Sexual Abuse Survivors Must Be Embraced!

The Southern Baptist Convention has just completed its “Caring Well” Conference, which focused on sexual abuse in SBC churches.  I believe this event was in reaction to the Houston Chronicles article (February 2019) titled “Abuse of Faith. 20 yrs. 700 Victims:  Southern Baptist sexual abuse spreads as leaders resist reform.”  Why did we allow innocent people to be abused by predatory leaders?

My “why” question is more of a crying out against our blindness, our insensitivity, our accommodating evil in our midst.  IT SHOULD NOT BE SO!  I am personally OUTRAGED!  I’m an abuse survivor and more than anything I need a safe, trusting place to be heard, empathized with, and healed and SBC churches have NOT been that kind of place.

I can appreciate the “Caring Well” event but I don’t believe one experience of this sort will initiate long-term change.  Discipleship in the way of Jesus assumes a re-ordered kind of life.  No ones core character changes fast!  To change our churches MUST invite in LIGHT to expose darkness, especially the ugly darkness of sexual abuse.  This invitation to the LIGHT of Jesus must be done at a leadership level and a lay level.

This is a “daunting” task.  Think with me about King David (2 Samuel 11-12) hiding his sexual relationship (abuse?) with Bathsheba.  He, like us, resisted the LIGHT in his conversations and had Uriah and others of his men killed to cover his darkness.  He was in full-blown resistance mode.  If it had not been for someone pointing out his alignment with darkness, enter Nathan, he may have never been open to the LIGHT.  People died so David could cover his sin.  In a similar fashion 1000’s have been sexually abused in our churches and its been hidden in the darkness.  Again, I’m personally OUTRAGED!  The reason I say 1000’s is because sexual predators do not “stop” abusing until forced to do so.  They continue until they run into a strong Nathan, and some don’t stop then.

So resistance if not rebellion will be present in our midst.  Let’s commit to never blame a sexual abuse survivor for being abused.  Let’s commit to calling out the abusers, reporting them to the authorities, as we should have been doing all along.  Let’s commit to invite the LIGHT of Jesus to search us, our churches for any remnant of darkness.  Let’s commit to becoming churches that are safe havens for those who have experienced abuse.  I sure needed this growing up as an abused kid.