If someone has faith in an invisible intangible omnipotent sky being, which simultaneously exists everywhere and nowhere, and has an unhealthy fascination with what ordinary human beings do with their genitals, I’m surprised that one would claim that such a person can reason through anything at all, seeing as such faith requires wilful abandonment of rational thought.

Moreover, Baptists have numerous failures to report and deal with clergy sexual misconduct.

I understand Baptist polity and local church autonomy. However, local church autonomy contributes greatly to each church lacking the knowledge and resources to prevent child sexual abuse and deal with allegations when presented. Immediate reactions to allegations are to protect the accused, and to protect the church, whereas the correct actions are to protect the child, the accuser and to report allegations to specified authorities immediately.

Local church autonomy may sound great as a Baptist distinctive. However, it has led to numerous cover-ups and has inflicted further damage on sexual abuse victims either out of ignorance of what to do, or meanness, seeking to protect the name and reputation of the ‘accused’.

Christa Brown has long argued from her own experience, using her blog as her primary means, that Baptists continue to victimize the sexually abused when they fail to implement systems to identify predators and create systems of accountability among local churches, all in the name of ‘local church autonomy’.

Shame!