(Tennessean) A battle over a sexual abuse investigation in the national Southern Baptist Convention caused everyday Southern Baptists to feel the pushback to reform was greater than they realized, leading some to take matters into their own hands at the state level.
In recent weeks, at least 17 state-level Southern Baptist conventions discussed and many approved sexual abuse prevention initiatives. Activists who have pushed for sexual abuse reform in the Southern Baptist Convention for decades said the state-level phenomenon is the first ever.
Sexual abuse survivors and messengers, the voting delegates representing local churches, said the moment symbolized a new form of empowerment that wasn’t previously on display.