Report. 700 victims of Southern Baptist sexual abuse. This is Jim Denison's daily article for

Monday, February 11th, 2019. I'm writing this morning's daily article with a grieving heart.

I became a Christian in a Southern Baptist Sunday school class and was baptized in a Southern

Baptist church. I was licensed and ordained as a vocational minister in that church.

I attended college at a Texas Baptist University and graduate school at a Southern Baptist Seminary.

I taught on that seminary's faculty and pastored four churches affiliated in various ways with the Southern Baptist Convention.

Southern Baptists support nearly 9,000 missionaries around the world,

are training more than 22,000 seminary students, served more than 2.9 million meals last year

to those in need, and assist those in crisis with practical compassion. God has used Southern

Baptist to share the gospel with multiplied millions of people around the world. And so, this story in yesterday's Houston Chronicle pains me deeply.

20 years, 700 victims.

Southern Baptist sexual abuse spreads as leaders resist reforms.

Reporters at the Chronicle in the San Antonio Express News began an investigation last year

to compile an archive of

allegations of sexual abuse, sexual assault, and other serious misconduct involving Southern

Baptist pastors and other church officials. What they discovered is tragic. The reporters found

complaints made against hundreds of pastors, church officials, and volunteers

at Southern Baptist churches nationwide.

They focused their search on the last 20 years, concentrating on individuals who had a documented

connection to a church listed in an SBC directory published by a state or national association.

They spent more than six months reviewing thousands of pages of court, prison, and police records

for more than 20 states and conducting hundreds of interviews.

...