Kyle Whitt: Sexual abuse in the SBC is not systemic, and the recently released report from Guidepost Solutions proves it. Part 3

I’m starting to dread Anaheim. Every speaker is going to begin by saying this is a time for lamenting, a time for grieving, a time to repent in sackcloth and ashes. I’ve been grieving over sex abuse in our churches since 2003. I don’t need anyone to make a big show about it just because of this report. But I’m dreading the melodramatic calls for us to change our wicked ways, all the virtue signaling and the emotionally charged manipulation appeals….all designed to get the crowd in a certain frame of mind so that we favor whatever they want us to support. I absolutely despise sexual abuse. But I’m really not in favor of emotional manipulation and guilt trips either.
—a Southern Baptist pastor, roughly a couple of weeks before the 2022 SBC meeting in Anaheim, California—

Key points: A problem improperly diagnosed will be ineffectively addressed. Moreover, if the causes of a problem are incorrectly identified, that problem also will be improperly addressed. I believe Kyle Whitt correctly diagnoses the SBC’s problems and its causes, and that he should be carefully heard and heeded.

All the posts in this series are available from this page.

On June 13-14, 2022, the Southern Baptist Convention will hold its annual meeting in Anaheim, California, at the Anaheim Convention Center.

Among many recommendations the messengers (the SBC’s term for delegates) will consider those of the Sexual Abuse Task Force report from Guidepost Solutions. The Southern Baptist Convention’s Sexual Abuse Task Force webpage states,

Guidepost is a reputable investigations and compliance firm specializing in investigating sexual abuse. Although the Executive Committee cannot guarantee the reliability of Guidepost’s analysis because the Executive Committee did not perform the investigation, the Executive Committee does not have any reason to believe the report is unreliable.

A committed, Bible-believing Christian might just have some trouble accepting the notion that “Guidepost is a reputable investigations and compliance firm specializing in investigating sexual abuse” when he or she learns that, according to the firm itself,

Guidepost is committed to strengthening diversity, equity and inclusion and strives to be an organization where our team can bring their authentic selves to work.

We celebrate our collective progress toward equality for all and are proud to be an ally to our LGBTQ+ community.

Guidepost is committed to strengthening diversity, equity and inclusion and strives to be an organization where our team can bring their authentic selves to work.

We celebrate our collective progress toward equality for all and are proud to be an ally to our LGBTQ+ community. pic.twitter.com/i6DKiX36nm

— Guidepost Solutions (@GuidepostGlobal) June 6, 2022

An article at Capstone Report frames the problem bluntly for the benefit of its readers, especially those who are Southern Baptists:

Guidepost Solutions—the firm the Russell Moore fanboys hired to investigate the Southern Baptist Convention and make suggested improvements—came out of the closet today [June 6, 2022] in a tweet revealing the firm to be radically pro-LGBTQ. Something that Bible-believing Southern Baptists might find shocking.…

The tweet revealed a great deal about the wicked worldview of Guidepost. Notice the organization affirms its support of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) policies. These are wicked and as Darrell B. Harrison points out “inherently discriminatory.”

According to Harrison, “Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) is inherently discriminatory. In fact, by definition, DEI is fundamentally antithetical to achieving ‘equality for all,’ because it discriminates against certain individuals, especially white people, in order to reach its DEI targets.”

DEI is a path toward Identity Marxism, according to experts.

One wonders how Guidepost would respond to these statements from Kyle Whitt, from whom we have been hearing in our last two posts. These statements from Kyle were featured in Part 2.

This segment begins with Kyle’s reading from the report: “With around fifteen to thirty percent of women experiencing a sexual assault within their lifetime….” Then he comments:

I’m going to call bogus on that right now based on a lawyer friend of mine who’s made it very clear to me that sexual assault [note the term assault, not abuse] is a very specific legal term. It is not general. It does not mean it the way we use it in common parlance. It means something very specific in a legal sense. So in a document like this, they should be following investigative practices; they should be very legal in how its using its terminology. To say that is very dubious.

Also, “fifteen to thirty percent” is a gigantic window and shows a huge degree of error. I have not looked into that. I’m just saying sexual assault is something very, very specific. And, yes, sexual abuse is incredibly common, way too common, among both men and women. And, in fact, it’s more common because of all the LGBTQ nonsense which is just riddled with sexual abuse, and it, in its very nature is a type of sexual abuse. So, it’s incredibly common. It should to be, but, again, it kind of raises the question, Why are they bringing this up?

