Southern Baptist Leaders Remain Undaunted As Legal Bills From Abuse Investigation Mount

On Monday, Iorg also laid out the committee’s financial challenges — caused mainly by ongoing legal costs related to a 2021 investigation into abuse. A report from the investigation found that SBC leaders had downplayed the prevalence of abuse in the denomination and had mistreated abuse survivors who tried to raise the alarm. Two of the leaders named in that report for alleged abusive conduct are now suing the denomination. Legal costs from the investigation have totaled more than $13 million, Iorg told the committee, draining the committee’s reserves.

To defray those costs, the committee is marketing its Nashville office with a $35 million price tag — hoping to bring in an influx of cash. Leaders are also proposing to set aside $3 million in the SBC’s annual budget for legal fees, to be taken out of the SBC’s Cooperative Program, which raises funds for missionaries, seminaries, new church starts and other national ministries.

The proposal was approved by the committee Tuesday morning and now will be presented to church representatives, known as messengers, at the SBC’s annual meeting, set for this June in Dallas. Leaders would prefer to use Cooperative Program funds for missions and ministry, Iorg said.

But the denomination’s legal bills have come due — and more will likely accrue in the future. The denomination’s churches approved the investigation, said Iorg, and the legal fees are part of the cost that came along with that decision.

“Here’s our present reality,” he said. “Decisions were made by the messengers in 2021. Those decisions have consequences. Those consequences have costs and those bills are due and they must be paid.”

Iorg said he believed the SBC’s churches would step up to pay those bills and would rally together to set up the denomination to focus on its mission in the future. His comments, which were greeted with a standing ovation, came on the heels of a rousing speech by SBC President and North Carolina pastor Clint Pressley, who was elected last year. Pressley urged his fellow leaders to celebrate the good things the denomination does — and to work together to address the denomination’s challenges.

In particular, he pointed to the denomination’s Cooperative Program, which turns 100 this year. That program — which raises hundreds of millions of dollars every year from local churches – was beset by troubles in its early years, which coincided with the Great Depression and were marked by two major embezzling scandals in the late 1920s. Rather than giving up, Pressley said, Baptists faced their problems head-on and made things better. He called on the committee members and other SBC leaders, including heads of the SBC’s missions boards, seminaries and other entities, to do the same.

“Leaders don’t panic,” he said. “But they do act.”

This article originally appeared here.