Southern Baptist Church to publish names of abusers

The Southern Baptist Convention, the largest Protestant creed in USAannounced this Tuesday that it will publish the names of the pastors who have allegedly committed sexual abuseafter the publication of a report on the group’s attempts to hide these cases.

According to the report, the results of which were released on Sunday, Church leaders ignored and even intimidated victims of abuse and covered up their claims for at least two decades.

The Convention issued a statement on Tuesday in which it apologized to the victims and promised to publish the list of “alleged and convicted aggressors” that, according to the report, the entity’s leaders have kept secret for years.

“To the survivors: I cannot imagine the pain you are going through, and the pain you have had to endure for decades. But I ask you to bear with us,” Southern Baptist Executive Committee Chairman Rolland Slade said during a special meeting of the body Tuesday.

Slade acknowledged the Church’s history of covering up abuse cases, and thanked everyone who helped put together the report, which was commissioned by the Convention itself and carried out by Guidepost Solutions.

The Southern Baptists are the largest Protestant branch in the United States, with nearly 15 million members and more than 47,000 churches across the country.

The decision to request a report from an outside group was made last summer, during its annual convention, after several sexual abuse survivors had lobbied for years for the Church to acknowledge malpractice.

The investigation covers complaints by children and women against pastors and employees of the group’s churches since 2000.

As detailed in the report, a member of the Executive Committee maintained, for more than ten years, a detailed list of religious accused of abuse, despite the fact that the entity had defended that it could not collect this information because it interfered with the autonomy of the different churches. .

Source: Elcomercio

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