(RNS) Since the beginning of 2019, Southern Baptist Convention President J.D. Greear has been among the most high-profile advocates for preventing sex abuse and protecting victims of abuse in the nation’s largest Protestant denomination.
Greear, pastor of The Summit Church, a megachurch in Durham, North Carolina, called for Southern Baptist leaders to investigate and oust churches that cover up abuse.
He set up an advisory group of experts to aid the SBC in dealing with the issue of abuse, helping create a “Care Well” initiative to prevent abuse and minister to survivors.
Greear also led a litany of lament during the SBC’s 2019 annual meeting
“The failures of the way of man brought us to the place we are as a denomination on this issue of abuse,” said Greear at the meeting. “It is only the movement of God, we know, that can rescue us from it. It’s not just policy. It’s not just statements and changes. It’s the spirit of God working in us.”
Now advocates for abuse survivors are criticizing Greear after his church decided to hire a teaching pastor who has been accused of mishandling an abuse claim in the past and for a Summit Church policy that would allow registered sex abusers to attend worship services.