John Henry Stone Listed in SBC Guidepost Report of Abusers

Was John Henry Stone Named in Southern Baptist Convention Abuse Investigation Report?

John Henry Stone, a deacon and youth group leader at Grandview Baptist Church in Grandview, Missouri, pleaded guilty to child molestation and will be a registered sex offender for the rest of his life. He was found guilty of child molestation of two girls aged ten and twelve. In 2015, he was sentenced to 5 years probation.

SBC Executive Committee Response To Report

According to the Washington Post, a 300-page report was released on Sunday, May 22, 2022. The document includes horrible new information regarding specific abuse instances and clarify how denominational officials actively resisted abuse prevention and reform for years.

Southern Baptist Convention leaders have announced an extensive and independent third-party investigation that discovered that abusers were often overlooked, forgotten, and even criticized by upper-level congregation authorities from within this religious denomination of larger than 16 million individuals. Furthermore, it disclosed these leaders typically deceived their own members to stop them from knowing the flagrant sexual abuses.

Click to learn more about the SBC Executive Committee Response To Report

A History of Ignored Mishandling

Nearly all of these disclosed occurrences occurred outside of the statute of limitations, making it unclear how many abusers were in fact charged. According to the report, an internal list of predators was kept.

The report asserts that a major Southern Baptist official was credibly implicated of sexual assault merely 1 month after completing his two-year term as the convention’s president. Furthermore, Johnny Hunt, a well-known Georgia Southern Baptist preacher and senior vice president of the SBC’s objectives arm, was credibly accused of assaulting a female at a 2010 holiday in Panama City Beach, FL. The North American Mission Board president claimed he was uninformed of the accusations 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 leaders who assisted in covering and even encouraged known abusers.

One victim described being treated with hostility as she claimed she was sexually abused by a youth pastor. The implicated 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.”

Responsibility in the SBC

Russell Moore, the former head of the SBC’s policy arm, the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, mentioned ‘this is not all Southern Baptists, look at all the good we do.’ The report shows a trend of stonewalling, intimidation, retaliation, and coverup.” He desires this document will bring much-needed reform and hold those accountable for their horrific actions.

The report asserts that a principal Southern Baptist leader was credibly accused of sexual abuse no more than one month after completing his two-year stretch as the convention’s president. The report also names 3 prior presidents of the convention, a previous vice president, and the previous head of the SBC’s administrative branch as renoun SBC leaders who helped in covering and actually motivated thought sexual predators.

To learn more about information and resources available to survivors of sexual abuse in Missouri, read our page: https://abuseguardian.com/sexual-assault-lawyer/missouri/sex-trauma-therapist-mo