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››Calls for SBC to cut ties with Guidepost Solutions hail corporate pride month tweet

Calls for SBC to cut ties with Guidepost Solutions hail corporate pride month tweet

By Pamela Carlson
June 8, 2022
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(RNS) – Randy Davis, president and executive director of the Tennessee Baptist Mission Board, said a recent report detailing decades of sexual abuse at Southern Baptist Convention churches identified a significant problem the SBC needs to address. He also believes that members of the LGBTQ+ community “have value and value.”

But in a statement this week, Davis said called on the SBC to ‘sever all ties’ with investigative firm Guidepost Solutions, which produced the long-awaited sex abuse report, after the company tweeted its support for LGBTQ+ Pride Month. The SBC should have nothing to do, he said, with a company that “does not share our biblical perspective on human sexuality.”

Davis spoke as news spread through the SBC community from Guidepost’s tweet on Monday reading, “We celebrate our collective progress towards equality for all and are proud to be an ally of our LGBTQ+ community.”

Baptist leaders in Alabama have also called on the SBC to cut ties with signpost. A Baptist Abuse Task Force in Kentucky announcement he will no longer work with the company.

Although a secular company, Guidepost has become a go-to company for evangelical groups dealing with the issue of sexual abuse and is perhaps best known in Christian circles for a culture report at Ravi Zacharias International Ministries which revealed that the board members of RZIM were blindsided. out of loyalty to Zacharias, a once-beloved author and lecturer who has been credibly accused of sexual abuse.

The New York-headquartered firm was hired last year by the SBC’s executive committee to examine how executives have responded to the abuse issue. Guidepost’s work was expanded by delegates at the June 2021 SBC annual meeting, who authorized further investigation. This investigation found that SBC leaders had mistreated victims of abuse for decades and had long worked to protect the institution and prevent reform aimed at addressing abuse.

Southern Baptist leaders repeatedly tried to derail the investigation.

As part of its report, Guidepost suggested a series of measures to combat the abuse. An SBC task force on sexual abuse, which oversaw the investigation, also suggested reforms, which will be voted on at next week’s annual meeting in Anaheim, California. The signpost is also functioning a hotline to report abuse, which can be reached at 202-864-5578 or [email protected]

The SBC’s North American Mission Board has also announced its intention to work with Guidepost to investigate any allegations of abuse reported against its staff.

Guidepost’s tweet, which included a rainbow flag, caused an outcry on social media, particularly from SBC figures who say the denomination has become too liberal. Tom Ascol, a Florida pastor running for SBC president, said SBC churches and pastors have been betrayed.

“That’s who we gave our tithing dollars to?” he tweeted.

But others, including South Carolina pastor Marshall Blalock, vice chair of the abuse task force, have defended Guidepost in a series of social media posts. He said the task force would have preferred to hire a Christian company, but none had the capacity to do the job.

“Guidepost did a professional investigation, they operated with integrity, they respected our faith and values, they even ate a significant chunk of the cost because they wanted to help us find out the truth and help us be more like Christ in how we respond to sexual abuse,” he said. tweeted.

On Wednesday, the Abuse Task Force released an updated set of reform recommendations to tackle abuse. These updates are the result of conversations among SBC leaders, according to Bruce Frank, chair of the task force.

“Over the past few days since posting our recommendations, we are grateful for all of the encouragement and support,” Frank said in a video. posted to the working group’s website. We also listened to questions and concerns from Southern Baptists. We are very grateful to receive valuable feedback.

The updated recommendations call on Send Relief, a partnership between the SBC’s International Mission Board and the North American Mission Board that does compassionate ministry, to provide $3 million in seed funding for abuse reforms. An earlier plan called for the reforms to be funded by cooperative program funds collected from individual churches.

Send Relief will also contribute $1 million to create a survivor care fund “providing trauma counseling to survivors of sexual abuse in the SBC, as well as trauma-informed training for SBC pastors, churches, local associations and state conventions,” Send Relief said. in a report.

“Southern Baptists mourn survivors of abuse and seek ways to better protect children and families,” the statement read. “Send Relief wants to be part of the solutions outlined by the SBC Sexual Abuse Task Force.”

Frank said in a phone interview that most of the work the task force hired Guidepost to do has been completed. He said any future Guidepost work is out of his hands.

“I don’t really have an opinion on that,” he said when asked about Davis’ comments. “It’s not my domain.”

RELATED: How the Southern Baptists’ ‘Doomsday’ Report Almost Didn’t Happen

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