Was Brian Clay Gray Listed In the Southern Baptist Convention Abuse Report?
Brian Clay Gray, the former pastor of Anchor Baptist Church in Wheatland, California, pleaded guilty to having a sexual relationship with a 15-year-old girl for a year. He admitted sleeping with the girl for the first time in his church office in January 2012, then at a summer camp, several times in a field near her home, and at least once or twice a month at a Sacramento motel. Gray was sentenced to state prison for 8 years and 4 months and must register as a sex offender. Because his crimes are not “strike” convictions, he could be released in as little as four years and two months.
SBC Investigation Report
According to the Washington Post, a 300-page report was released on Sunday, May 22, 2022. The file includes scary new details regarding particular abuse circumstances and sheds light on how denominational authorities actively hindered abuse prevention and reform for many years.
Southern Baptist Convention leaders have actually revealed a substantial and independent third-party investigation that uncovered that abusers were frequently neglected, forgotten, or perhaps admonished by upper-level church representatives from within this religious denomination of greater than 16 million individuals. Moreover, it exposed these leaders frequently deceived their very own members to avoid them from understanding the unchecked sexual misbehavior.
Click to read more about the SBC Investigation Report
A Record of Dismissed Baptist Abuse
The report asserts that a principal Convention leader was credibly implicated of sexual assault merely one month after finishing his two-year stretch as the convention’s president. In Addition, Johnny Hunt, a popular Georgia Southern Baptist preacher and senior vice president of the SBC’s missions arm, was credibly implicated of assaulting a fellow congregant at a 2010 trip in Panama City Beach, Florida. The North American Mission Board president declared he was unaware of the allegations prior to Hunt resigning on May thirteenth. The report additionally identifies 3 prior presidents of the convention, a previous vice president, and the previous head of the SBC’s administrative arm as prominent SBC officials who helped in covering and even motivated known abusers.
One victim talked about being treated with hostility as she claimed she was sexually abused by a youth pastor. The accused pastor served in several Southern Baptist churches in a number of states. At a meeting with the SBC leaders in 2007, a member of the Executive Council “turned his back to her during her speech and another chortled.”
Accountability in the SBC
Russell Moore, the former head of the SBC’s policy arm, the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, specified ‘this is not all Southern Baptists, look at all the good we do.’ The sensational report demonstrates a trend of stonewalling, coverup, retaliation, and intimidation.” He anticipates this report will instigate much-needed reform and hold those accountable for their horrific acts of abuse.
To learn more about resources available for survivors in California, visit this page: https://abuseguardian.com/sexual-assault-lawyer/california/sex-trauma-therapist-ca/
Abuse Guardian for California
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