Following Cunningham’s arrest, Lakeside Baptist Church, a congregation affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC), indicated in a statement that the SBC bore responsibility to implement its “Ministry Check” database of pastors and leaders who have been credibly accused of sexual abuse.
“Lakeside Baptist Church stands firmly against clerical sexual abuse,” Lakeside Baptist said. “We believe that, if the Southern Baptist Convention had a working database for offenders, we would likely have never been exposed to Mr. Cunningham.”
“We plan to do everything possible to encourage national leaders to exercise their spiritual responsibility, identify perpetrators in the churches, and stop this from happening again,” the church continued. “Until then, we plan to re-evaluate and institute our own even more rigorous processes.”
In 2022, SBC delegates, called messengers, overwhelmingly voted to establish the database. However, it has still not been implemented.
In February, Dr. Jeff Iorg, president of the SBC Executive Committee indicated that the prospect of a database had been abandoned, saying, “At this point, it’s not a focus for us.”
Cunningham remains in custody at the Lubbock County Detention Center.
