WASHINGTON, DC (May 24, 2022) – The National Center on Sexual Exploitation (NCOSE) called the news about sexual abuse, rape, and exploitation being covered up and ignored by Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) leaders a grave example of institutional abuse and called for urgent change.
“The shocking news of years-long institutional abuse happening within the SBC must be confronted if survivors are to ever find healing and justice. It is unconscionable that SBC leadership allowed over 700 abusive pastors to remain in their roles, while not providing support for those who were victimized, ignoring their pleas for reform, demeaning survivors, and protecting abusers,” said Dawn Hawkins, CEO of the National Center on Sexual Exploitation.
“Those in SBC leadership who covered up the sexual abuse must be held to account to the full extent of the law. If the SBC is to take these matters seriously, it should wholly review its entire existence in order to confront the institutional abuse that was allowed to flourish within the church.”
About National Center on Sexual Exploitation (NCOSE)
Founded in 1962, the National Center on Sexual Exploitation (NCOSE) is the leading national non-partisan organization exposing the links between all forms of sexual exploitation such as child sexual abuse, prostitution, sex trafficking and the public health harms of pornography.
