The top administrative body of the Southern Baptist Conventions voted on Tuesday to cut ties with two churches, one of which had left the denomination decades ago.
At the end of a two-day meeting in Nashville, Tennessee, the Executive Committee voted, despite the Department of Justice investigation. A report by a consultant earlier this year into sexual abuse in Southern Baptist settings and the treatment of survivors by previous Executive Committee officials has led to federal scrutiny.
The committee on Tuesday approved a statement that College Park Baptist Church in North Carolina was not in friendly cooperation due to its endorsement of homosexuality.
College Park voted to leave the Southern Baptist Convention in 1999 and its website states that it is not a member of the convention.
The matter was put to a vote by the Executive Committee. The convention had the congregation on its rolls until now, according to the Executive Committee chairman.
The church states on its website that it is an Affirming Baptist Church and that it welcomes all people regardless of race, ethnicity, national origin, class, sexual orientation, gender identity or any other category.
The committee decided that the church was no longer in friendly cooperation. It said it lacked cooperation to resolve concerns about discrimination.
Requests for comment from either congregation were not returned.
The Baptist congregation can't be forced to follow their policies, but they can be expelled if they don't conform to denominational stances.
There could be more groups in the future.
More than 200 referrals have been made to a new hotline about the handling of abuse cases by the Southern Baptist Convention.
The Abuse Reform Implementation Task Force was created after Guidepost Solutions' report on the sexual abuse of children in SBC settings and the treatment of survivors was released.
Mike Keahbone, vice chair of the task force, said it is working to hire personnel to investigate reports of abuse in the Southern Baptists.
The Department of Justice is looking into the convention. The convention suggested in a statement that the report was related to sexual abuse. The committee decided to transfer $500,000 from investments to the operating budget in order to respond to the investigation.
The Executive Committee added aCaring Well Sunday to the official Southern Baptist calendar of activities in order to raise awareness about abuse. There is an option for churches to observe certain dates. "We want to be building a culture that addresses and prevents abuse, and this is a really good educational opportunity," Wellman said.
We want our churches to be safe for the vulnerable and unsafe for abusers. There is no place in a Southern Baptist church for people to be abused.
Abuse survivors found the committee's actions lacking. Christa Brown, a long-time advocate and survivor, said it has failed to take concrete steps towards making amends to survivors or to takeDisciplinary steps towards former officials faulted in the Guidepost report.
There's nothing we could say or do that would be worthy of any praise at all. The task force is trying to implement reforms correctly.
He said they weren't celebrating anything. Markers of improvement are what we are attempting to have.
Wellman said the same thing. He said that he had been broken-hearted for what they had gone through. We have a long way to go, that's for sure.
That's right.
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