Sexual abuse is incredibly common, way too common, among both men and women. And, in fact, it’s more common because of all the LGBTQ nonsense which is just riddled with sexual abuse, and it, in its very nature is a type of sexual abuse.

Guidepost, however, had made no secret of the fact it wasn’t, and isn’t, a Christian firm:

Kyle: This is not a Christian organization compiling this. They make that clear throughout this, that they don’t fully understand the structure and nature of the SBC or just of Christianity in general. So they need to define their terms. And even when they define their terms [things remain unclear]. Reading this report, again, it kind of slipped in and out of things. It makes things unclear.

I believe SBC leadership has some explaining to do, Why was Guidepost Solutions hired to do this investigation in the first place? Guidepost Solutions is totally unqualified to investigate sexual abuse, because it can’t recognize it for what it really is. That said, I still believe that if the kind of sexual abuse Guidepost was looking for were rampant or systemic within the Southern Baptist Convention, this firm, as unqualified as it is, still would have been able to find it. Even so, its approach was fraught with problems. Kyle Whitt has uncovered a significant number of them.

Part 3: A Look at the List of Alleged Abusers, an Assessment of Where the Real Problems Lie, and Recommendations

In this third section of his video on the Sexual Abuse Task Force report, Kyle takes a look at the List of Alleged Abusers, which an individual can access from the Sexual Abuse Task Force webpage. The webpage explains how the list came into being and expresses its hopes for its impact:

The recently released Guidepost report revealed a list of alleged abusers compiled by a former employee of the SBC Executive Committee. This list is being made public for the first time as an initial, but important, step towards addressing the scourge of sexual abuse and implementing reform in the Convention. Each entry in this list reminds us of the devastation and destruction brought about by sexual abuse. Our prayer is that the survivors of these heinous acts find hope and healing, and that churches will utilize this list proactively to protect and care for the most vulnerable among us.

While helpful in some instances, the list is problematic in numerous other ways. Kyle explains:

A PDF file of this image is available here.

The stated parameters, unless they’re somewhere else, the ones given here are very poor. Again, its scope is just to see, Hey, is there something to investigate? Not an investigation in itself, yet this was used as part of the investigation.
—Kyle Whitt—

Full of I Don’t Knows

The following clips highlight additional problems with the list, as well as elements that can prove helpful to the user.

In particular, it is noteworthy just how broad the list is. For example, it contains an entry connected to a church that is a member of “the Baptist Union of Great Britain.” Another entry contained the comment, “I don’t think it’s SBC.” Some of the entries are years old, with links to articles that no longer are accessible. Information is incomplete in many instances.

Significantly,

None of the convictions here, none of the useful information here, is new. There’s really almost nothing new brought to light. And in regards to What do we do with the information? There’s nothing you really can do. It didn’t establish anything that we can really be actionable on. Although Guidepost really wants the SBC to radically change in a very hierarchal way, a very top-down sort of way.

The information isn’t new.

Not only is the information not new; note the last sentence — “Guidepost really wants the SBC to radically change in a very hierarchal way, a very top-down sort of way.”

It isn’t just about changing the SBC structure, although that’s certainly a big part of it. It’s also about changing SBC funding of missions as well. Note this recommendation: The task force recommends that a compensation program for abuse survivors be set up, and that it “be supported by a dedicated permanent fund established and replenished with Cooperative Program dollars and/or the selling of SBC assets and be prioritized by the SBC EC.”

The task force recommends that a compensation program for abuse survivors be set up, and that it “be supported by a dedicated permanent fund established and replenished with Cooperative Program dollars and/or the selling of SBC assets and be prioritized by the SBC EC.”
—Sexual Abuse Task Force Report, page 268—

While abusers should certainly be held accountable and abuse survivors be supported, I know of no better way to destroy the CP — and the SBC along with it — than this. This would effectively place signs on them inviting abusers of the legal system to come and raid the CP. Josh Abbotoy, a lawyer and a Southern Baptist himself, warns,

The SATF report…calls for the creation of a “Survivor Compensation Fund”—overseen by an independent Special Master—to provide compensation to abuse survivors. The effect of the fund would be to distribute liability for abuse cases. Cooperative program giving by small local churches will in part be awarded to the fund in order to pay for abuse compensation by other churches. Additionally, the SATF report expressly calls for the sale of SBC assets in order to fund the Survivor Compensation Fund.…

