Was Joel Rumbaugh Listed in SBC Abuse Database?
Joel Rumbaugh, pastor of Bethel Baptist Church in La Grange, Texas, was arrested in 2017 on multiple counts of child sexual abuse. He accepted a plea bargain and was sentenced for aggravated sexual assault.
SBC Executive Committee Response To Report
According to the Washington Post, a 300-page report was released on Sunday, May 22, 2022. The document contains scary new details relating to certain abuse circumstances and sheds light on how denominational authorities actively disapproved abuse prevention and change for decades.
Southern Baptist Convention leaders have actually announced a substantial and independent third-party examination that found that abusers were often disregarded, forgotten, or perhaps criticized by high-ranking congregation authorities from within this religious denomination of greater than 16 million people. Furthermore, it disclosed these leaders frequently deceived their very own members to keep them from understanding the widespread sexual misconduct.
Continue reading about the SBC Executive Committee Response To Report
A Past of Ignored Abuse
The report alleges that a key Southern Baptist Convention leader was credibly implicated of sexual assault merely one month after finishing his two-year stretch as the convention’s president. Additionally, Johnny Hunt, a popular Georgia Southern Baptist preacher and senior vice president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s objectives arm, was credibly implicated of assaulting a female at a 2010 holiday in Panama City Beach, FL. The North American Mission Board president declared he was uninformed of the accusations prior to Hunt resigning on May 13. The report likewise names three previous presidents of the convention, a previous vice president, and the previous head of the SBC’s administrative arm as prominent SBC officials who aided in covering for and even motivated known abusers.
One victim described being treated with hostility as she alleged she was sexually abused by a youth pastor. The implicated pastor served in multiple Southern Baptist churches in several states. At a meeting with the SBC leaders in 2007, a member of the Executive Council “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 branch, the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, specified ‘this is not all Southern Baptists, take a look at all the good we do.’ The bombshell report demonstrates a trend of stonewalling, retaliation, intimidation, and coverup.” He hopes this document will bring much-needed reform and hold those liable for their sexual assault.
The report asserts that a principal Southern Baptist official was credibly implicated of sexual abuse no more than 1 month after completing his two-year term as the convention’s president. The report likewise names 3 prior presidents of the convention, a former vice president, and the former head of the SBC’s administrative division as renoun SBC leaders who aided in covering up and actually motivated believed sexual abusers.
He wishes this report will be the catalyst for much-needed change and hold those accountable for their horrific acts of abuse.
To learn more about resources available for survivors in Texas, visit this page: https://abuseguardian.com/sexual-assault-lawyer/texas/sex-trauma-therapist-tx/
Abuse Guardian for Texas
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