[continued from previous message]

an SBC church in Georgia. The church’s lead pastor declined to say if he
was ever made aware of the allegations, though Pittman provided emails
that show he reached out to the pastor repeatedly.

The youth minister did not return phone calls. Reached by email, he
declined to be interviewed. The newspapers are not identifying him because
he has not been charged.

Anne Marie Miller says she, too, has been denied justice. In July, Mark Aderholt, a former employee of the South Carolina Baptist Convention and a former missionary, was charged in Tarrant County with sexually assaulting Miller in the late 1990s, when she was a teenager. Texas eliminated its
statute of limitations for most sex crimes against children in 2007.

In 2007, Miller told the SBC’s International Mission Board about Aderholt
after he was hired there, prompting an internal investigation that
officials said supported her story. Aderholt resigned and worked at SBC churches in Arkansas before moving to South Carolina, where he worked for
the state’s Baptist convention.

Miller, meanwhile, was told to “let it go” when she asked mission board officials about the investigation.

‘Well, they are bad, and they should look bad. Because they have ignored
this issue.’

the Rev. Thomas Doyle, who has urged SBC leaders to act on sexual abuse

“Forgiveness is up to you alone,” general counsel Derek Gaubatz wrote in
one 2007 email. “It involves a decision by you to forgive the other person
of the wrongs done to you, just as Christ has forgiven you.”

After Aderholt’s arrest, a mission board spokeswoman said it did not
notify his future SBC employers about the allegations in 2007 because of
local church autonomy. The board also said that Miller at the time did not
want to talk with police. She says that was because she was still
traumatized.

The charges against Aderholt are pending.

Miller, 38, lives in the Fort Worth area. She says she has received
support from Greear, the new SBC president. But she’s skeptical that the
SBC will act decisively.

“I was really, really hopeful that it was a turning point, but I’ve been disappointed that there hasn’t been any meaningful action other than
forming committees and assigning budgets, which is just good old Baptist
red tape,” Miller said. “That’s just what you do — you form a committee,
and you put some money towards it and no change actually happens.”

The election last year of Greear, the 45-year-old pastor of The Summit
Church in Durham, N.C., was seen as a signal that the SBC was moving away
from more rigid conservative leaders such as Patterson. Greear has
launched a group that is studying sexual abuse at the request of Burleson
and others.

Unlike in 2008, Burleson last year directed his request for a sex offender registry to the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, which does moral advocacy on behalf of the Southern Baptist Convention. For the first time,
the study of his proposal has been funded.

But Greear said in an email that he is limited by local church autonomy.

“Change has to begin at the ground level with churches and organizations,”
he wrote. “Our churches must start standing together with a commitment to
take this issue much more seriously than ever before.”

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

[continued from previous message]

an SBC church in Georgia. The church’s lead pastor declined to say if he
was ever made aware of the allegations, though Pittman provided emails
that show he reached out to the pastor repeatedly.

The youth minister did not return phone calls. Reached by email, he
declined to be interviewed. The newspapers are not identifying him because
he has not been charged.

Anne Marie Miller says she, too, has been denied justice. In July, Mark Aderholt, a former employee of the South Carolina Baptist Convention and a former missionary, was charged in Tarrant County with sexually assaulting Miller in the late 1990s, when she was a teenager. Texas eliminated its
statute of limitations for most sex crimes against children in 2007.

In 2007, Miller told the SBC’s International Mission Board about Aderholt
after he was hired there, prompting an internal investigation that
officials said supported her story. Aderholt resigned and worked at SBC churches in Arkansas before moving to South Carolina, where he worked for
the state’s Baptist convention.

Miller, meanwhile, was told to “let it go” when she asked mission board officials about the investigation.

‘Well, they are bad, and they should look bad. Because they have ignored
this issue.’

the Rev. Thomas Doyle, who has urged SBC leaders to act on sexual abuse

“Forgiveness is up to you alone,” general counsel Derek Gaubatz wrote in
one 2007 email. “It involves a decision by you to forgive the other person
of the wrongs done to you, just as Christ has forgiven you.”

After Aderholt’s arrest, a mission board spokeswoman said it did not
notify his future SBC employers about the allegations in 2007 because of
local church autonomy. The board also said that Miller at the time did not
want to talk with police. She says that was because she was still
traumatized.

The charges against Aderholt are pending.

Miller, 38, lives in the Fort Worth area. She says she has received
support from Greear, the new SBC president. But she’s skeptical that the
SBC will act decisively.

“I was really, really hopeful that it was a turning point, but I’ve been disappointed that there hasn’t been any meaningful action other than
forming committees and assigning budgets, which is just good old Baptist
red tape,” Miller said. “That’s just what you do — you form a committee,
and you put some money towards it and no change actually happens.”

The election last year of Greear, the 45-year-old pastor of The Summit
Church in Durham, N.C., was seen as a signal that the SBC was moving away
from more rigid conservative leaders such as Patterson. Greear has
launched a group that is studying sexual abuse at the request of Burleson
and others.

Unlike in 2008, Burleson last year directed his request for a sex offender registry to the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, which does moral advocacy on behalf of the Southern Baptist Convention. For the first time,
the study of his proposal has been funded.

But Greear said in an email that he is limited by local church autonomy.

“Change has to begin at the ground level with churches and organizations,”
he wrote. “Our churches must start standing together with a commitment to
take this issue much more seriously than ever before.”

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)