But others, including South Carolina pastor Marshall Blalock, vice-chair of the abuse task force, defended Guidepost in a series of social media posts. He said the task force would have preferred to hire a Christian company but none had the capacity to do the job.
“Guidepost did a professional investigation, they operated with integrity, they respected our faith and values, they even ate a significant amount of the cost because they wanted to help us discover the truth and assist us to be more Christlike in how we respond to sexual abuse,” he tweeted.
Guidepost is a multinational secular company that specializes in corporate investigations. They are not a Christian company although they routinely work for Christian organizations. The SATF chose them for their expertise and capacity to complete the investigation in time…
— Marshall Blalock (@BlalockMarshall) June 7, 2022
On Wednesday, the abuse task force released an updated set of recommendations for reforms to deal with abuse. Those updates were a result of conversations among SBC leaders, according to Bruce Frank, chairman of the task force.
“Over the last few days since releasing our recommendations, we are grateful for all the encouragement and support,” Frank said in a video posted to the task force website. We’ve also listened to the questions and concerns of Southern Baptists. We are super grateful to receive valuable feedback.”
The updated recommendations call for Send Relief, a partnership between the SBC’s International Mission Board and North American Mission Board that does compassion ministry, to provide $3 million in initial funding for abuse reforms. An earlier plan called for reforms to be paid for out of Cooperative Program funds collected from individual churches.
Send Relief will also contribute $1 million to set up a survivor care fund “providing trauma counseling for survivors of sexual abuse in the SBC, as well as trauma-informed training for SBC pastors, churches, local associations and state conventions,” Send Relief said in a statement.
“Southern Baptists are grieving for survivors of abuse and are seeking ways to better safeguard children and families,” the statement said. “Send Relief wants to be part of the solutions outlined by the SBC Sexual Abuse Task Force.”
Frank said in a phone interview that most of the work the task force hired Guidepost to do has been completed. He said that any future work by Guidepost is out of his hands.
“I don’t really have an opinion on that,” he said, when asked about Davis’ comments. “That’s not my purview.”
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This article originally appeared on ReligionNews.com.
