During a period when right wing Christian Republicans unabashedly promoted the conspiracy theory that the Democratic Party runs a cabal of child molesters working out of a basement in a pizza parlor, a 288-page report was released by Guidepost Solutions revealing disturbing details on how the exclusively Republican Southern Baptist Convention’s Executive Committee mishandled sexual abuse claims and mistreated victims within its congregations for over two decades. As well, the report revealed that the church of choice of Matt "Groomer" Gaetz had secretly maintained a list of clergy and other church workers accused of sexual abuse. They closely guarded this information so as to avoid embarrassment and legal liability for the SBC. From the report:
“Survivors and others who reported abuse were ignored, disbelieved, or met with the constant refrain that the SBC could take no action due to its policy regarding church autonomy – even if it meant that convicted molesters continued in ministry with no notice or warning to their current church or congregation."
Reminiscent of the Catholic Church’s pedophile priests scandal where the Vatican kept silent while they quitely moved accused priests around from parish to parish rather than terminate or discipline the sex offenders, it was revealed that senior SBC leaders had protected or even supported alleged abusers. Caught with its pants down, the committee later apologized and released the database which contains the records of hundreds of accused clergy.
You can view the SBC’s list here.
Note that the criminals listed are restricted solely to the Southern Baptist variety–no priests or other denominations are included. Imagine what might be revealed if all 45,000 Christian denominations were investigated in a similar fashion. Mind blowing!
After scanning through this shocking report, I set up a Google Alerts account to clip any police reports or news articles regarding pastors who have since been accused or convicted of any form of sexual abuse, including solicitation for sex, rape and child molestation. To my amazement, I receive an average of unique 2.5 articles in my inbox EVERY DAY, seven days a week. On one day alone I received 17 unique reports of accusations and arrests! If there is any proof that Christianity does NOT make one a more moral person, this is it. Just sayin’.
So did you hear about the pastor that cut his sermon short and rushed to Walmart because he heard they had little boy’s pants half off? Ok, so that was in bad taste.
*Read my related blog post Cardinal Sins.