The 300-page report contains explosive details about how denomination leaders worked to avoid liability, rather than help victims of sexual abuse.
NASHVILLE Tenn. — Southern Baptist Convention leaders perpetuated a cycle of abuse for two decades by ignoring reports of, enabling a culture that retraumatized survivors, investigators found in a historic report released Sunday.
"Almost always the internal focus was on protecting the SBC from legal liability and not on caring for survivors or creating any plan to prevent sexual abuse within SBC churches," Guidepost said in its report. Due to a fear of legal liability,"the lawyers were advising to say nothing and do nothing, even when the callers were identifying predators still in SBC pulpits," investigators stated.
Hunt told Guidepost investigators in an interview he had no physical contact with the woman, but investigators determined Hunt was not credible. Investigators spoke with the woman and her husband, who is a pastor and had known Hunt for 25 years by the time of the alleged assault, four additional people, and reviewed additional documentation the couple had retained.
Shortly after the alleged incident in July 2010, the woman and her husband met with Hunt, who was then senior pastor at First Baptist Church in Woodstock, Georgia, and another pastor who works with Hunt. Hunt and the other pastor told the couple to not discuss the incident. The most prominent figure in the report is August “Augie” Boto, who worked for the executive committee between 1998 to 2019, first as a vice president then as general counsel, and then interim CEO/president.
Boto met with Guidepost investigators and said he still opposes a database and still believes the devil is responsible for the “magnitude” of focus on abuse in the SBC. Ronnie Floyd, former executive committee CEO and president from 2019 to 2021, and his deputy Greg Addison faced criticism in the report for 23 different examples collectively, according to a Tennessean analysis of the report's findings.
Two of those were criticized for not following up with survivors via phone or email. Others faced criticism for events at their own churches, such as former SBC presidents
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