{"id":11319,"date":"2024-03-08T10:56:39","date_gmt":"2024-03-08T15:56:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.danielharper.org\/yauu\/?p=11319"},"modified":"2024-03-08T10:56:39","modified_gmt":"2024-03-08T15:56:39","slug":"how-not-to-handle-sexual-abuse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.danielharper.org\/yauu\/2024\/03\/how-not-to-handle-sexual-abuse\/","title":{"rendered":"How not to handle sexual abuse"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>This week, the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) provided a demonstration of how <em>not<\/em> to handle sexual abuse claims. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The U.S. Department of Justice has been investigating sexual abuse in the SBC. Two days ago, on March 6, <a href=\"https:\/\/religionnews.com\/2024\/03\/06\/department-of-justice-closes-investigation-into-sbcs-handling-of-abuse\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">SBC officials told Religion News Service that the DOJ investigation is over:<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201c\u2018On February 29, 2024, counsel for the SBC Executive Committee was  informed that the US Attorney\u2019s Office for the Southern District of New  York has concluded its investigation into the EC with no further action  to be taken,\u2019 Jonathan Howe, Executive Committee interim president and  CEO, told Religion News Service in a text&#8230;.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The next day, on March 7, <a href=\"https:\/\/religionnews.com\/2024\/03\/07\/what-is-happening-with-the-sbc-and-the-department-of-justice\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">abuse survivor Tiffany Thigpen told Religion News Service that the DOJ investigation had <em>not<\/em> been closed:<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201c\u2018The lead investigator from the DOJ concerning this investigation was as  surprised as we were by these reports. She answered both Megan [lively, another abuse survivor] and I  immediately when we called (separately) and said the investigation is  very much open and active,\u2019 Thigpen told Religion News Service in a text&#8230;.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The DOJ is unable to comment publicly about ongoing investigations, so they refused to comment to Religion News Service. The fact that they can&#8217;t comment is in itself revealing. And on March 7, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baptistpress.com\/resource-library\/news\/criminal-considerations-aside-southern-baptists-want-abuse-reform-aritf-says\/\">Baptist Press reported<\/a> that SBC legal counsel has confirmed that the investigation is ongoing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Obviously, this is a bone-headed move on the part of SBC leadership. But the rest of us can learn from this. The main takeaway \u2014 learn from Yogi Berra that it isn&#8217;t over till it&#8217;s over. So don&#8217;t do any victory laps until it&#8217;s actually, really and truly, finally over.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This week, the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) provided a demonstration of how not to handle sexual abuse claims. The U.S. Department of Justice has been investigating sexual abuse in the SBC. Two days ago, on March 6, SBC officials told Religion News Service that the DOJ investigation is over: \u201c\u2018On February 29, 2024, counsel for &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.danielharper.org\/yauu\/2024\/03\/how-not-to-handle-sexual-abuse\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;How not to handle sexual abuse&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[136,936,828,697],"class_list":["post-11319","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-religion-news","tag-clergy-misconduct","tag-sexual-abuse-crisis","tag-sexual-misconduct","tag-southern-baptist-convention"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.danielharper.org\/yauu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11319","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.danielharper.org\/yauu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.danielharper.org\/yauu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.danielharper.org\/yauu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.danielharper.org\/yauu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11319"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.danielharper.org\/yauu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11319\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11320,"href":"https:\/\/www.danielharper.org\/yauu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11319\/revisions\/11320"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.danielharper.org\/yauu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11319"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.danielharper.org\/yauu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11319"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.danielharper.org\/yauu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11319"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}