Guidepost Solutions finds SBC Executive Committee kept a secret decade-long list of 700+ accused ministers while stonewalling abuse survivors

Proceedings

1. 2022-05-22 · published independent investigative report

   Guidepost Solutions independent investigation commissioned by the SBC Executive Committee. Guidepost Solutions' 288-page report found that for over two decades, a small group of senior SBC Executive Committee leaders and outside counsel controlled the response to abuse reports and were 'singularly focused on avoiding liability for the SBC', meeting survivors with resistance and hostility. EC general counsel D. August Boto and spokesman Roger Oldham had maintained a private internal database of more than 700 pastors, ministers, and other church-affiliated personnel accused of sexual abuse, collected over more than a decade, without using it to protect churches or the public. The list was made public on 2022-05-26. The report prompted a subsequent U.S. Department of Justice investigation into SBC entities.

Documented coercion mechanisms

• denominational and pastoral authority used by named abusers over congregants
• institutional non-disclosure — a private list of over 700 accused ministers withheld from member churches for over a decade to limit SBC liability