Southern Baptists make changes to address sexual abuse and racism
In February, the Houston Chronicle and the San Antonio Express-News published a joint investigation of sexual misconduct allegations against some 380 current and former Southern Baptist ministers and volunteers.
The Southern Baptist Convention, faced in recent months with hundreds of allegations of sexual abuse in its ranks, overwhelmingly voted in favor of changes to governing documents that will bring greater visibility to their desire to disaffiliate with churches that do not handle instances of abuse properly.
A new standing Credentials Committee of the nation’s largest Protestant denomination also will consider whether churches are not “in friendly cooperation” for that and other reasons, including involvement in “discriminatory behavior on the basis of ethnicity.”
The more than 8,100 delegates to the annual meeting, in Birmingham, Alabama, also voted June 11 to amend the constitution of the Southern Baptist Convention so that it will make explicit that churches that mishandle cases of abuse or racial discrimination are not welcome. Votes are taken by having delegates, called messengers, raise their printed yellow ballots.
