Southern Baptist Convention is preparing to release a secret list containing the names of hundreds of ministers accused of sexual abuse

0
361

OH! GOD is angry!

And people wonder why folks are quitting the Church in America! The Southern Baptists and Catholics, and many other denominations have shown an unbelieving world what is wants to see, bad Christians. In our ministry here at FGGAM we hear this all the time now from so very may that do not go to Church, “I hate organized religion.” Many say, they love Jesus, not Churches.” FGGAM is non-denominational. God to did not form denominations, they were crated by man. FGGAM is a Great Commission Ministry, reaching one person at a time for Jesus!

The Church in America makes headlines for all ther wrong reason now, it has its own rap sheet, that grows everyday in America. SHAME!  I am sick and tired of it, I am sick and tired of many in the Church, including Pastors who back hateful politicians! I do not why God just doesn’t vomit on us!

Leaders in the Southern Baptist Convention announced Tuesday they are preparing to release a secret list containing the names of hundreds of ministers accused of sexual abuse.

40 Years in the Making: A Timeline of the Southern Baptists’ Sexual Abuse Crisis

Pastor Confesses Adultery During Sunday Worship Service; Survivor Unexpectedly Takes the Stage Describing It As Sexual Abuse

From May 19th:

This is such an ugly stain that will not go away for many people. This whole thing makes me sick! I could vomit! God will have the final say on the abusers. The money means nothing to God, it is what was done to His people. The Catholic Church continues to wrestle with a sex abuse and cover-up scandal that has spanned the globe. You cannot sweep this under the rug! It is called ACCOUNTABILITY to GOD ALMIGHTY!!!

TO BE CLEAR! This ugly is not just in the Catholic Church, it is in way to many denominations! It is so very ugly! More Here

From CHURCHLEADERS:

SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — One of the oldest Catholic dioceses in the United States announced a settlement agreement Tuesday to resolve a bankruptcy case in New Mexico that resulted from a clergy sex abuse scandal.

The tentative deal totals $121.5 million and would involve about 375 claimants.

The proposed settlement comes as the Catholic Church continues to wrestles with a sex abuse and cover-up scandal that has spanned the globe. Some of the allegations in New Mexico date back decades.

$121.5M Settlement in New Mexic

Stunning Poll Reveals ‘Shocking’ Percentage of American Pastors Holding to Biblical Worldview

Death of a Biblical Worldview in America: Most Parents of Young Children Don’t Believe in Jesus for Salvation

Pastor Leonard Navarre warns us: Stealing Our Children’s Minds

From May 23rd From Dr. Jim Denison:

May 23, 2022 | Read time: 6 minutes | Read online
“This is the Southern Baptist Apocalypse”
FILE – This Wednesday, Dec. 7, 2011 file photo shows the headquarters of the Southern Baptist Convention in Nashville, Tenn. Leaders of the SBC, America’s largest Protestant denomination, stonewalled and denigrated survivors of clergy sex abuse over almost two decades while seeking to protect their own reputations, according to a scathing 288-page investigative report issued Sunday, May 22, 2022. (AP Photo/Mark Humphrey, File)

 

 

This is how Russell Moore, who leads the Public Theology Project at Christianity Today and is a former Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) agency leader, is responding to a report now making global headlines.

The nearly three-hundred-page investigation was released yesterday afternoon. Christianity Today summarizes its findings: “Armed with a secret list of more than seven hundred abusive pastors, Southern Baptist leaders chose to protect the denomination from lawsuits rather than protect the people in their churches from further abuse.”

The report was a $2 million undertaking that involved 330 interviews and five terabytes of documents collected over eight months. It is the largest investigation in the Southern Baptist Convention’s 177-year history.

The report states, “When abuse allegations were brought to the EC [Executive Committee of the SBC], including allegations that convicted sex offenders were still in ministry, EC leaders generally did not discuss this information outside of their inner circle, often did not respond to the survivor, and took no action to address these allegations so as to prevent ongoing abuse or such abuse in the future.” Instead, “Almost always the internal focus was on protecting the SBC from legal liability and not on caring for survivors or creating any plan to prevent sexual abuse within SBC churches.”

Denison Ministries is nondenominational and thus not related to the Southern Baptist Convention. In addition, many of you are not Southern Baptists. As a result, I will not focus this morning on the specific findings of the report, which you can read for yourself, though we will likely discuss their significance further in the coming days.

For today, I want to think with you about two biblical responses that relate to all followers of Christ.

