I suppose SNAP is going to have to change its name to SNAM. The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) is turning its attention to the Southern Baptists.
The Chicago-based Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests has started a campaign to call attention to alleged sex abuse committed by Southern Baptist ministers and concealed by churches.
SNAP presented a letter Monday to Southern Baptist Convention executive committee members in Nashville, asking the group to adopt a zero-tolerance policy on sex abuse and to create an independent review board to investigate molestation reports.
As usual, SNAP takes a bull-in-the-china-shop approach to the situation, ignoring the Baptists’ response that because their demonination is so decentralized, there isn’t a lot of teeth to put into any national policy.
Church leaders concede there have been some incidents of abuse in Southern Baptist congregations, but say their hands are tied when it comes to investigating complaints across the denomination.
Unlike the Catholic Church, with its rigid hierarchy, Baptist churches are independent. They make their own decisions about hiring ministers and conducting investigations, Baptist leaders say.
The usual problem with groups that arise out of the pain of its members in response to a specific situation is that when that original situation doesn’t need the same level of attention any more, their gaze begins to drift in search of new situations. This is where mission creep happens and when your only tool is a hammer every problem looks like a nail.
Just because both situations involve sexual abuse by ordained ministers doesn’t mean that the problem or the solution will be the same. For one thing, Baptist ministers are hired by the congregations, not assigned by a bishop. For another thing, the individual churches are independent in most ways from the denomination. If they don’t want to obey the national group, there’s not much the national group can do about it.
Like most other elements of the Scandal, there are a lot of good people who support the group and its purported aims, but there’s something about the leadership and its activity that make me wary and uneasy.
Let me venture a guess here: The SNAP people are going after the Southern Baptists because they are 1) large, 2) conservative, and 3) have a well-publicized commitment to Biblical morality—in other words, they’re “rigid.”
Now, if they go after the Unitarians, or perhaps the liberal wing of the Episcopalian Church USA, or the Presbyterian Church USA, then I might believe that they are sincere. I’m not holding my breath about this.
I don’t think that this effort will do so well for SNAP for the very reasons that are mentioned in the above post. They have no centralized authority and so I imagine that the National Southern Baptist Convention cannot be sued, furthermore individual Baptist churhches overall don’t have much money, so the lawyers will not be so attracted.
PMcGrath,
Exactly. Logically, it would make more sense for SNAP to go after the Episcopalians or the Orthodox, but they target the Southern Baptists because of their “moral rigidity.”
More importantly, why doesn’t SNAP go after public schoolteachers? They have hierarchical institutions that cover these things up and protect the abusers over the victims. They also have a far greater percentage of sexual abuse and misconduct than Catholic priests. After all, wakl into just about any middle school or high school and you’ll see the teachers turning a blind eye to the male teacher who’s always flirting with or touching female students in the hallways or the male guidance counselor who has hour-long sessions with the same female students practically daily.
Because their organizational structures are liberal.
JC wrote:
…or, just as likely if not more so, the male teacher who’s always flirting with or touching male students….etc.
There’s a reason why “gay-straight alliance” groups get into public schools so easily, and why the homo-agenda folks are so supported by the NEA and MTA (teachers’ unions). And it’s the same reason that child molestation rates in public schools are ridiculously higher than in any religious denomination.