THE TRUTH ABOUT THE SBC ABUSE CRISIS

Every once in a while, a public debate begins to drift so far into the world of headlines, institutions, investigations, and convention politics that we forget the people living beneath those headlines.

I fear that is happening again in the Southern Baptist Convention.

In recent days, I have heard and read respected voices suggesting there really was not a sexual abuse crisis in the SBC. The Department of Justice closed its investigation. No sexual-abuse-related charges were filed against the SBC, the Executive Committee, or SBC entities. Therefore, some have concluded that the crisis itself was exaggerated, politicized, weaponized, or even invented.

I understand why that conclusion may be attractive to some.
It is also incomplete.

Southern Baptists should be careful with our words. We should not imply criminal guilt where prosecutors did not bring charges. We should not make accusations that cannot be substantiated. We should not continue speaking as if the DOJ found something it did not find.

Truth requires that kind of honesty.
But truth requires something else as well.

The absence of federal criminal charges is not the absence of a crisis.
Those are two different questions.

The Department of Justice was asking whether federal crimes had been committed.
Southern Baptists must ask a much deeper question.

Were children, students, women, and vulnerable people harmed in churches connected to our Convention?
Were survivors sometimes ignored, dismissed, or left to carry their pain alone?
Did some churches fail to respond wisely, promptly, biblically, or legally?
Have pastors, leaders, volunteers, and trusted church figures committed abuse or misconduct?

The answer to all of the above?
Yes, without hesitation. 

Those realities do not disappear because a federal investigation concluded without charges.

The Headline:The DOJ investigation matters.

When a federal investigation closes without charges, that should be stated clearly and fairly. It is not a small thing. It matters for the SBC, the Executive Committee, those who were under investigation, and the broader public record.

No one should speak carelessly about that.
But a legal conclusion is not the same thing as a moral conclusion.

A prosecutor’s decision not to file charges does not mean every decision was wise, every survivor was treated well, every church responded faithfully, every policy was sufficient, or every leader acted with courage.

Courts answer legal questions.
Churches answer moral ones.

Our standard has never been merely, “Did we avoid criminal prosecution?”
Our standard must be, “Did we honor Christ, protect the vulnerable, tell the truth, care for the wounded, and act with integrity?”

Those are not always the same question.

The Crisis Behind the Headlines
Practically speaking, as an associational leader, I have dealt with four separate instances of abuse allegations in my first two years serving in this role.

Our association includes approximately 150 churches.

Those four situations are simply the ones I know about. Like every associational leader understands, we are not aware of every crisis that occurs in every autonomous congregation.

But I can say this with confidence: every one of those situations was a crisis—affecting victims and their families, the accused (whether allegations were substantiated or not), confirmed perpetrators facing consequences, church leaders under pressure, congregations seeking understanding, concerned parents, volunteers and staff caught in turmoil, the surrounding community, and ultimately our corporate witness.

That is the part I fear is being swept aside in the careless rhetoric that now says there is no sexual abuse crisis in the SBC.

Those making that claim may be speaking institutionally.
But those who have been directly impacted are not thinking institutionally.

They are thinking personally—about the phone call they never wanted to receive, the meeting they never imagined attending, the trust that was broken, the child who was harmed, the survivor who finally spoke, and the church that may never be the same.

Any instance of abuse is a crisis.
Those who have been directly impacted will tell you.

Two Errors We Must Avoid

The first error is exaggeration.
Not every SBC church is unsafe, not every pastor has failed, not every allegation is true, not every leader acted wrongly, and not every concern should be turned into an institutional indictment.

We must be careful, truthful, and just.

The second error is dismissal.
We must not say that because the DOJ filed no charges, there was no crisis, nor assume that because most churches have not experienced a public abuse allegation, the problem is not serious. We must also resist the idea that decentralization removes our responsibility to help churches prepare, or that institutional relief should lead to pastoral indifference.

Both errors damage our witness.
Exaggeration destroys trust.
Dismissal deepens wounds.
Southern Baptists should reject both.

The Better Question
The question before us should not be, “Was there a crisis?”
For victims, families, churches, leaders, communities, and our witness, the answer is yes.

The better question is, “What kind of people will we be now?”

• Will we become defensive?
• Will we become dismissive?
• Will we become weary of the issue?
• Will we treat prevention as a distraction from mission?
• Or will we recognize that protecting the vulnerable is part of our mission?

Jesus does not treat the wounded as interruptions.
He moves toward them.

The church should do the same.

Responsible Reform
This is where I believe Southern Baptists should place our energy.

Not in relitigating every headline.
Not in pretending the problem was invented.
Not in speaking as though every church is guilty.

But in educating, equipping, and training churches to prevent abuse and respond rightly when allegations arise.
The SBC Executive Committee’s Fortify Initiative is a good and needed step in that direction. It is designed to help associations, state conventions, and local churches strengthen abuse prevention and response. That is exactly the kind of work we need more of, not less.

Associations can play a meaningful role here.

• We can help churches think before a crisis happens.
• We can train pastors, staff, deacons, elders, ministry leaders, and volunteers.
• We can encourage every church to have written policies.
• We can help leaders understand mandatory reporting laws.
• We can teach churches how to recognize grooming behaviors.
• We can urge churches to use background checks wisely.
• We can prepare leaders to cooperate with civil authorities.
• We can help churches know what to do in the first twenty-four hours after an allegation.
• We can remind churches that caring for survivors is not optional.

We can also point churches toward good written resources, including materials such as Handling Allegations in Ministry, the SBC Abuse Prevention and Response resources, Essentials training, state convention resources, MinistrySafe, and other trusted tools that help churches move from general concern to practical readiness.
The goal is not to create fearful churches.

The goal is to create faithful, prepared, clear, and courageous churches—churches that love children enough to protect them, survivors enough to hear them, truth enough to investigate carefully, justice enough to report properly, and the gospel enough to refuse cover-ups, shortcuts, and silence.

Our Witness:This issue is not a distraction from the Great Commission.
​
It is directly connected to our witness.

• A church that preaches the gospel must also protect the vulnerable.
• A church that calls sinners to repentance must also tell the truth about sin in its own house.
• A church that sends missionaries to the nations must also be safe for children in its nursery, students in its youth ministry, and families in its pews.

The world is watching.
But more importantly, the Lord is watching.

• Every allegation deserves truth.
• Every victim deserves compassion.
• Every accused person deserves due process.
• Every church deserves wise counsel.
• Every child deserves protection.
• Every community deserves churches it can trust.
• Every Southern Baptist should want all of those things at the same time.

So yes, let us speak accurately about the DOJ investigation.

Let us not say it found what it did not find.
Let us not assign criminal guilt where charges were not brought.

But let us also refuse to say the absence of federal charges means there was no crisis.

The legal investigation may have concluded.
Our responsibility has not.

The crisis behind the headlines is not merely institutional.

• It is personal.
• It is pastoral.
• It is congregational.
• It is missional.

​And for those who have lived through it, it is very real.
Southern Baptists should be the last people to explain that away.


​