the wisdom of Solomon, someone would be able to discern the truth in such unclear cases from the 1980s. The executive committee and leadership of the SBC undoubtedly lack such wisdom.
This article was written by Paul Brown for Protestia
