Reverse Culture Shock: A return visit with the Southern Baptist Convention
A day after returning from vacation, I drove to Indianapolis to share an event with author and advocate Christa Brown, then cover SBC’s annual meeting
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In the past month, I’ve had the joy of traveling with my family and experiencing the marvel of being with my children as they saw England and France through their fresh eyes. It was baguettes and museums, gardens and endless walks (110 miles by foot, according to my Fitbit). We arrived home jetlagged and full-hearted, and then I promptly took off in my car for the Southern Baptist Convention’s annual meeting in Indianapolis.
Talk about reverse culture shock.
I’d spent two weeks disconnected from talk of the November presidential race. I watched coverage of Donald Trump’s conviction in French (a language I do not speak). It was blissful. Then I rushed off for SBC, where the danger of ‘transgender ideology’ was frequently flagged, where I got to see former Vice President Mike Pence receive a standing ovation from a room full of conservatives for not trying to overturn the 2020 election—a hope-restoring moment. Like many watchers, I was surprised when the Law Amendment, which would ban any churches with women pastors from ‘friendly cooperation’ with SBC, failed to achieve the needed two-thirds majority vote. I’d spent portions of the day before popping outside to check in on folks from Baptist Women in Ministry, who stood firm with signs defending women preachers and praying aloud, from prayers sent in around the world.
I wrote about all this, and more, for Slate.
I’d been planning a different part of this visit to Indianapolis for a couple months. While a scrum of reporters (including me) rushed over to an event hosted by the Danbury Institute, a coalition of conservative churches that considers abortion “child sacrifice,” I was bouncing in and out of the Crowne Plaza Hotel, preparing for a planned talk with
, author of Baptistland and someone whose story I have helped tell a few times in Disobedient Women and a profile for VICE. Christa is herself a survivor of sexual abuse by a Southern Baptist pastor and has spent over a decade and a half fighting for reform.Christa and many others—including SBC messengers themselves—have been asking for years for a database to track convicted, confessed and credibly accused sexual predator pastors. This is a reasonable request—what church wouldn’t want to make sure they weren’t hiring a predator? However, this goal appeared to be flagging, and at this annual meeting, the Abuse Reform Implementation Task Force that had been tasked with implementing the Ministry Check list had to admit that there was still no database, now, they say, due to “insurance reasons.”
The return to Indianapolis was a major one for Christa, who had been in the Indiana capital for an SBC annual meeting way back in 2008, because the year prior SBC messengers (voting delegates) had voted in favor of investigating the feasibility of a database. She came to Indianapolis then only to hear it had been decided such a list was not feasible after all. Leaders congratulated one another on taking abuse seriously. Nothing changed.
In the interim, Christa has been a leading voice demanding clear documentation of predator clergy’s past abuse. Taking no excuses, she’s modeled how to keep fighting.
So sixteen years later, Christa returned to Indianapolis this week. “Call it an act of holy defiance, if you want. Despite all the awfulness the SBC has dished out—over the course of decades—I’m still here. Still standing. Still talking.” I sat beside her as she described her years of effort, as her voice shook, describing all the vulnerable people she wished she’d been able to get SBC to help, to protect.
I saw her return as heroic. Maybe SBC still hadn’t achieved the ask-for (and asked-for and asked-for) database, but Christa did not turn back. I had the honor of sitting between her and two pastors from First Baptist Church of Indianapolis, to have a frank discussion about abuse and holding institutions to account.
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A few blocks away, the Danbury Institute event was breaking up as we got started, having shown a brief two-minute video from former president Donald Trump, who warned against voting for Democrats. His was a looming voice speaking to seminary professors and pastors.
And Christa and I spoke to a room of survivors, reformers, and everyday readers.
I tell you this: I know where the greater power resides.
It’s in those who show up to make good whatever it costs. It’s in those who stand beside those in pain and risk reputation and their own influence to create healing in this world.
It was in those women from Baptist Women in Ministry, who faced down grim-faced critics and received secret thumbs-up. And it was no surprise to me to find Christa Brown, the day after our event, outside with them, helping offer up prayers for women in ministry.
My body is exhausted by this stark transition between trips. As an observer, I have a bit of moral whiplash over how I heard women and queer folks and trans people described this week.
But I also have images of defiance to hold onto.
May you too be bolstered by courageous disobedience. And rest, friends, there’s still much ahead to accomplish.