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ChurchLeaders.com [Wheaton, IL]
December 12, 2023
By Stephanie Martin
North Carolina Pastor Joshua Wester, chair of the denomination’s Abuse Reform Implementation Task Force, agreed about the importance of transparency. “Especially if we’re talking about something that involves minors, disclosing it to the congregation provides the opportunity for parents and other guardians to follow up with their own children to ensure or find out if anything has taken place,” he said. “That’s a critical opportunity you don’t want to deny to parents for the sake of their own children.”
Resources are available for congregations, said Christa Neal, chair of the Arkansas Baptist State Convention’s Sexual Abuse and Resource Team. “We really want to shine light into this very dark area,” she said. “The next time a church finds themselves in this situation, I hope churches reach out” to our team.
Abuse Survivors Express Concern About Patterns of Enabling
After Pastor Smith revealed details about Miller to Immanuel congregants, survivors of abuse within the SBC took to social media to express concerns. Survivor Christa Brown posted that Smith has history with institutions that all have “sagas of abuse & destruction”—and that it’s “highly doubtful” he’ll face consequences.
Anne Marie Miller, who was sexually assaulted by former Immanuel staff member Mark Aderholt, posted, “Considering Immanuel Baptist in Little Rock has employed two people charged with CHILD sex abuse felonies, even though they pled guilty to lesser assault and harassment charges, that should warrant an independent investigation, methinks.”
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She added, “The fact none of this was ever disclosed at anytime in an official way (until now re: Miller, never re: Aderholt) should be raising red flags to the faithful flock” at Immanuel.
Survivor Tiffany Thigpen noted another Immanuel connection. “Doug Pigg was the man running cover for/with Jerry Vines during the cover up of my abuse by [Darrell] Gilyard,” she posted. “It’s all in the network.”
Brown expanded on the idea of a potential coverup within the denomination. “When people say ‘there must be an SBC playbook’ it’s not mere metaphor,” she posted. “These guys all learn from one another about how to cover for cronies & keep abuse cases hushed. It’s the SBC abuse enabling machine & the instruction manual is passed by oral tradition.”
When a social media user noted that Pastor Smith has children of his own, Brown posted, “This is something I think I’ll never understand – how so many Southern Baptist pastors & leaders – men who are fathers – can turn a blind eye to child sexual abuse. Why don’t their ‘papa bear’ instincts kick in? Humans protect the young. Mammals protect the young. Why don’t they?”
This article has been updated with Steven Smith’s statement to Baptist Press.