Voices: A slap in the face to sex abuse survivors

For the past few years, I have followed the developments within the Southern Baptist Convention as we have investigated allegations of sexual abuse and cover-up within our convention. To say I have very mixed and very strong feelings about it all would be a profound understatement.

However, I was encouraged to learn recently the Department of Justice closed its investigation into the SBC’s Executive Committee and other entities without filing any further charges than those brought against Matthew Queen.

Unfortunately, I was shocked and disgusted by some of the public comments I saw from prominent Southern Baptists in the wake of this news.

For example, Denny Burk, a professor at Southern Seminary, said: “So here’s the bottom line on the SBC abuse ‘crisis.’ There wasn’t one.”

Pastor and former Executive Committee chairman Mike Stone said, “It was all a political ruse within our own denomination.”

That was not all they said, and they were not the only ones who said it. But you get the idea. Numerous individuals jumped onto the internet to publicly declare there really never has been a sex abuse crisis within the SBC, and it was all just a bogus scandal engineered by leftists and liberals within the convention.

To be frank, these remarks are shockingly ignorant at best and outright dishonest at worst, and they are a slap in the face to sex abuse survivors, both within the SBC and beyond.

The scope of the DOJ investigation

It is bizarre that anyone would think the Department of Justice closing its investigation represents anything like an exoneration of the SBC regarding sexual abuse and cover-ups.

The DOJ investigates violations of federal law. The DOJ does not have jurisdiction over state or local crimes, and the DOJ does not bring charges against actions which are not illegal. The SBC became the subject of a DOJ investigation to see if there was any violation of federal law.

Most cases of sexual abuse are not federal crimes. Most cases of sexual abuse cover-up are not federal crimes. They can be federal crimes under certain circumstances, but they are not such automatically. The fact the DOJ brought no charges against the SBC or its entities does not mean no crimes were committed. It simply means no federal crimes were committed.

But even more importantly, many of the ways in which SBC leaders were accused of mishandling sexual abuse allegations and mistreating survivors were not illegal at all.

The most prominent example is probably Augie Boto, former Executive Committee general counsel, who has been accused of suppressing sexual abuse allegations and attacking sexual abuse survivors in ways which, while morally reprehensible, are (to my knowledge) not technically criminal.

The DOJ closing its investigation into the SBC is not an exoneration from anything except federal crimes. That’s it.

The money problem

One of the biggest complaints many Southern Baptists have expressed over this whole process has been legal expenses. The Executive Committee has spent more than $13 million on legal fees and other costs related to the sexual abuse investigation. This has left the committee nearly bankrupt and may force them to use Cooperative Program dollars to pay those bills.

Southern Baptists who faithfully give money to the Cooperative Program understandably are dismayed at the idea their gifts will be used, not for missions and ministry, but for paying legal fees.

However, critics of the sexual abuse investigation have sought to discredit the investigation because of these mounting legal bills. After calling the investigation a “political ruse,” Mike Stone continues: “Now, the Executive Committee is on the brink of bankruptcy … [and] the Cooperative Program is in serious jeopardy.”

Stone and others are saying the sexual abuse investigation was a waste of time and money, and that supporters of the investigation—such as Russell Moore—are responsible at least partially for the convention’s financial woes.

But you know who Stone doesn’t mention? Johnny Hunt or David Sills. Both men are suing the SBC and are responsible for millions of dollars of those legal fees threatening to bankrupt the Executive Committee.

Why are Hunt and Sills suing the convention? After all, both men have admitted to committing sexual misconduct. But they claim their sexual sins were consensual. Therefore, Hunt and Sills are suing the SBC—and GuidePost Solutions—for defamation, since both groups publicly called Hunt and Sills’ sins sexual abuse.

You read that right: Two self-admitted adulterers (and accused sexual abusers) are suing their fellow Southern Baptists (1 Corinthians 6, anyone?) for accusing them of sexual abuse. And that is a major reason for the Executive Committee’s financial woes. But somehow, those financial woes actually are Russell Moore’s fault?

A standard smear tactic

I have noticed a common tactic in many of the public attacks leveled against the SBC’s sexual abuse investigation—accusations of “liberalism.” I’m not sure if these critics mean political or theological liberalism, but they most likely mean a mix of both.

This is just a standard smear tactic certain activists like to use when they have nothing of substance to say. Make no mistake, I believe there are legitimate, substantive criticisms to be offered regarding how the SBC has handled this investigation. But throwing around accusations of “liberalism” and “Marxism” is pure nonsense.

Terms like those have become essentially meaningless, particularly in SBC circles of late. The idea any major figure in the SBC truly is liberal—in either the political or theological sense—is absolutely laughable. And that’s exactly the response such accusations deserve—laughter.

The SBC has plenty of flaws, both theologically and politically. I think some within the SBC are too lax on certain matters of doctrine and ethics. But that’s a different essay. However, there is nothing—absolutely nothing—inherently “liberal” in opposing sexual abuse and standing up for victims.

The SBC sexual abuse investigation is not above criticism, but to label the Southern Baptists who initiated and support the investigation as “liberals” or “leftists” is simply crazy. Such accusations belie an emotionally immature and intellectually vapid approach to debate that deserves no respect from anyone, let alone Southern Baptists.

And it is a slap in the face to survivors of sexual abuse everywhere.

Joshua Sharp is the senior pastor of First Baptist Church in Chappell Hill, and a graduate of Southwest Baptist University in Bolivar, Mo., and Baylor University’s Truett Theological Seminary in Waco. The views expressed in this opinion article are those of the author.