To make children safer, Baptists need:

1. A safe and welcoming place to receive reports about clergy sex abuse (particularly for cases that cannot be criminally prosecuted, which is most);

2. An objective, trained panel for responsibly assessing abuse reports (look to what other major faith groups do); and

3. An efficient means of assuring that assessment information reaches people in the pews -- i.e., a database.

Collusion, complicity & cover-ups

What's Collusion?

Individual conduct of Baptist leaders >

Institutional conduct of Baptist organizations >

ABC's 20/20: Preacher Predators

"What surprised us... is how little is being done to stop it."

Part 1 >      Part 2 >      Part 3 >

TIME ranks Southern Baptists' rejection of sex-offender database as a top "underreported" news story of 2008

"The lack of hierarchical structure and systematized record-keeping... makes it harder... to track allegations of abuse."

TIME's top 10 story >

Associated Baptist Press >

Southern Baptists reject sex-abuse database

"Under pressure to fight child sex abuse, the SBC's executive committee said…the denomination should not create its own database to help churches identity predators or establish an office to field abuse claims.”  Associated Press >

"Instead of protecting its followers from sexual predators, Nashville's Southern Baptist Convention leaves churches to fend for themselves." Nashville Scene >

"The very fact that Baptist churches are autonomous signals that they need the information that the convention could provide." Tennessean editorial >

"To argue that a list of Southern Baptist ministers who are sexual predators violates the self-government of a local church is illogical." Burleson op-ed >

"Baptists miss an opportunity." Dallas Morning News editorial >

"Holy hypocrisy!" Winson-Salem Journal editorial >

"The SBC prevaricates by saying ...

... that the creation of a Baptist database would just confuse matters."  Marci Hamilton, Princeton law professor

Read more >

"Catholics and Baptists.... The systems, secrecy and spin are similar  --  and shameful."

Robert Parham, EthicsDaily >