The Southern Baptist Convention ended the affiliation of seven churches following reports from an abuse hotline launched in May 2022.
SBC Executive Committee President Jeff Iorg gave remarks on Monday to members of the committee in which he discussed the SBC’s response to claims of abuse within member churches.
Since the hotline was launched in May 2022, it has received 1,008 contacts, of which 674 were abuse allegations. Of that number, 458 (68%) were allegations involving Southern Baptists, while 216 (32%) were not in regard to the SBC.
Get Our Latest News for FREE
Subscribe to get daily/weekly email with the top stories (plus special offers!) from The Christian Post. Be the first to know.
From the hotline allegations, according to Iorg, 128 cases were referred to the SBC Credentials Committee, with the entity having investigated or in the process of investigating all cases.
Iorg said that, as a result, seven churches had been deemed to be “not in friendly cooperation” with the SBC and were removed from membership “based on their responses to the Credentials Committee on these issues.”
“Sexual abuse is a serious and real problem,” said Iorg. “And when it happens, it is devastating for the survivors, the church, the community, and every person who is involved.”
“Every church must make every reasonable effort to prevent sexual abuse and respond proactively when it happens. We are committed to these standards at the Executive Committee: no tolerance for abuse, and every church a safe place for the vulnerable.”
Iorg warned the executive committee members that “the hotline data does not define the full scope of the problem” and that the SBC must remain “ever vigilant” on the issue.
“While we fully acknowledge reported incidents of sexual abuse, we also reject the false narrative that ‘Southern Baptist churches are dangerous places for children,’” Iorg continued.
Iorg noted that while the hotline reported an average of 13 contacts and five referrals per month over the past two years, this was out of approximately 12 million Southern Baptists and 47,000 member churches.
Although Iorg did not name the seven churches that were disfellowshipped over the past two years, the Baptist Press reported that Grove Road Baptist Church in Greenville, South Carolina, and West Hendersonville Baptist Church in Hendersonville, North Carolina, had been disfellowshipped in February 2024 for their alleged mishandling of sexual abuse claims.
In 2022, Guidepost Solutions released an extensive report concluding that SBC leaders had mishandled sexual abuse allegations against churches, engaged in the intimidation of victims and resisted efforts to make churches safer, primarily to avoid legal liability.
Since the release of the Guidepost report, the SBC has pursued various efforts to improve its response to credible allegations of abuse within member congregations.
Last September, for example, the SBC EC voted to launch a department that would tackle and prevent sexual abuse within member congregations. This came in response to a vote at the SBC’s Annual Meeting in June that called for the creation of a permanent entity for abuse response and prevention.
Jeff Dalrymple, the former executive director of the Evangelical Council for Abuse Prevention, who is also a Southern Baptist, was appointed by the executive committee to head the new department.
