The SBC Executive Committee: What Happened, Why It Matters and What You Can Do

Some of you may have heard of some issues that have been going on in the Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee in the past couple of weeks. The majority of you may not have any idea of what is happening within the national leadership of the SBC right now, yet what is happening is incredibly important.

Let’s take a look at what has happened thus far, the consequences of decisions made/to be made, why it matters and what you can do about it all.

What has happened?

May 2021 – Letters from former head of the ERLC, Russell Moore, were leaked on social media in which he wrote of two meetings in 2019 among SBC leaders and described opposition to efforts to address sexual abuse in the SBC. President of the EC Ronnie Floyd and then-Executive Committee Chairman Mike Stone, who was a candidate for SBC president, participated in the meetings.

June 16 – A motion at the national convention was made – and overwhelmingly approved by the 15,000 SBC church messengers – to set up a task force that would enact and oversee a third-party review of the Executive committee that would include an investigation into any allegations of abuse or the mishandling of abuse allegations. The motion also included language that the Executive Committee staff and members would waive attorney client privilege in order to ensure full access to information and accuracy in the review.

September 21 – The Executive Committee meets and votes to pay $1.6 million to Guidepost to fund their third party investigation of the EC. The EC also voted not to waive attorney client privilege but set a deadline of one week to negotiate legal terms with Guidepost, including waiving attorney client privilege.

September 28 – The EC meets over a publicly streamed Zoom call and votes again to not waive attorney client privilege. The end result brought another agreement to extend discussions another seven days in order to pursue a potential agreement through what came to be called the “Michigan model.” In this model, Guidepost would have access to investigate all information, including privileged information, but would not be able to share any privileged information in its final public findings.

The consequences of the decisions so far

The investigation into the Executive Committee was approved and funded, yet the waiver of attorney client privilege was refused. The waiver of attorney client privilege is crucial in an investigation like this. Lawyer Rachel Denhollander provides a commentary on the benefits and risks of what a waiver would do:

“The importance of waiving privilege is a question I get all the time from institutions in crisis – it’s an issue in every case I work on. “Here’s the bottom-line with waiver – risks and benefits: The benefit of waiving is huge – because attorneys are usually involved in crafting the policies both for prevention and response, you simply cannot accurately diagnose problems without waiving privilege. You won’t have access to all the information.

Risks: None. Unless you’ve created liability. Literally, there is only a risk if you’ve done really bad things and hurt people. Because this is the actual issue with waiver: Insurance companies usually have boilerplate provisions that say if you don’t litigate against claims to the fullest (even if you know darn well that you’re at fault), or if you waive, they don’t have to pay out the policy.”

Basically, clinging to attorney client privilege means the investigation will be extremely limited. Any sins committed can be easily covered up.

Why it matters to you

First off, the refusal of the EC to follow the will of the SBC messengers defies how this convention is set up. Their job is to execute the will of the messengers, but they are failing to do that. The polity of the convention as a whole is at stake. Dr. Nathan Finn, Baptist historian and dean of the faculty at North Greenville university puts it this way, “My fellow Southern Baptists, one of our entities has willfully gone rogue by continuing to reject the officially expressed will of the Convention. This is unprecedented. And if it is allowed to stand, it will lead to the fracturing of the SBC.”

This is the Southern Baptist Convention – as in a convention of churches. This is not the Southern Baptist Committee. The churches have the power in a bottom to top dynamic – they instruct the EC on the ways to execute their will. The EC is acting in a way that seeks to make this a top to bottom dynamic – the EC instructs the churches on what to do.

Secondly, this is a justice issue. The group being investigated is trying to dictate the terms of this investigation in order to keep certain information from coming to light. For a group of believers – largely pastors – to seek to cover up any sin instead of confessing is evil and unbiblical. Let the truth come out, even if it is costly.

Lastly, the damage of all of this is largely intangible. Sex abuse victims are again being marginalized by the church. We say we want to do better but that will never happen with a limited investigation. On top of the victims we have the watching world who sees the church trying to cover up truth to save their brand. This shames the name of Christ when we are unwilling to follow the commands of Christ.

What you can do

1) Email your EC representative – Each state or region has a few EC members that represent you and your church. You can find the committee list HERE. Locate their email through their churches and respectfully tell them how you feel about this failure of stewardship and leadership.

2) Talk to your pastor about EC funds – Every SBC gives to the cooperative program, which directly funds the EC. Talk to your pastor about earmarking funds to go to all the SBC entities – seminaries, mission boards, ERLC, etc. – except for the Executive Committee. There is no reason to fund an entity that does not do the job that it is explicitly directed to do.

3) Pray – There is so much at stake here. We need the Spirit to move in the hearts of decision makers. We need more of the Good News of Christ going out into the world and not the bad news of another cover up. We need to love Jesus more than our brand – and only God will help us in that.