“As an abuse survivor, I grieve with all Southern Baptists over every incident of sexual abuse,” Stone said in a statement to Baptist Press regarding the Guidepost Solutions report. “At the same time, it is [disappointing] to see real concerns mingled with false accusations.”
“Further, it is sad these erroneous charges warrant clarification at a time when Southern Baptists should have been allowed time to prayerfully consider the weighty matters before us,” Stone went on to say.
Notably, this is not the first time Stone has been accused of intimidating behavior toward a sexual abuse advocate. At the 2021 meeting of the SBC, Stone was accused of bringing sexual abuse survivor Hannah-Kate Williams to tears just outside the convention hall in an exchange where he sternly rebuked her efforts to bring about an independent sexual abuse investigation, telling her that she was “doing harm” to the denomination.
It was at this same meeting that Stone lost his bid for SBC president to Alabama pastor Ed Litton.
Stone later said that every person “present in this crowded area including my wife and several other pastors and their wives…corroborated that it was a polite conversation. At no time was I unkind. I cannot speak to what happened after I left that area. But any other characterization of my conversation is false.”
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Williams later tweeted a statement of forgiveness directed at Stone.
