Eddie Hillburn Listed on Southern Baptist Convention Abuse Investigation

Was Eddie Hillburn Named in SBC Abuse Report?

On January 8, 2018, Eddie Hillburn, pastor of The Woodland First Baptist Church in Texas, pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor (soliciting) prostitution charge and received deferred adjudication. According to Harris County court records, Hillburn was sentenced to a year of community supervision, but he was released early and the case was dismissed on June 1, 2018.

Southern Baptist Convention 2022 Report

According to the Washington Post, a 300-page report was launched on Sunday, May 22, 2022. The file contains terrible new details relating to specific abuse circumstances and clarify how denominational authorities actively resisted abuse prevention and reform for many years.

Southern Baptist Convention leaders have announced an extensive and independent third-party examination that discovered that abusers were frequently ignored, forgotten, or perhaps denounced by upper-level church officials from within this religious denomination of greater than 16 million members. Additionally, it showed these leaders often deceived their very own members to stop them from knowing the widespread sexual abuses.

Continue reading about the Southern Baptist Convention 2022 Report

A History of Disregarded Abuse

For nearly twenty years, survivors who were sexually abused sought to reach out to the administration of the “SBC” about the ministers and church employees. Almost all of these revealed incidents fell outside of the SOL, making it not clear just how many sexual predators were actually charged. According to the report, an internal list was kept. However, victims’ cries for justice went unnoticed as leaders from churches and organizations tried to secure themselves rather than those who have actually been preyed on by sexual assault.

The report asserts that a key Southern Baptist official was credibly accused of sexual assault merely one month after finishing his two-year stretch as the convention’s president. Additionally, Johnny Hunt, a widely known Georgia Southern Baptist preacher and senior vice president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s objectives arm, was credibly implicated of abusing a lady at a 2010 trip in Panama City Beach, FL. The North American Mission Board president claimed he was uninformed of the allegations prior to Hunt resigning on May 13. The report likewise names three prior presidents of the convention, a previous vice president, and the former head of the SBC’s administrative arm as prominent SBC officials who aided in covering for and even encouraged alleged abusers.

One victim detailed being treated with hostility as she alleged she was sexually abused by a youth pastor. The accused pastor served in several Southern Baptist churches in a number of states. During a conference with the SBC leaders in 2007, a member of the Exec Board “turned his back to her during her speech and another chortled.”

Accountability in the Southern Baptist Convention

Russell Moore, the previous head of the SBC’s policy arm, the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, stated ‘this is not all Southern Baptists, look at all the good we do.’ The bombshell report shows a pattern of stonewalling, retaliation, intimidation, and coverup.” He hopes this document will bring much-needed reform and hold those liable for their horrific actions.

For more information about resources available to sexual abuse survivors in Texas, visit this link: https://abuseguardian.com/sexual-assault-lawyer/texas/sex-trauma-therapist-tx/