SBC Voices

“I was sexually assaulted as a child and I want to work through it with you”. I had been punched in the gut. I knew when I went to grad school to become a counselor that I wanted to be a trauma therapist. Like most trauma therapists, I have a trauma history of my own. For some reason, some survivors are compelled to turn around, walk back into the wound, and help others. Call it part of the healing process. Still, this was my very first client. Counselors need hundreds of hours of counseling just to graduate so we can take our board exam and be provisionally licensed while we accrue … [Read more...] about Trauma Comes to Church: A Licensed Counselor’s Perspective (by David Hughes)

The Executive Committee has an email for its president that is published and is available to Southern Baptists to use. It is my understanding that in this maelstrom, Ronnie Floyd is isolating himself from social media and tends to only listen to his supporters, those who tell him he's doing a great job. There have been statements by seminary presidents and several from state conventions and state pastors organizations, but we have no idea if they are getting through. Here's my suggestion. Tell Ronnie Floyd directly how you feel. Send those letters directly to him. PLEASE - if you do, … [Read more...] about A Suggestion: Email Ronnie Floyd and Tell Him What You Think

This document was released on Tuesday, but if you're like me, you may have missed it or not read it fully because of the Executive Committee meeting taking place that day. I think it's worth reposting here because it contains a lot of helpful details as well as answering a lot of the common objections we keep hearing over and over again.  This is the report of the Task Force related to the contract negotiations requested by the Executive Committee regarding the engagement of a third-party firm to conduct an independent investigation of the Executive Committee. Available at the Sexual Abuse … [Read more...] about Privilege, Master Process, and More: Details from the SA Task Force you may have missed

Various state conventions and groups in states have taken unprecedented action to state their displeasure with the Executive Committee's action to thumb their nose at the messengers of the 2021 SBC Annual Meeting and refuse to take appropriate action to deal with sexual abuse. I would guess that my list here is not complete, but here are the ones I have seen. To my knowledge, Michigan Baptists got the ball rolling with this stunning resolution. Tommy Green, the top-notch exec from Florida, sent this letter to his pastors, acknowledging the problem but maintaining that the CP was … [Read more...] about State Conventions Speaking Out about Executive Committee Failure

With all the Convention focused on the Executive Committee and the Gaines/Parrott motion that formed an independent task force, I think it might be helpful to highlight a similar motion and its disposition by the messengers and the body to which it was referred. The motion I am referring to is the one made by former Baptist, and then Founders leader, Jared Longshore. The motion, it seems, was meant to be a parallel opposing motion to the one made by Grant Gaines and adopted similar language as that motion. The motion was as follows:   Jared Longshore (FL) Motion: That the … [Read more...] about A tale of two motions: How the messengers and two entities respond to the call for independent investigations

We are used to the entity leaders supporting one another or at least staying silent about one another. The actions of the Executive Committee last year were so egregious that the seminary presidents actually sent a representative to speak out against the power-grab by the CBN-led officers whose new business plan would have upended our polity and essentially given the EC control over the other entities. That plan failed nearly unanimously. Now, seminary presidents are speaking out against the failure of the Executive Committee to follow the will of the messengers of the 2021 Annual Meeting … [Read more...] about Seminary Presidents Speak Out on Executive Committee Failure

Members of the Executive Committee of the Southern Baptist Convention, As faithful members of Southern Baptist churches across the United States and messengers to the 2021 annual meeting in Nashville, we write to express our frustration and disappointment with the recent actions of the Executive Committee. In June, over 15,000 messengers spoke with near-unanimous clarity by adopting the “Motion to Investigate the SBC Executive Committee.” The messengers were clear when they moved, “that the task force agree to the accepted best-standards and practices as recommended by the commissioned … [Read more...] about Letter from Southern Baptists to the SBC Executive Committee