Taylors pastor named in report on Southern Baptist sexual abuse handling
Frank Page, pastor of Pebble Creek Baptist in Taylors and a former president of the Southern Baptist Convention, is named throughout a major report that criticizes the denomination's handling of sexual abuse allegations including during his tenure as the denomination's leader.
One Southern Baptist Convention staff member told investigators about hearing Page make critical comments about Christa Brown, a victim of sexual abuse and advocate. Page told the investigators he regretted some of those words, according to a 288-page report released over the weekend by Guideposts, which was commissioned by the convention to investigate the SBC's sexual abuse response.
Page told The Greenville News on Tuesday that he never made such comments.
"I never spoke ill of any victim," he said. "They were met with great respect."
Brown, who said the report's release could change the denomination as much as the 2004 John Jay report changed the Catholic Church, said she received hate mail and violent threats, which she blamed on the Executive Committee.
"(She) recounted that almost every SBC survivor she’s ever talked with – and there have been many – has said that the effort to report an abusive pastor caused even greater trauma than the sexual abuse itself," according to the report.
Page is accused in the report of hearing victims' stories and taking little to no action on their requests, whether for protections against future abuse or forums where other Baptists could share stories of abuse.
Page, who no longer has a leadership role with the convention, said the path forward should be what he has long sought: Local churches taking responsibility and reporting to law enforcement with state and regional Baptist associations taking a stronger role in monitoring allegations to prevent potential abusers from moving from one church to another.
"Every pastor, including myself, decries and hurts over any true abuse or molestation," he said.
'Ignored, disbelieved': Southern Baptist Convention sexual abuse report details cover up, decades of inaction
For years, Page was one of three people in the SBC's leadership who would hear survivor calls, according to staffers who spoke to investigators.
Southern Baptist is the largest denomination in South Carolina, accounting for one in seven worshipers nationally and a higher proportion in the state where there are more than 2,100 Southern Baptist churches, many but not all affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention.
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Page served as president of the Southern Baptist Convention from 2006 to 2008 and president of the convention's Executive Committee from 2010 to 2018. The executive committee acts on behalf of the full convention when it is not in session.
It was later revealed Page was ousted following an extra-marital affair with a church staffer. He was previously pastor of First Baptist in Taylors and for several years has led Pebble Creek Baptist Church in Taylors as lead pastor.
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The report from Guidepost Solutions, an investigative firm, was explosive and implicated some SBC leaders in ways that surprised many. The report followed a months-long investigation that an overwhelming majority of Southern Baptist voting delegates authorized at the convention's annual meeting in June 2021 in Nashville.
Here are some key takeaways from the report and its release
The report, released on May 22, exposed a pattern of SBC leaders ignoring reports of abuse at Southern Baptist churches and dismissing survivors' recommendations for reform.
Often, the legal counsel for the Nashville-based SBC and the SBC Executive Committee that acts on behalf of the full convention when it is not in session advised leaders to do nothing due to concerns of legal liability, the report said. The report also:
Revealed that high-ranking staff maintained a list with hundreds of names of ministers accused of sexual misconduct for 10 years, but did nothing with that list. At one point, the list had 703 names. Meanwhile, those same leaders told survivors that proposals for a clergy abuse database violated the convention's governance structure.
Detailed a credible allegation of sexual assault against former SBC president Johnny Hunt a month after his term ended in 2010. Hunt denied the allegation in a statement Sunday night.
Showed that many SBC leadership mocked or slandered abuse survivors behind survivors' backs over email.
The Guideposts report points to his departure as an example of the secretive and protective nature of the Executive Committee of the denomination, several of those who worked closely with him were kept "in the dark," according to the report. Several staffers told investigators it was typical of the Executive Committee to prioritize the reputation of the convention.
SBC sexual abuse report: What the Southern Baptist Convention sexual abuse report says about its leaders and other key findings
The report says staffers were not trained or guided in how to handle sexual abuse reports.
In public speeches and writings, Page has spoken about some abuse claims:
"I am thankful that any attention to this issue brings a heightened level of awareness on the part of our churches and people. However, please realize that there are groups who claim to be one thing when in reality they are another. It would be great if the many groups who are claiming to be groups of advocacy and encouragement in ministry were that which they claim. Please be aware that there are groups that are nothing more than opportunistic persons who are seeking to raise opportunities for personal gain." - Frank Page, writing a Point of View article in the Florida Baptist Witness in response to a 20/20 program on Baptist sexual abuse.
According to the report: Page accused a survivor group of having a hidden agenda of setting up the nation’s largest Protestant body for lawsuits. Years later, SNAP called on Mr. Page to apologize for denigrating their motives and to reconsider the feasibility of an offender database. Mr. Page declined to apologize, noting that his statement “was addressed to opportunists rather than to suffering victims — a group for which I have great compassion.”
Page told abuse survivors there was little he could do to help.
A tenet of the Baptist faith is that individual churches retain autonomy, so while the denomination may shape the church and its worship, Baptist churches retain their independence from centralization.
In 2006, Page told a survivor's group that he would pass along the possibility of informing church members of abusers since the convention had no means of enforcing stronger actions.
He said in a letter to the group that "on more than one occasion, the churches I have pastored have had to deal with abusive situations. Fortunately, that has not involved ministers but has involved elected leaders and others. In each case, we have acted decisively and quickly to deal with these situations. However, with all that being said I do realize the importance of your concern. The possibility of providing some kind of "informing" may be possible. I simply do not know. However, please know I will not ignore this request."
Page said he lacked authority over Baptist churches and was powerless to do more than urge them to behave properly, according to the report.
Liam Adams of The Tennessean contributed to this report.
Mike Ellis lives in Powdersville and tells South Carolina stories with a focus on Anderson County and Pickens County along with faith and investigations. He's always looking for the next story that people need to read, please send any tips or feedback to mellis@gannett.com
This article originally appeared on Greenville News: Taylors Pastor Frank Page named in report on SBC sexual abuse handling
