By Michael Gryboski, Editor
The U.S. Division of Justice has concluded its investigation of the Southern Baptist Convention, having no longer filed any sexual abuse-related charges towards the nation’s excellent Protestant denomination.
The Baptist Press, the unswerving data organ of the SBC, launched Wednesday that the DOJ educated attorneys with the SBC that the investigation had concluded.
The DOJ launched its investigation of more than one entities at some stage within the SBC in August 2022 after a document that the conference failed to answer to sexual abuse accusations in member congregations successfully.
“Earlier at the recent time, the U.S. Licensed reputable’s Place of enterprise for the Southern District of Original York educated us that the investigation into the Southern Baptist Convention and Government Committee has officially concluded,” acknowledged SBC attorneys Gene Besen and Scarlett Nokes in an announcement given to BP.
“We are overjoyed that the topic has been resolved with out any charges or further expense towards the Government Committee or other SBC entities. It has been an honor to signify and make stronger the Convention and the EC at some stage in this direction of.”
As of closing December, the SBC Government Committee had spent moderately over $2 million on appropriate costs tied to the Justice Division’s investigation, per BP.
Timothy Pigg, lead pastor of Fellowship Church of Immokalee, Florida, took to his X narrative on Wednesday to denounce what he known as the “‘sexual abuse coverup’ legend.”
“The ‘sexual abuse coverup’ legend precipitated hurt to the americans who stood towards the energy-hungry platform-builders within the SBC,” Pigg tweeted. “For occasion, SBC members slandered Fellowship Church and me.”
“My necessary other got messages on social media encouraging her to hotfoot away our marriage which capability that of her being married to any individual who covers up abuse. Diversified pastors’ wives on my workers had been instructed to lead their husbands to hotfoot away the church.”
Pigg claimed that the “evidence and justification of these rabble-rousers” become as soon as his congregation’s ties to the Conservative Baptist Community, a theologically conservative organization.
The Justice Division’s investigation adopted the beginning of a document by out of doorways firm Guidepost Ideas commissioned by the SBC’s Government Committee detailing how some leaders allegedly mistreated victims of abuse and had mishandled allegations of abuse.
“For as regards to two a protracted time, survivors of abuse and other eager Southern Baptists were contacting the [SBC Executive Committee] to document child molesters and other abusers who had been within the pulpit or employed as church workers,” acknowledged the document’s government summary.
“They made phone calls, mailed letters, despatched emails, appeared at SBC and EC meetings, held rallies, and contacted the clicking … excellent to be met, time and time as soon as more, with resistance, stonewalling, and even outright hostility from some at some stage within the EC.”
In gradual February 2024, the DOJ carried out its investigation of the SBC Government Committee specifically, filing no charges. On the change hand, the overall denomination and its entities remained under investigation.
Whereas there were no sexual abuse-related charges filed towards the federal government committee or the SBC general, the DOJ did payment former Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary Professor Matthew Queen with mendacity to federal authorities.
Queen pleaded guilty and, earlier this month, become as soon as sentenced to six months of dwelling confinement. He is prohibited from leaving except to discover sanatorium therapy or with permission from his probation officer.
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