Arkansas Baptist State Convention failed to report abuse allegations against pastor, lawsuit claims
CE Comment: Failure to report sexual abuse is going to become a much more costly legal problem for churches and pastors moving forward. Much of the pain and hurt connected to sexual abuse in the church in general and the SBC, in particular, is rooted in a failure to report. If there is one lesson we must apply from 2019, it is this: when in doubt, report allegations to law enforcement and let them sort out whether or not the allegation is true or false.
A Southern Baptist leader in Arkansas has been accused of violating state law by failing to report allegations that a Hot Springs pastor sexually abused a minor on church property, according to a lawsuit filed in December.The civil lawsuit filed Dec. 16 accuses Arkansas Baptist State Convention Executive Director Sonny Tucker of failing to report suspected child sexual abuse to authorities after he was contacted by the ex-wife of Millcreek Baptist Church pastor Teddy Leon Hill about concerns that Hill might've been abusing minors.Attorney’s representing an unnamed plaintiff referred to as "John Doe" claim Hill met Doe when Doe came to the church at 13 years old seeking refuge from a troubled home. The lawsuit accuses Hill of sexually molesting and abusing Doe starting in 2014."Such abuse was perpetrated by Hill in his role as guardian, mentor, counselor and Pastor to Doe and occurred on the church property of Millcreek," the lawsuit alleges. "The abuse perpetrated included multiple acts of sexual battery with Doe and involved deviate sexual activity."The lawsuit alleges that Latham contacted Tucker and ABSC in February 2018 to report her suspicion that Hill was sexually abusing Doe and possibly other minors. A few weeks later, Latham reportedly met with Tucker to discuss her accusations concerning Hill."Based on Ms. Latham’s reports to ABSC and Tucker, ABSC and Tucker had a reasonable basis to believe Hill had engaged in sexual conduct with a minor," the lawsuit claims. "Regardless, neither Defendant ABSC nor Tucker reported Hill to the Child Advocacy Hotline."
Baptist Press Top 10 SBC Stories of 2019
These 10 news stories, selected by both the editors of Baptist Press and a poll of Southern Baptist state publication editors, represent the most important stories of 2019.
- Southern Baptists take action to curb sexual abuse in the Convention
- Four new presidents elected to lead SBC entities
- LifeWay closes brick-and-mortar stores in historic shift to new online strategy
- Great Commission Giving surges throughout the Convention
- SBC votes overwhelmingly to approve significant bylaw and constitutional changes
- A flurry of pro-abortion and pro-life laws come before state legislatures nationwide after Supreme Court shifts
- Mohler announced as 2020 presidential nominee
- NAMB launches 'Who's Your One?' emphasis
- SBC president J.D. Greear appoints the most diverse committees in SBC history
- Southwestern Seminary removes stained-glass windows commemorating the Conservative Resurgence
Is 'The Lion King' based on fascism? Russell Moore responds
Everyday Americans need to start pushing back (hard) against the crazy opinions and absurd views of leftist activist. This includes leftists crazies in academia, media, entertainment, and government. Good for Russell Moore to take a stand against leftist craziness.
Evangelical leader Russell Moore rejected a highly publicized claim that the Disney movie “The Lion King” promotes fascism.“I don’t think ‘The Lion King’ is fascistic at all,” said Moore, president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission. “My own denomination boycotted Disney a generation ago. And some of the things you hear from the left sometimes sound like a leftish version of what I used to hear from the right.”Moore was responding to a recent opinion column published by The Washington Post claiming that the movie “The Lion King” had fascist themes.He labeled the allegation a “pseudo-controversy,” declaring that “nobody really believes that ‘The Lion King’ is fascist propaganda.”Moore explained that this specifically is “a second-guessing of all art. That all art really has to be propaganda, which is really a Stalinist way of seeing things.”“The problem is whenever we think nature by itself is an indicator of how we ought to live,” continued Moore. “I’ve heard arguments for transgenderism on the basis of pregnant male seahorses. And I’ve heard arguments against helping the poor because in nature that doesn’t happen.”“Those arguments don’t work because the Scripture gives us a fundamental distinction between humanity and the rest of the animal world. Humanity is to image God, with reason, with morality, with stewardship.”Earlier this month, The Washington Post published an opinion column by Dan Hassler-Forest, assistant professor of media and cultural studies at Utrecht University.Hassler-Forest argued that “The Lion King” promoted an “ideological agenda” that promotes “a seductive worldview in which absolute power goes unquestioned and the weak and the vulnerable are fundamentally inferior.”“In other words: ‘The Lion King’ offers us fascist ideology writ large, and there is no obvious way out for the remake,” he wrote.“The Lion King,” which was released last week as a live-action remake and broke box office records, is not the only children’s entertainment to be labeled fascist. The popular television series “Paw Patrol” and “Thomas the Tank Engine” have weathered similar allegations in the past.“’Thomas,’ the long-running television franchise about a group of working trains chugging away on the Island of Sodor, has been called a "premodern corporate-totalitarian dystopia" in The New Yorker, imperialist and sinister in Slate, and classist, sexist and anti-environmentalist in the Guardian,” wrote Elissa Strauss in a column for CNN in 2017.“'Paw Patrol’ is equally polarizing … Buzzfeed called the show ‘terrible’ and pointed to instances of gender and social inequality that go unchecked on the show. In the Guardian, Ryder is described as a megalomaniac with an implied ‘unstoppable God complex.’”Tom Knighton of PJ Media took issue with the labeling of the two TV shows, writing in 2017 that the complaints over the shows were “another example of the left trying to destroy things people enjoy in an effort to sound intelligent and ‘woke.’”“None of these programs are harmful or do anything except make children sit down and be quiet for a few minutes, something any parent can tell you is a blessing that shouldn't be overlooked,” wrote Knighton.“They overanalyze every aspect of the show until they find something to lash out at. Ironically, they target television folks who, by and large, tend to be liberals with a strong disdain for the modern right. In other words, they're accusing their own side of shilling for the enemy.”