The creation of a Survivor Compensation Fund (and the sale of SBC assets to fund it) creates another fact that will be used to establish liability, and essentially represents the SBC setting up a flashing light to attract plaintiff’s lawyers. What happens when, inevitably, the bill for such legal liabilities starts to increase? If we game it out, it seems certain that member churches would head to the exit door as they see increasing portions of their CP giving being allocated to liabilities because of actions taken by sister churches over whom they have no control. Small local churches want to give to the CP to fund missionary efforts and seminaries and so their pastors can have access to health benefits and retirement products. They do not give to provide compensation for the misdeeds of other churches. As churches leave, the relative proportion of the budget taken up by liability funding will increase. Insurance policies will be imperiled. Credit ratings may decline, resulting in bond defaults. Younger pastors and SBC entity employees may depart over credible questions about whether health insurance and retirement products will remain a viable choice. This dynamic creates a potential financial death spiral for the SBC.

I hope and pray Southern Baptists hear and heed this warning. It won’t matter if the consequences were unintended. They still will be real. And they potentially will be fatal for the Southern Baptist Convention and its ministry and missions efforts.

Small local churches want to give to the CP to fund missionary efforts and seminaries and so their pastors can have access to health benefits and retirement products. They do not give to provide compensation for the misdeeds of other churches. As churches leave, the relative proportion of the budget taken up by liability funding will increase. Insurance policies will be imperiled. Credit ratings may decline, resulting in bond defaults. Younger pastors and SBC entity employees may depart over credible questions about whether health insurance and retirement products will remain a viable choice. This dynamic creates a potential financial death spiral for the SBC.
—Josh Abbotoy—

Let’s return now to the list and to Kyle’s keen observations. Apparently the list is useful only when it is used in concert with other resources that are readily available — and that calls into question whether or not release of the list was useful to begin with. Kyle notes, “Again, there’s some good ones on here but the only good ones — you get a background check, it pops up immediately; you go to a sex offender database, you find it immediately.

What are the real problems in the SBC? What would be some helpful recommendations?

- Godless Pragmatism is a real problem.

Where are the real problems? Kyle offers some important insights!

This is a mad witch-hunt. Absolutely mad witch-hunt.

We need to root out real cases. Churches need to be willing to call people to repent. And I think the real systemic issue is not doing things like church discipline, not doing things like properly discipling people. Not putting reasonable safety nets in place. Not having accountability.…

If you look at the results of just not discipling people, if you look at the results of just not shepherding the flock, if you look at the results of not assessing an elder’s call to be an elder, to be a pastor, but instead shoving them through the seminary system, and — we don’t rely on God anymore. We’re in an era of godless pragmatism. Pragmatism itself is not a bad thing, I’m saying godless pragmatism where we try to do it all on our own and kick God out of the picture.

[We think] we can educate and create elders, pastors through our own merits through just the education process rather than assessing are you called and discipling men into that role. Education’s still important, I’m not saying it isn’t. I’m just saying we’ve kind of got off track. We’re not discipling our people. We’re not caring about our people. We’re too focused on institutions and not about the members. It’s just all out of whack. That’s what’s causing issues.

- The SBC is corrupt and needs to be investigated. This includes institutions and institutional leaders.

The investigation “punched right, didn’t punch left,” Kyle says. We need to be rooting out the errors, not looking for boogeymen!”

- It would be a big mistake to make the SBC bureaucracy bigger.

Rebuilding the SBC in a hierarchal way will only lead to more abuse and more problems. There is no systemic sexual abuse in the SBC, nor has there been a widespread cover-up. The investigation confirmed these realities. Yet SBC leadership, including institutional heads, have not been held accountable. They cannot be trusted. Here is just one example of violation of the trust placed in SBC institutional leaders.

B. H. Carroll Memorial Building at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary

- Virtue signaling and emotional manipulation should be avoided and even treated with disdain. The churches need to root out the corruption in their denomination and take it back.

J. D. Greear presides over one of the sessions at the SBC in Nashville in 2021

Like the pastor quoted at the top of this post, people are tired of emotional manipulation from the platform at convention meetings. I wrote about this last year. I’ve seen it repeatedly. It has to stop.

In addition, Southern Baptists and Southern Baptist churches need to decisively root out the institutional corruption in the SBC and take back their denomination.