Judy: A new report documents the
devastating detail how past
leadership of the southern
Baptist convention ignored
sexual abuse allegations for the
better part of two decades, and
sometimes silenced or tried to
discredit accusers.
We have more on the details of
this disturbing report and the
challenges it poses.
>> The southern Baptist
convention is the largest
protestant denomination in the
U.S. With 14 million members
across 47,000 churches.
This independent report over 200
pages long examined hundreds of
cases of sexual misconduct and
abuse between 2000 and 2020.
Among the findings -- church
leaders publicly fought calls
to track ministers accused of
abuse even as a privately
maintained a list of 100s of
names long.
The report found leaders
protected or supported abusers
for years.
Joining us now is one of the
survivors anne-marie Miller, the
author of "Healing together,a
guide to supporting survivors
and a registered nurse in Dallas
welcome to the newshour.
I know you had a chance to go
through some of the report.
I'm sure you've seen the
headlines.
What was your reaction.
Did anything surprising?
>> Honestly, nothing really
surprised me about the report.
I'm so glad that it is here.
So glad that tangible steps have
finally prepared but reading the
report, nothing was a surprise.
>> You grew up in the southern
Baptist congregation.
You were 16, as you have spoken
publicly when you were abused by
one of the church leaders began
in the 1990's.
Years went by before you
reported it to church officials.
What happened after that?
What was the response?
>> The response after I reported
it was initially it seems like a
good thing, like people were
caring for me, but the actual
organization ended up not
reporting it to authorities and
allowing the person that abused
me to continue going up the
ladder in the southern Baptist
convention.
He was an executive when he was
finally arrested in 2018.
>> What was that like for you at
the time to see that happen?
>> It was almost as traumatizing
as the abuse itself.
>> And what about from the
congregation?
Did you get a response from
>> I actually have left the
church at that point, because id
did not feel safe and I was
wrestling with my face at that
time.
>> It did take you years and you
eventually went to the police
when church officials did not do
anything about it.
What happened after that?
>> I went to the police,
thinking they were not going to
do anything because it had been
20 plus years, but within 24
hour were investigating it.
He was arrested and eventually
indicted for four sex abuse
felonies.
At that point, there was a large
reckoning happening within the
southern Baptist convention, a
lot of abuse stories had become
public and I believe that it was
that moment this task force and
other investigations started to
become finally necessary because
the media was finally pushing
these stories forward.
So they had to do something to
address it.
>> When you were younger, did
you know of other people who has
been abused?
Where these stories known within
the church?
>>T H ey weren't.
I grew up in a small town in
west Texas.
But I think they were probably
happening.
It is just not something you
talk about in the church.
You do not talk about sex in
general.
Like with my own abuse, I do not
feel like it -- I could talk
about because I did not see it
as abuse but I felt as if I was
sinning, I needed to protect
this man of god who was abusing
me because it would look bad on
god, there was sin involved, so
there is so much shame involved
in it that especially with kids
and adults, you do not know how
to deal with that in such a
religious environment.
>> There are details in this
report like how church leaders
talked about survivors like you,
how disparaging they were, how
hard they worked to silence
people like you.
What was that like for you to
read?
>> It was hard to see names that
you are familiar with that are
supposedly leading people to
Christ, caring for others and
showing compassion for the porr,
-- the poor and calling
survivors satanic.
And saying sometimes people were
received death threats from
leaders within the southern
Baptist church.
I wasn't, but I have friends
that received death threats from
pastors.
That's just behind, had double
to me.
>> We shouldnote, that unlike
the catholic church that has
grappled with similar issues,
there is no top-down hierarchy
and the southern Baptist
convention.
Does that make accountability
harder?
>> It does.
It's something I was call the
idol of autonomy and it is just
a way for churches to escape
liability or really for the
whole organization because you
have something -- if you have
something happen in this little
church, then you can't sue the
entire organization, they are
not responsible., that is their
thing
we cannot do anything about it.
>> What would you like to see
happen now?
It is an independent report,
there are some shocking
revolutions -- revelations.
What should happen next?
>> I think that the everyday
person echoes to southern
Baptist churches need to really
consider where they are spending
their money.
And where they are going and see
that there are tons of survivors
that need care and compassion.
And know this is true, this is
subjective documentation.
It is not made up.
To belief survivors and care for
them.
>> We should mention that
schuurs executive committee
later said they are committed to
doing all they can to prevent
future instances of sexual abuse
in churches.
Do you believe that they will?
>> We'll have to see.
I do not know how to answer that
question.
I hope that they will.
We're going to need and we need
more than thoughts and prayers,
we need tangible action.
>> That is anne-marie Miller
joining us tonight from Dallas.
Thank you for your time.
>> Thank you so much for having
me.