ChurchLeaders: It’s been 14 years since you told the International Mission Board (IMB) about your abuse. What are your thoughts about how the Southern Baptist Convention has attempted to address sexual abuse in the time since?
Miller: When the IMB investigated Aderholt in 2007 and determined it was more likely than not he sexually abused me, I don’t think I understood the gravity of what was actually happening. When he was arrested in 2018 and they responded defensively and in damage-control mode — at one point even inferring in a Baptist Press article that I was lying — I was furious. It took their interim president David Platt (who was out of the country in remote Africa) returning to begin flipping the switch. As soon as Platt learned about what was happening, he and Dr. Russell Moore called me within hours so they could ask what steps they could take to begin to make it right—and they did. Aderholt’s arrest is what catalyzed the IMB’s external, third party examination process into my case and every other sexual abuse was they had on file. Around the same time, the SBC as an entity also began looking at ways they could care better for survivors and look into their process of handling abuse within their churches.
In my own situation as it relates to the IMB, I’m also grateful to have had the chance to share my story with the current president Dr. Paul Chitwood. He has also taken action to repair what is in his power to repair (like making a statement about the article where they implied I was lying and publicly apologizing for it).There is still a lot of work to be done, and it’s new territory for this huge denomination where autonomy reigns. It’s difficult to implement systemic changes when the system is designed to be decentralized.
I watched the most recent SBC convention highlights largely on Twitter and was a co-signer on the Statement from SBC Abuse Survivors calling for the examination of the Executive Committee. Those of us who signed it did so in order to represent the thousands, if not tens of thousands of survivors who suffered abuse at the hands of SBC leaders.
Many pastors and leaders championed the causes of transparency and restoration on our behalf, but I was shocked and horrified at what other “pastors” and leaders said. I had never seen such divisiveness over a topic that seems so straightforward. How could someone not want to pursue truth and when needed, rectification and accountability—especially in instances of abuse? There was so much evil being spoken toward and about survivors. Some pastors went as far as to send death threats, tell survivors that they couldn’t “care less” if “God struck [a survivor] dead” and harass survivors in such a way that restraining orders needed to be obtained and police needed to get involved—all because of how a small—yet vile—group of “pastors” were acting. It still stuns me as I reflect on it today.
ChurchLeaders: Why do you think allegations of abuse are so prevalent in the church?
Miller: I think allegations are becoming more prevalent for a few reasons. The abuse has always been there, but there are more outlets for stories to be shared and as these stories are shared, more strength is found in numbers. I was contacted by several people who experienced abuse within the IMB or by youth pastors who thought they were the only ones. There were others who were taken advantage of by Aderholt, or that knew about his past behavior firsthand, that messaged me as well. We get to carry each other, and as we share the weight of our shame on our shoulders (placed on us through no fault of our own), that weight gets lighter for us, and we can then begin to bear the weight of others and hold each other up. It sounds cliche, but cliches are true for a reason.
