Sexual abuse survivor and advocate Tiffany Thigpen will not be attending this year’s Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) annual meeting that starts this Tuesday, June 10, in Dallas.
Thigpen has been attending the SBC annual meetings alongside other SBC sexual abuse survivors since 2021 and worked closely with the SBC task forces that were in charge of creating and implementing sexual abuse reforms.
At the 2022 annual meeting, Thigpen was 1 of 10 named in the SBC’s apology given in a resolution titled “On Lament and Repentance for Sexual Abuse.”
ChurchLeaders reached out to Thigpen and asked if she’d be willing to share why she decided not to the annual meeting in Dallas. During our interview, Thigpen gave her opinion regarding the SBC’s current sexual abuse reforms and if SBC leadership has followed through with the will of the messengers. Thigpen also explained how she witnessed SBC leadership make it difficult for the task force to implement reforms.
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Near the end of our interview, Thigpen shared an emotional, heartfelt tribute to her friend Jennifer Lyell, who unexpectedly passed away over the weekend following a stroke.
Below is a synopsis of our conversation that ChurchLeaders has uploaded to our YouTube channel:
CL: You’ve decided not to attend the SBC Annual Meeting this year—for the first time in years. Was there a single defining moment that led to this decision, or was it a gradual process? What brought you to this point?
T: You know, the personal decision to not attend convention this year felt like giving up, a closer feeling was failure.
At the close of last year’s convention, I determined that unless there was a groundswell in the coming year, of anger and resistance by the messengers and others in response to blatantly ignoring their will and votes, that I would not attend.
I realized after things went silent that in order for any chance of that happening, truth would need to be revealed. I have waited for and prompted those who knew to speak up and act this last year, which has not happened, at least not publicly, in order for the messenger base to be informed and knowledgeable about what was done under their noses. They are like sheep who were led astray.
CL: Do you believe the SBC has done well with its sexual abuse reforms since the release of the Guidepost Solutions report in May 2022? Why or why not?
T: I genuinely and wholeheartedly believe that it was all a sham to placate messengers and media, that there was never any intention (by entity leaders) of allowing reform work, a database, accountability, protection, to come to fruition.
Not for one moment was there real consent for reform or lament on behalf of those who were protecting the base. I feel that entity leaders and many others were determined to pretend and obfuscate, period.
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I simultaneously believe that many within, along with the messengers, believed it would happen and fell for the faux support and faux compliance. Behind the scenes was a whole other beast and it won. I still know what I saw on the floor, I saw the messengers’ ballots, it took my breath away each time, I will never forget that the people heard and wanted action steps. However, I discounted that they would not rise up on their own when they were later duped and failed by the actual ones who seem to be in control. The messengers deserve to know how they were duped, who holds the cards, why reform didn’t move forward, why their will was denied.
CL: In what ways has SBC leadership failed the messengers’ requested abuse reforms?
T: The messengers still believe their votes counted. They were repeatedly failed by leadership and I don’t believe they fully recognize the level of dismissal that transpired. Certain entity leaders, voices and factions were using common war tactics to defy the will of the people while falsely placating and pretending to care. They simply withheld funds designated and earmarked by messengers, and they faked cooperation while behind the scenes they placed roadblocks (more honestly they built walls) and opposition to any and all steps forward until the oxygen was fully robbed and then in a way dared those doing the work to tell the full truth. To then deliver a report to the people, knowing full well that they [the entities] would be protected. The task force was set up for failure and then sent to say it all fell apart. It’s a tale as old as time, war tactics, tie people’s hands behind their backs, cripple them and then send them into battle while you sit back building your kingdom and enjoying your spoils and safe spaces. The messengers, the task force, EC [Executive Committee] members, laborers, were all duped and treated like peasants. And they can’t even recognize it because they’ve been conditioned for too long.
It’s the great gaslight. It works nearly every time, until it doesn’t and the people rise.
 annual meeting that starts this Tuesday, June 10, in Dallas. She explained why in an interview with ChurchLeaders.){kind=link}