Rod Martin Resigns From SBC Executive Committee, Warns the SBC Is in ‘Grave Danger’

I know nothing about the legal implications of the SBC decision, but it is frightening. The SBC is not only an important denomination, it often hashes out issues smaller denoms will have to hash out. Not happy to read this.

The motion on the floor at the 2021 SBC Annual Meeting explicitly stated that the EC was to cooperate with an independent third party investigation and also stipulated that the EC was to waive attorney client privilege for the purposes of said investigation.

I move that the Southern Baptist Convention, meeting June 15-16, 2021, in Nashville, TN, ask the newly elected president of the SBC to appoint a task force within 30 days of the date of this Convention that shall be comprised of members of Baptist churches cooperating with this Convention and experts in sexual abuse and the handling of sexual abuse-related dynamics. This task force shall either assume oversight of the third-party review announced previously by the Executive Committee or initiate a separate third-party review. Said task force shall ensure that the third-party review includes an investigation into any allegations of abuse, mishandling of abuse, mistreatment of victims, a pattern of intimidation of victims or advocates, and resistance to sexual abuse reform initiatives. The investigation shall include actions and decisions of staff and members of the Executive Committee from January 1, 2000 to June 14, 2021. This investigation should include an audit of the procedures and actions taken by the Credentials Committee of the Southern Baptist Convention, which was formed at the Convention meeting in Birmingham, AL, June 11-12, 2019. The review shall be funded by allocations from the Cooperative Program.

We further move that the task force agree to the accepted best-standards and practices as recommended by the commissioned third-party, including but not limited to the Executive Committee staff and members waiving attorney client privilege in order to ensure full access to information and accuracy in the review. A written report on the factual findings of this review shall be presented to the task force 30 days prior to the SBC Annual meeting in 2022, and made public in full form within one week of the Task Force’s receipt of the report along with suggestions from the task force for actions to be taken by our convention.

There’s more listed at the SATF FAQ page, including this:

Does waiving privilege put any of our mission entities, seminaries, or related institutions at risk?
The mandate by the messengers of the SBC specifically called for an external investigation of the Executive Committee and the Credentials Committee. All other entities are legally separate non-profit organizations with their own governing boards to whom they are accountable.

Is there some liability risk to the Executive Committee or the Credentials Committee?
Only if an external audit conducted with the highest integrity finds that either has been involved in abuse, complicit with abuse, or the cover up of abuse. The Task Force is not alleging wrongdoing nor investigating anyone. The Task Force operates under the mandate of the motion overwhelmingly passed by the messengers gathered in Nashville.

The Task Force doesn’t decide what is discovered or reported. An external investigation will discover and disclose what is true, whether good or bad, as the mandate of the SBC.

Ronnie Floyd, Mike Stone, and Rod Martin (among others) have all been at the center of the EC’s continued efforts to either sideline the mandate, water it down, or simply act as if it doesn’t exist. Martin has been vocal about losing A/C privilege, but the Task Force has already covered this ground repeatedly.

Frankly, I’m glad Floyd and Martin are gone. They have contributed so much chaos and delay to what was a clear directive by the members of the SBC that I did not expect anything to come of the investigation. The consensus of my SBC friends is that EC has decided that they, not the messengers/churches, rule the SBC and by that they meant the business of the SBC over the people in it.

Frankly, the panic-mongering by men like Floyd, Stone and Martin (and their colleagues in the Conservative Baptist Network) is a sign that this is really about everything other than the abuse of Christians in churches.

I watched every single minute of the Executive Committee’s meetings as they struggled whether and how to waive attorney-client privilege, and I watched Rod Martin spend a cumulative two hours explaining his fears to Tom Ascol. My analysis is that … it’s complicated!

“….a bunch of lawyers told me what we had to do, but we did what was right for a change, so now I am being pressured to do what a bunch of lawyers tell me to do…”

Look, the EC has no problem if they were fair and honest with allegations of sexual abuse in the SBC. If they weren’t, then they are in trouble.

The EC of the SBC makes no ordinations. They control nothing churches do. They can tell no one to do anything. The SBC is wholely UNLIKE the RC church… SO the EC is not responsible for what local churches or leaders do. They are only responsible for what they do…

If they lose that position in court that is on them.

If they lose and the entire assets of the SBC go to the victims, well then maybe the EC should have been more active in their condemnation of church/pastoral abuse. This in on THEM to clean up their part of this mess.