A substantial majority were concerned about the prevalence of abuse, racism, and sexism in church contexts, and many raised issues relating to transparency and accountability.
A woman describes being abused sexually by a Southern Baptist minister, outside the Southern Baptist Convention’s annual meeting in June 2019, in Birmingham, Ala.
AP Photo/Julie Bennett
Accused men were protected by the SBC while the women who dared to speak up were called sluts, adulteresses, Jezebels and even agents of Satan. A scholar of evangelicalism writes about this culture.
Scrutiny of the Catholic Church’s accountability for systemic harms and abuses perpetrated by and in residential schools has also turned attention on how the church has responded to wider calls to prevent and respond to sexual abuse.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/David Rossiter
Research on how the Catholic Church has responded to sexual abuse shows it’s not only time for the church to walk the talk, but to change the talk away from a defensive legalistic approach.