Former Southern Baptist Minister --

and a woman

Arkansas

June 2009

I am a former Baptist minister and a graduate of Southern Seminary. While at SBTS, three women on my hall all admitted they had experienced years of sexual abuse by ministers of their churches.

You can't imagine the number of people I spoke to during ministry who were going to staff at a church where a predator had just left the staff, and nothing had been done. The churches just kept silent. The predators... on their way to their next church.

I left ministry because I found the church just wouldn't deal with issues. When I had an adult male 24 "dating" a 16-year-old girl, the pastor told me it was none of my business and to leave it alone. When a deacon in the church was hitting on me and I told the senior staff, I was told "I was making it up in my head'  --  like I wanted a 70-year-old man grabbing me and touching me in the church copy room??!!

I read the comments in my local paper of the largest local SBC church in my community that said they "rely on the national sex offender registry" and that the SBC doesn't need to recreate the wheel. What this minister doesn't know is that most predators aren't on the national registry and they never will be. Because of the collusion of Southern Baptists and the wall of silence they create, this problem will continue.

Thank you for your work to educate and speak out on behalf of survivors.