This month two SBC committees, the Executive Committee of the Southern Baptist Convention and the Board of Trustees of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission (ERLC), held meetings in which they addressed concerns related to sexual abuse. During the recent 2021 Southern Baptist Convention Annual Meeting, a motion was made calling for an “audit and …
Continue...Let’s start this chapter by admitting that we like to use hyperbole — extreme examples to clarify our points. We Christians may be particularly fond of it when we’re illustrating an important theme of the gospel, such as forgiveness. Is hyperbole bad? No, Jesus used it (Matthew 5:27–30). Can it be used poorly? Yes. But …
Continue...As an entity of the Southern Baptist Convention, we are privileged to come alongside Southern Baptist churches in various ways. From Capitol Hill to the pew, we engage with SBC churches as they live on mission in their local communities, displaying the Kingdom of God to a watching world. One of the most important initiatives …
Continue...The ERLC, together with the Sexual Abuse Advisory Group of the SBC, has continued working to try to prevent more terrible instances of abuse from happening in the future and to care well for victims. That’s why we wanted to focus this issue of Light Magazine on educating and equipping Christians to stand against sexual …
Continue...The disruption of my life began at age 14 in my small Southern Baptist church a few miles outside of Birmingham, Alabama. For months, my youth minister had showered me with flattering attention, telling me that God had chosen me to help his ministry. This grooming led to 18 months of progressively worse sexual abuse, …
Continue...It was a Sunday in the spring of 2003. Our youngest son, Wesley, was weeks from his 9th birthday. Sundays were (and still are) busy days in our household as my husband, Marty, is a pastor. Wesley and a friend had gone camping with a family friend and colleague of my husband’s over the weekend. …
Continue...As pastor, on Sunday mornings I always got to church way ahead of most others. On this particular Sunday, Wesley had just returned from a camping trip. But when he saw me for the first time, he grabbed me tightly and would not let go. I couldn’t even walk. I thought he was just happy …
Continue...Redeemed. Forgiven. Justified. Chosen. Safe. Loved. Set free. A new creation. Free, indeed. Child of God. More than a conqueror. Never alone. Free from condemnation. Reconciled. Joint heirs with Christ. And complete in him. I have heard these words my entire life. As a three year old, sitting alongside my twin sister at my Southern …
Continue...It’s hard to describe the indescribable, especially considering age and how it makes memories dim and inaccurate at times. I don’t remember plot points. I don’t know what color shirt I had on. I don’t know if it was blue or orange or black like the room it all happened in. And I don’t remember …
Continue...I’m 53 now, some 40 years after my abuse started. Time has been a good teacher, but also a very painful one. It has only been about 14 years since I told my wife that I was abused. For male survivors my age, we often don’t get professional therapy until later in life—after kids have …
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