Bellevue Baptist Pastor Steve Gaines New President of Southern Baptist Convention
By Kayleigh Skinner
A Cordova pastor was named the new president of the Southern Baptist Convention in St. Louis, on Wednesday. Pastor Steve Gaines of Bellevue Baptist Church was elected after the first vote resulted in a tie between Gaines and North Carolina pastor J. D. Greear of The Summit Church of Raleigh-Durham. Of the 5,784 ballots cast, Gaines received 44.1 percent; Greear received 44.97 percent, according to a statement from the convention. A second runoff election produced similar results. To avoid another runoff election Wednesday morning, Greear withdrew the race Wednesday and Gaines was elected by acclimation. Gaines agreed to accept the presidency after a talk with Greear, saying "we need to leave St. Louis united," according to the statement. "There's no way God is not doing something in all of this," Gaines said. Gaines' appointment prompted immediate ire from the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests because of his failure to immediately report a confession of sexual abuse from one of his employees nine years ago. In 2007, Minister Paul Williams confessed to Gaines that he sexually abused a youth in 1990 for 12 to 18 months, but Gaines did not report it for six months. "No matter what church officials do or don't do, we urge every single person who saw, suspected or suffered child sex crimes and cover ups in Baptist churches or institutions to protect kids by calling police, get help by calling therapists, expose wrongdoers by calling law enforcement, get justice by calling attorneys, and be comforted by calling support groups like ours," David Clohessy, SNAP president said in a statement. Gaines has been pastor at Bellevue for 11 years.
|
.
Any original material on these pages is copyright © BishopAccountability.org 2004. Reproduce freely with attribution.