America’s biggest Protestant denomination, the Southern Baptists, now faces the same reckoning as the Catholic church
Save time by listening to our audio articles as you multitaskAmerica’s biggest Protestant denomination, the Southern Baptists, now faces the same reckoning. In 2019 therevealed 380 allegations of sexual abuse in the denomination’s 47,000 affiliated churches. In response, its national executive stonewalled and prevaricated, leading to demands for an independent investigation. Its findings, made public this week, are even more shocking than expected.
It amounts to a familiar story: of privileged men exercising power with grubby and sometimes criminal impunity, then denying having done so to protect their institution and themselves. Secular institutions have seen plenty of that, of course. But it is probably no coincidence that the Catholic and Southern Baptist churches are among the most male-chauvinist Christian traditions. Nor is it by chance that some of their most censorious figures have turned out to be among the biggest abusers.
Southern Baptists will discuss the report, which is already receiving pushback from conservatives, at their annual meeting in California next month. But even if their leadership accepts it contritely, the revelations seem likely to accentuate a decline in the white evangelical tradition that is already advanced.
The decline has been most pronounced among those aged 18-29. Anecdotal evidence suggests they dislike the partisan alignment as much as the scandals Messrs Patterson and Pressler have wrought. Leah Boyd, a 23-year-old Southern Baptist seminarian and victim of assault within the church, estimates that of her 30 school friends in the Alabamian Bible belt, only ten attend services. “I’m an outlier,” she says. “It’s not just the sex-abuse scandals.
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