The Southern Baptist Convention recently launched a revamped hotline to report allegations of sexual abuse among member congregations and provide other resources.
The SBC Office for Abuse Prevention and Response (OAPR) launched the expanded service in partnership with the Evangelical Council for Abuse Prevention, reported Baptist Press, an SBC news organ, on Monday.
The helpline can be accessed at 833-611-HELP or by visiting here.
Not only will the new helpline allow for abuse reporting, but it will also offer resources like counseling for sex abuse survivors or assistance for churches responding to abuse allegations.
SBC Executive Committee President Jeff Iorg, whose entity oversees the OAPR, said in a statement that the “new helpline suite of services enhances our efforts at providing Southern Baptist churches and ministries the resources they need to prevent sexual abuse or respond to sexual abuse allegations.”
“The new helpline will provide competent assistance to those seeking assistance — for survivors as well as services for ministry leaders who are responding on these issues,” stated Iorg.
“We are putting in place long-term strategies for confronting this pernicious evil because even one instance of sexual abuse is too many.”
The revamped helpline is meant to eventually replace an abuse hotline overseen by Guidepost Solutions that was launched in May 2022. The Guidepost resource is slated to operate until at least the end of the year, according to BP.
In 2022, Guidepost released a detailed investigation report stating that SBC leaders mishandled sexual abuse allegations against member churches, engaged in the intimidation of victims and resisted efforts to make churches safer, mainly to avoid legal liability.
Since the Guidepost report’s release, SBC has pursued various efforts to improve its response to credible allegations of abuse within member congregations, including the launching of the abuse tipline.
In February, Iorg explained to members of the SBC EC that the hotline had received 674 abuse allegations, of which 458 were allegations involving Southern Baptists and 128 cases were referred to the SBC Credentials Committee, which had investigated or was in the process of investigating all cases.
As a result of these investigations, seven churches were deemed “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 during the February meeting. “And when it happens, it is devastating for the survivors, the church, the community, and every person who is involved.”
Earlier this year, the SBC EC relaunched the Abuse Prevention & Response website, which was updated to include enhanced resources on reporting and preventing abuse within churches.
