The nine members of the successor to the SBC’s Sexual Abuse Task Force were named by new convention president Bart Barber of Texas after one month on the job. At the same time the list was made public, the South Carolina pastor who will lead implementation of abuse prevention reforms was advising local association leaders in Illinois about the critical importance of moving ahead.
Marshall Blalock co-chaired the SBC Sexual Abuse Task Force (SATF) that presented its groundbreaking report on abuse in the convention’s churches. Five reforms including a task force to lead implementation were accepted by messengers to the Southern Baptist Convention Annual Meeting in Anaheim in June. Blalock accepted Barber’s invitation to chair the new Abuse Response Implementation Task Force (ARITF) in July.
“The purpose of this task force is to assist the churches of the Southern Baptist Convention in our efforts to shut the doors of our churches to those who would act as sexual predators,” Barber said, “and to wrap our arms around survivors and those who love them.”
The ARITF will develop an abuse reporting and offender tracking system. The task force will also have a policing role. They will consult with the SBC Credentials Committee to accept complaints of churches’ non-cooperation due to sexual abuse. Together with the SBC Executive Committee and Credentials Committee, they will select an independent firm to investigate such complaints. The ARITF will report back to the 2023 annual meeting on their selection.
Blalock was the featured speaker at the Associational Mission Strategists roundtable hosted by IBSA Aug. 1-2. Training is vital, he advised.
“Very few folks are trained in how to talk to a sexually abused person,” he said to the leaders. “Having trauma-trained counselors who can help you is important.”
One local association leader present at the meeting was Kevin Carrothers of Salem South Baptist Association. In June he completed three years on the executive leadership team of the Southern Baptist Conference of Associational Leaders (SBCAL) and one year as president.
“Church life in general tends to be a slow process,” Carrothers acknowledged. “Churches need to take everything and evaluate it. We ask, ‘Do we have the financial resources; if not, how are we going to address that?’”
But the local association can be a vital partner helping both pastors and the state convention with implementation. “For example, how are we going to get the sexual abuse assessment (currently in development) to the local level?” Carrothers said.
Blalock briefly discussed the new national SBC Ministry Check database that will be created to track offenders. The ARITF will report back to the Convention on the feasibility, effectiveness, and costs of the website, which will be established and maintained by an independent contractor chosen by the task force.
Once the database is in place, ideally “someone won’t get convicted in Georgia and move to Illinois without people knowing.” However, participation by churches will be voluntary. Blalock is “hoping churches will care enough about their sister churches” to participate.
Blalock again pointed to the importance of screening checks, which admittedly still meet with some resistance in local churches, nearly two decades after they were advocated. In addition to background checks, Blalock said before a person can volunteer at his church, he or she must be known by the church for at least six months. Even then, volunteers are required to provide references and sit for interviews. For the safety of your children and grandchildren he said, “You need to go as far back as you can.”
Blalock cited the statistic that one-fourth of women and one-sixth of men in SBC congregations are survivors of sexual abuse. “Ministry to broken men and women is never a distraction,” he said. “If we began to be known as a church involved in ministry to the abused, we would be blessed. There’s an opportunity to bring the gospel.”
– with additional reporting by Baptist Press