Explosive Southern Baptist Convention report sends shockwaves through the community

David Plazas, Nashville Tennessean
·2 min read
4

Greetings, ladies and gentlemen:

The recently released bombshell report from the Southern Baptist Convention detailed decades of sexual abuse and inaction.

Officials released a secret list of accused ministers, many of whom continued to thrive in their positions for years as victims languished and were marginalized.

The SBC is the largest Baptist denomination in the world and is based in Nashville, Tennessee, making this issue a local, state, national and global story.

More details will continue to emerge, as will the stories of victims who were ignored for so many years but still fought to be seen.

Southern Baptists gather in prayer during the annual Southern Baptist Convention meeting at Music City Center in Nashville, Tenn., Tuesday, June 15, 2021.
Southern Baptists gather in prayer during the annual Southern Baptist Convention meeting at Music City Center in Nashville, Tenn., Tuesday, June 15, 2021.

Mary Cady Bolin is not a Southern Baptist, but she is a pastor in Nashville who ministers to marginalized women, and she wrote a guest opinion column critical of the SBC, saying she was "shocked but not surprised."

At the heart of her message is this: "What struck me most was two-fold in regard to misuse of power: the SBC’s refusal to confess its sins as a group and its continued adherence to a Biblical worldview that subjugates women."

In a column published this morning, regular contributor Cameron Smith, who worships at a Southern Baptist church in Nolensville, Tennessee, slammed the SBC for hiding behind lawyers and liability, and he offers solutions for how to move forward.

He wrote: "The dereliction of duty from SBC leadership over time has polluted the church’s ability to advance the gospel."

Scroll to read more commentary in this week's newsletter: 

  • Lisa Primm, executive director of Disability Rights Tennessee, and Jennifer Rodriguez, executive director of the Youth Law Center, write about their recent report showing abuses of children at the John S. Wilder Youth Development Center.

  • Three pediatricians, Drs. Kelsey Gastineau, Maya Neeley and Dena Ibrahim, argue that children are bearing the burden of the right to bear arms in the wake of the massacre at an Uvalde, Texas elementary school.

  • Dale Brosius, CEO of the Institute for Advanced Composites Manufacturing Innovation, describes how East Tennessee's Carbon Valley is setting up the region for prosperity.

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Thank you!

David Plazas is the director of opinion and engagement for the USA TODAY Network - Tennessee. Email him at dplazas@tennessean.com, call him at (615) 259-8063 or tweet to him at @davidplazas. Subscribe to a USA TODAY Network - Tennessee publication. 

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Southern Baptist Convention report sends shockwaves through community