When one assault led to her pregnancy, she was forced to apologize in front of the church but forbidden to mention the father. Survivors, in turn, described the soul-crushing effects of not only their abuse, but the stonewalling, insulting responses from leaders at the EC for 15-plus years.Д¬hrista Brown, a longtime advocate who experienced sexual abuse by her pastor at 16, said her вЂњcountless encounters with Baptist leadersвЂќ who shunned and disbelieved her вЂњleft a legacy of hateвЂќ and communicated вЂњyou are a creature void of any value-you donвЂ™t matter.вЂќ As a result, she said, instead of her faith providing solace, her faith has become вЂњneurologically networked with a nightmare.вЂќ She referred to it as вЂњsoul murder.вЂќДЄnother victim, Debbie Vasquez, was repeatedly sexually assaulted by an SBC pastor starting at the age of 14. EC general counsel Augie Boto and longtime attorney Jim Guenther advised the past three EC presidents-Ronnie Floyd, Frank Page, and Morris Chapman-that taking action on abuse would pose a risk to SBC liability and polity, leading the presidents to challenge proposed abuse reforms.ДЄs renewed calls for action emerged with the #ChurchToo and #SBCToo movements, Boto referred to advocacy for abuse survivors as вЂњa satanic scheme to completely distract us from evangelism.вЂќ

The investigation centers responsibility on members of the EC staff and their attorneys and says the hundreds of elected EC trustees were largely kept in the dark. вЂњBehind the curtain, the lawyers were advising to say nothing and do nothing, even when the callers were identifying predators still in SBC pulpits,вЂќ according to a massive third-party investigative report released Sunday. But, working closely with their lawyers, they maligned the people who wanted to do something about abuse and repeatedly rejected pleas for help and reform. The men who controlled the Executive Committee (EC)-which runs day-to-day operations of the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC)-knew the scope of the problem. Survivors, advocates, and some Southern Baptists themselves spent more than 15 years calling for ways to keep sexual predators from moving quietly from one flock to another. Armed with a secret list of more than 700 abusive pastors, Southern Baptist leaders chose to protect the denomination from lawsuits rather than protect the people in their churches from further abuse.

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