Author and seminarian Rachel Darnall tweets: “My sister’s best friend was in a long-distance relationship with a missionary. They got engaged. Weeks before the wedding, it was discovered he was molesting several young girls in the church. If you won’t deal with the sex abuse, please don’t send the missionaries.”
Others emphasize that no dollar limit should be set on sexual abuse reforms that prevent lifelong devastation and spiritual damage. Geoff Henderson, a Presbyterian pastor in Florida, tweets: “The unnamed woman in Mark 14 may have something to teach us here in regards to the missional pragmatism. She chose the beautiful thing over the practical.”
Survivor Advocate Rachael Denhollander Weighs In
Rachael Denhollander, an abuse survivor and victim advocate, criticizes the “Pathway” headline. She tweets: “Interesting that the Task Force and survivors are getting blamed for the cost of cleaning up the mess that could have and should have been stopped decades ago.”
Denhollander adds: “The third time Jesus said to him, ‘Simon, do you love me?’ Simon said ‘you know I love you’. Jesus said ‘then feed my sheep’”. Then Jesus said “oh no, not THOSE sheep. Not the ones your leaders crushed. Not the ones in danger from the wolves. I didn’t mean to care for THEM.”
Jacob Denhollander, her husband, tweets: “Oh no, how will they ever afford it?” He includes a screen shot of the IMB’s net assets (including investments) as of September 30, 2021, which total $677,598,000.
‘Biblical Counseling’ Also Sparks Debate
Following the release of the abuse report, another hot topic is the type of counseling survivors should receive. SBC Pastor Tom Buck tweets: “The church doesn’t need ‘trauma counselors…’ We need BIBLICAL counselors. Scripture is sufficient!”
Buck points to a Twitter thread by SBC presidential candidate Tom Ascol, who writes: “When abuse occurs, and is covered up, trust is broken. But caring for victims, and protecting others, means putting in place just and biblical systems of accountability. Christians must do both. We must restore trust through transparency to the SBC.”
Buck adds: “We’ll never properly care for victims of abuse if we continue to offer unjust and unbiblical systems.” He supports the election of Ascol, who he says “will seek to address our problems with Scripture alone.”
In response, investigative blogger Julie Anne Smith tweets: “There may be blood on the hands of pastors who tell their congregants that trauma survivors should not go to trauma counselors, but only seek Biblical counseling. This can be a matter of life and death when it comes to trauma survivors. Let me be frank: this is spiritual abuse.”
Smith also calls out pastors such as Gabriel Hughes, who tweeted: “You don’t need to be ‘trauma informed.’ You need to be biblically informed.” Smith writes of Hughes: “Another pastor just outed himself as unsafe for survivors of trauma. We need to start a list of pastors who self-disclose like this. They are making it easier for us to discern.”
