Uncovering Abuse In The Southern Baptist Convention

Fresh Air

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4.4 • 34.4K Ratings

🗓️ 2 June 2022

⏱️ 45 minutes

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Summary

A new report commissioned by the Southern Baptist Convention found that "survivors and others who reported abuse were ignored, disbelieved, or discredited." Even some convicted molesters continued as ministers, without the SBC informing their congregations. The report's bombshell is that the SBC had compiled its own secret list of alleged abusers – and still took no action. This report was commissioned in response to a series of newspaper articles investigating sexual abuse in the Southern Baptist Church. Published in 2019, the series was a team effort by reporters from the Houston Chronicle and the San Antonio Express-News. We'll talk with one of the lead reporters, Robert Downen.

John Powers will review the new British medical series This is Going to Hurt.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Support for this podcast comes from the New Bower Family Foundation, supporting
0:04.7	WHY Wise Fresh Air and its commitment to sharing ideas and encouraging meaningful conversation.
0:11.5	This is Fresh Air, I'm Terry Gross.
0:14.0	A sexual abuse scandal has shaken up the Southern Baptist Church.
0:18.1	A report issued just over a week ago confirmed that survivors who came forward,
0:23.5	alleging they were sexually abused by church leaders, ministers, workers,
0:27.4	and volunteers were ignored or silenced by church leadership and often disparaged.
0:33.7	Meanwhile, the church kept a secret list of over 700 offenders.
0:38.6	The list was even kept secret from most of the church's leaders.
0:41.9	This new report was commissioned by the Southern Baptist Convention in response to a series of articles
0:47.8	investigating widespread sexual abuse in the church.
0:51.1	The series titled Abuse of Faith was published in 2019 after a six month investigation
0:57.1	by a team of reporters from the Houston Chronicle and the San Antonio Express News,
1:02.0	a team headed by John Tedesco and my guest Robert Downen, a reporter for the Houston Chronicle.
1:08.7	The reporters found that hundreds of Southern Baptist Convention Church leaders and volunteers
1:14.4	had been criminally charged with sex crimes since 2000.
1:18.7	The series also detailed numerous incidents in which denominational leaders
1:23.2	mishandled, ignored, or concealed warnings that Southern Baptist churches were being targeted by predators.
1:31.6	Robert Downen, welcome to Fresh Air and congratulations on your reporting.
1:35.7	Let's start with the finding of the Independent Report Commission by the Southern Baptist Convention,
1:41.0	the report that was the result of your investigative series along with the team of reporters.
1:45.8	So there was a secret list that was compiled for the church dating back to 2007.
	...

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