Welcome to this special edition of the Daily Article for Friday, May the 27th, 2022.

I'm Chris Elkins with the Denison Forum, narrating this special edition article written by Dr. Jim Denison.

On the evening of May the 26th, the Executive Committee of the Southern Baptist Convention

released a list of alleged church-related sexual abuse offenders.

This action comes in response to a third-party investigation published on May the 22nd

that revealed a widespread cover-up by top denominational leaders of such abuse.

The Executive Committee promised earlier in the week to release this list.

Their action comes 15 years after sexual abuse survivor Krista Brown began sounding the

alarm that Southern Baptist needed to create such a list to prevent abusers from transferring

from church to church.

She first told Southern Baptist leaders in 2004 that she had been abused by a youth

minister who then went on to serve in other Southern Baptist churches in several states.

However, when she suggested this idea in 2007, she was met with hostility.

Brown was emotional when she learned that the man she alleges abused her was listed in the database.

She said, and I quote, this means so much to us survivors.

It's a reflection of how cruel it was to stonewall any kind of validation for decades. For survivors to heal, this kind of validation

is an acknowledgement of the truth of the horror of what was done to us. End quote. Let's discuss

the Southern Baptist's list in the larger context of accountability and church discipline. How should churches and ministries

respond to victims of clergy sexual abuse? What steps should be taken to prevent such horrific sins?

I'm writing this paper as a biblical theologian, not as an attorney or a professional counselor. As a result, I will

focus on biblical guidelines and their application to this issue. In addition, as I will also explain,

I encourage every church and ministry to enlist professional guidance with regard to legal issues,

...