SBC Pastors and Leaders Respond
SBC President Clint Pressley expressed that his heart is with sexual abuse survivors following the announcement that the investigation had been closed.
“Today’s announcement from the Department of Justice marks the end of a long and painful chapter in Southern Baptist life,” Pressley said. “Our hearts are with all survivors of sexual abuse wherever such injustice occurs. As a people committed to the gospel, we have worked diligently to make our churches safer, and we will continue striving for a culture of accountability.”
“This moment,” he added, “also calls us to lead with wisdom and humility avoiding false narratives or anything else that keeps us from reaching the world for Christ.”
Jon Whitehead, a trustee for the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission (ERLC) and an advisory board member for the The Center of Baptist Leadership, shared an article in which he encouraged the SBC to rebuild. “We’ve weathered the storm of false witness,” he said. “Now is the time to clear the rubble and rebuild.”
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“Reject those who would spend your church’s missions dollars building their own reputation on this lie. Rally around leaders who saw through the demagoguery. And let’s get back to preaching the Gospel, unbowed and unashamed,” Whitehead said. “The world’s watching—let them see a Convention that stands on the truth, not the shifting sands of whatever passes for progressive Christianity today elsewhere.”
Former SBC President J.D. Greear said, “I am grateful that this investigation has concluded with no federal charges related to sexual abuse. Our goal from the start was to foster cooperation by equipping churches to minister more effectively and stand guard against predators.”
“Beginning in 2018, in response to multiple actions by the messengers,” Greear continued, “we set out to consider how Southern Baptists at every level could take discernible action to respond swiftly and compassionately to incidents of abuse and to foster safe environments within our churches and institutions.”
“We knew we needed reforms both in our posture and procedures, so that predators would have no place to hide within our system,” Greear said. “We knew our 1st impulse should be protection of the vulnerable rather than self-protection of our institutions. By God’s grace.”
Greear said that “many reforms have happened and the work continues. This was (and still must be) the focal point of all our efforts.”
Pastor Willy Rice, who withdrew his name from SBC president consideration before the 2022 Annual Meeting, said, “There was no systemic sexual abuse crisis or coverup in the SBC. It was a snipe hunt, a ruse to destroy good people and gain power. The SBC got the Brett Kavanaugh treatment and probably for the same reason.”
, the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) was informed that the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) investigation into whether the denomination was criminally responsible for mishandling sexual abuse allegations is closed. ){kind=link}