Southern Baptist Convention vilified sex abuse survivors - report

Leaders of the world's largest Baptist denomination covered up sex abuse by clergy for years and vilified survivors, an internal report says.

The seven-month investigation found that survivors had come forward over two decades about abusers within the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC).

But their pleas for intervention were met with "resistance, stonewalling, and even outright hostility" by officials.

With 13 million members, SBC is the largest Protestant body in the US.

The investigation - carried out for the SBC by an outside firm - was launched in the wake of 2019 report by the Houston Chronicle and San Antonio Express-News that exposed hundreds of alleged cases of sex abuse within the church.

Amid internal divisions over how to handle the scandal, thousands of delegates at the SBC's annual gathering last year voted in favour of a third-party review of the church's actions.

The 288-page report issued on Sunday names a few senior leaders on the church's executive committee as having control over its response to the reports of abuse and of being "singularly focused on avoiding liability for the SBC".

These officials reportedly "protected or even supported alleged abusers", the report says.

Calls and emails from survivors or other concerned Southern Baptists would be "ignored, disbelieved, or met with the constant refrain that the SBC could take no action" because of how the church functions, the report states.

The document also discloses for the first time that the executive committee maintained a list of its ministers who were facing abuse allegations but - in spite of calls for a public database - kept its findings secret.

It makes a series of recommendations including: creating an independent commission that would oversee reforms in the handling of sexual misconduct, and restricting the use of non-disclosure agreements and civil settlements by the accused.

In a statement on Sunday, SBC President Ed Litton called on Southern Baptists to lament in prayer and prepare to implement reforms, adding he was "grieved to my core" for victims.

The SBC executive committee will hold a special meeting Tuesday to discuss the report.