Sexual abuse is horrific sin and must be held to account

God’s word is clear: “Sexual immorality and all impurity and covetousness must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints” (Ephesians 5:3). Sexual abuse by pastors or other Christian leaders is an especially appalling betrayal of their biblical calling, for “they are keeping watch over your souls” (Hebrews 13:17) and “must be above reproach” (1 Timothy 3:2).

As a result, when leaders “persist in sin,” the church is to “rebuke them in the presence of all” (1 Timothy 5:20).

The vast majority of Southern Baptist leaders are not guilty of the sins detailed in the investigative report. I am also personally grateful for the enormous good God has done through the Southern Baptist Convention across its history. For example, I became a Christian through the outreach of a Southern Baptist church, received two degrees from a Southern Baptist seminary, and taught on that seminary’s faculty more than three decades ago.

Every Southern Baptist I know would join me in condemning in the strongest terms the abuses described in the report and in pressing for accountability for the perpetrators. The report itself, in fact, is the product of demands for transparency made by Southern Baptists attending their annual meetings.

That said, Southern Baptists must respond emphatically to this report when they meet in a few weeks for their 2022 convention. Survivors who came forward must be thanked with the deepest gratitude; all victims must be supported with heartfelt sorrow and solidarity; perpetrators must repent and make amends.

These same principles apply to any Christian church, ministry, network, or denomination.

Imagine how you would feel if your daughter or granddaughter were a victim of the abuses described in this report. This is the grief and pain our Father feels for every victim of abuse.

Let’s join him.

You and I must settle for nothing less than personal holiness

At this point, I would imagine that those of us who are not directly impacted by this grievous report are grateful that we are not. Herein lies a subtle temptation of the Enemy.

It is human nature to measure ourselves by other humans. For example, Cain’s frustration when God chose Abel’s sacrifice over his own led him to murder his brother (Genesis 4:1–8). From then to today, we feel inferior to our superiors and superior to our inferiors. (For more, see my latest personal blog where I describe an illuminating encounter I experienced over the weekend.)

As a result, when we learn of people who commit sins we are not committing, we are tempted to overlook the sins we are committing. But this is like learning that your neighbor has heart disease and then ignoring your cancer.

When an Englishman named John Bradford saw criminals being led to their execution in 1553, he reportedly stated, “There but for the grace of God go I.” When you and I learn of the sins of others, we should say the same. But rather than presuming on such grace, we should also admit the sins we are committing with genuine repentance, contrition, and a desire for transformation.

Wisdom from A. W. Tozer

I fear that our culture’s continued slide into unbiblical immorality has conditioned many of us to sidestep personal sanctification. We are tempted to feel we are better than many whose stories we read daily, so we must be good enough. We also live in a compartmentalized culture that separates the spiritual from the secular and religion from the “real world,” so biblical holiness feels more like a Sunday sermon than a Monday requirement.

However, Scripture is clear: “As he who called you is holy, you also must be holy in all your conduct” (1 Peter 1:15, my emphasis). To this end, let’s close with an observation from A. W. Tozer:

 

“I look back and remember a day when it was common for men and women to come to an altar of prayer and kneel there, shake, tremble, and weep in agony of conviction over their iniquity. We do not see it now because the God we preach is not the everlasting, awful Holy One who cannot look upon iniquity. When we get a vision of the Holy One as he desires to reveal himself, this will come back as a mighty power to change us into his likeness.”


Tozer then quotes this hymn by Charles Wesley:

Lord, incline me to repent;
Let me now my fall lament,
Deeply my revolt deplore,
Weep, believe, and sin no more.

Would you join me in making these words your prayer today?

NOTE: If you’ve ever thought:

 

  • “If only I could be more consistent with my personal Bible study.”
  • “If only I could better understand the Bible.”
  • “If only I could hear from God more often when I do study the Bible.”


you’re not alone.

That’s where our latest book aims to help.

 
FEATURED

God is building his church—even in Gaza

7 reasons Muslims are coming to Christ in Gaza

NEW EPISODE: Faith and works: A conversation with Dr. Albert Reyes

Dr. Albert Reyes and Dr. Mark Turman discuss how the gospel and meeting physical needs are two sides of the same coin of advancing God’s kingdom, how Buckner lives this out from “womb to tomb,” the importance of family, and how to get involved.

Share today’s Daily Article on social media or forward this email:
Facebook
Twitter
Email

 

Dr. Jim Denison is the CEO of Denison Ministries

Jim Denison, PhD, is an author, speaker, and the CEO of Denison Ministries, which is transforming 6.8 million lives through meaningful digital content. Dallas-based Denison Ministries includes DenisonForum.org, First15.orgChristianParenting.org, and FoundationsWithJanet.org.

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.