After the debate had concluded, the recommendations were called to vote via raised ballot. Despite the debate at the microphones, an overwhelming majority of the messengers in attendance voted in favor of adopting the recommendations.
SATF Meets With the Press
At a press conference following the vote, the SATF fielded questions from reporters.
“This is the start of a lot of changes that need to be made. But it is a start, and we’re very grateful for the process that even started last year when messengers demanded it,” Frank said.
When asked about the timetable regarding the implementation of a database of abusers, Frank indicated that much of the preliminary work had already been completed and that the database would be rolled out as soon as possible. Frank further indicated that implementing the database would be the responsibility of the newly appointed implementation task force.
The database will be retroactive and will include not only criminally convicted clergy but also those with civil cases against them, as well as independent determinations for those for whom the legal statute of limitations has expired and were never legally convicted. In those cases, a preponderance of evidence collected by a third-party investigator will be used to determine whether they go on the list.
When asked how he thought the SBC presidential election would affect the implementation task force’s effectiveness, Frank said, “Based on previous comments from different presidential candidates, it could have a pretty strong impact on it. The biggest impact is that the next president picks the next task force.”
Votes for the SBC presidential election were being counted while the SATF met with the press.
“I’m not going to be the judge, but you can judge by what they’ve said,” Frank went on to say. SBC presidential candidate Tom Ascol had publicly expressed suspicion toward the sexual abuse reforms following the release of the report.
“When there’s a crime, call the police. The church has no business trying to adjudicate crimes—we deal with sin,” Ascol said in a panel discussion on Sunday evening. “The church shouldn’t take up the sword, and we shouldn’t look to the state to take up the keys [to the Kingdom of God].”
Ascol often repeated a similar sentiment in the months leading up to the annual meeting. Ascol failed to win the election, giving way to Texas pastor Bart Barber, who has expressed much more public support for the SATF.
When asked how they would go back and change the ways in which they responded to allegations of sexual abuse if they knew 15 years ago what they know now, SATF member Marshall Blalock said, “As a pastor, some years ago, we had a case where, at our school, there was a case of abuse…First of all, we reported it to the police.”
“But my next question was to call our attorney—what do we do? And now my next question would be, instead of that, what is the right thing to do to help minister to the person who’s been traumatized,” Blalock said. “I think our instincts sometimes are about protection of the institution, and we’ve got to have a culture change. And that’s one place I think would be the most significant change in my own life.”
“It wasn’t that I didn’t care. It wasn’t that I didn’t want to do the right thing. I didn’t know,” Blalock went on to say. “And now I know that your first instinct has got to be to care—to provide the best in care—for a traumatized person.”
