Church leaders said in a statement that many branches of the denomination, which includes seminaries and missionary organizations, were under investigation and that the church continued to “mourn and grieve over past mistakes.” In May, church leaders published a scathing critique that said reports of sexual abuse had been suppressed by top church officials for two decades. This investigation, which was conducted by an outside consultant, covered reports of abuse by women and children against male pastors, church workers and officials from 2000 to the present. One of the report’s most startling revelations was the existence of an internal list of 703 people suspected of abuse, compiled by an employee of the denomination’s executive committee, the national governing body. “For nearly two decades, abuse survivors and other concerned Southern Baptists have been contacting the Southern Baptist Convention,” the report says, “to report pedophiles and other abusers who were in the pulpit or working as church staff.” “They made phone calls, mailed letters, sent emails” and showed up at meetings and held rallies, the report continued, “only to be met, time and time again, with resistance, stonewalling and even outright hostility.” The church then released a 205-page list of hundreds of ministers and other church workers it described as “credibly accused” of sexual abuse. On Friday, church leaders vowed to continue reforms to combat sexual abuse in its ranks. “We recognize that our reform efforts are not over,” they said. “Our commitment to working with the Department of Justice is born out of our proven commitment to transparently addressing the scourge of sexual abuse.” Leaders included seminary presidents, executive committee members, and heads of missionary organizations. A spokeswoman for the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division would not confirm the investigation Friday and had no immediate comment. Pastors and church members have been openly frustrated in recent years with what they described as inaction by the Southern Baptist Convention. The crisis broke into the open in 2019 when an investigation by The Houston Chronicle and the San Antonio Express-News revealed that about 380 Southern Baptist leaders and volunteers, from youth pastors to top ministers, had pleaded guilty to or been convicted of sex crimes against more than 700 victims since 1998. The Justice Department in recent years has investigated Roman Catholic dioceses for sex abuse offenses, but has so far struggled to prosecute them. The FBI launched an investigation in June of the Roman Catholic Church in New Orleans, the Associated Press reported. The Southern Baptist Convention was formed in 1845 when the Southern Baptists split from the Northerners over the issue of slavery, which the Southerners at the time supported and the Northerners opposed. The SBC now has nearly 14 million members and more than 47,000 congregations in all 50 states. Glenn Thrush, Ruth Graham and Elizabeth Dias contributed reporting.
