A Southern Baptist task force has decided to part ways with an LGBTQ-friendly company responsible for setting up and monitoring a database to track abusive pastors.
Baptist Press reports Abuse Reform and Implementation Task Force (ARITF) chair Marshall Blalock announced Tuesday the task force will no longer recommend Guidepost Solutions to establish and maintain a database for those credibly accused of sexual abuse.
Messengers approved the creation of a “ministry check” website at the 2022 SBC Annual Meeting in Anaheim, CA, the outlet reported.
The Ministry Check website is essentially an abuse watch list with the names of pastors, denominational workers, ministry employees, and volunteers who have been credibly accused.
The website was to have been overseen by Faith-Based Solutions, a division of the consulting firm Guidepost Solutions that work with religious groups, according to the Religion News Service (RNS).
Many concerns about the company were expressed to the task force by Baptist leaders after a Guidepost staff member’s tweet last June during gay pride month.
“Guidepost is committed to strengthening diversity, equity and inclusion and strives to be an organization where our team can bring their authentic selves to work. We celebrate our collective progress toward equality for all and are proud to be an ally to our LGBTQ+ community,” Guidepost said with an image of an LGBTQ rainbow pride flag topped with an additional brown and black strip and the company’s logo.
Baptist leaders in Florida urged the task force to quit working with Guidepost and “engage only providers that share a solidly biblical worldview to develop and maintain the ‘Ministry Check’ website database,” according to RNS. Other Baptist leaders in Ohio also expressed the same view.
The task force posted an update on its website Tuesday saying it “met in Atlanta on Monday, March 27, and voted to consider alternative pathways (dividing the work among smaller firms which share our values) to establish and maintain the Ministry Check website. The ARITF is presently sourcing and evaluating additional firms to assist with the Ministry Check process who meet our qualifications for the highest professional standards.”
“We wish to express our sincere gratitude to the local, state, and national leaders, as well as abuse survivors, who have not only engaged in productive dialogue with us but have patiently allowed the ARITF and Credentials Committee time to consider these concerns and work toward a unifying solution,” the task force continued.
“It is our prayer that leaders in our Convention will choose to work together as we move forward in a manner that is both unifying and effective,” the task force said.
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RNS reports SBC President Bart Barber told a gathering recently that he asked the current task force, which he appointed, not to work with Guidepost because of the LGBTQ controversy.
“I walked in the first meeting and said that one thing I ask you to do, please find anybody other than Guidepost Solutions to do this,” he said in March at a Baptist gathering. “And every single one of them said that’s our top goal.”
The task force update also included the two processes for its Ministry Check system.
- Database creation and maintenance – The actual building and security maintenance of the Ministry Check website.
- Assessment of allegations – The process of investigating allegations of sexual abuse in Southern Baptist churches.
- Part 1 “Independent Assessment” – If there has been no criminal conviction, civil judgment or confession, then the initial assessment of the credibility of an allegation will be performed by an independent, qualified firm. Each local church has full autonomy in selecting an independent, qualified firm.
- Part 2 “Independent Verification” – A review panel comprised of qualified experts will review the records of conviction, civil judgment, confession, or the independent assessment performed by the firm voluntarily retained by a local church to verify that the standard has been met.
The task force’s reforms still face significant long-term hurdles, the RNS reported. There’s no long-term funding for the reforms, including the Ministry Check website. And since every SBC church is autonomous, the reforms rely completely on voluntary cooperation.
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