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Editor’s Note: Reporting for this article includes information from Protestant Accountability, The Roys Report and commentary by “Dee” at The Wartburg Watch.
Photo by OurJourneyChurch via Wikimedia Commons, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.
A new survivor-led organization has launched a searchable database containing information about more than 2,700 Protestant clergy members, church workers and others who have been publicly accused of abuse or accused of mishandling abuse allegations.
The database, Protestant Accountability, spans more than 100 denominations and church networks.
Its launch is particularly relevant to the ongoing sexual abuse controversy within the Southern Baptist Convention.
The nonprofit’s president, Chellee Taylor, previously sued Journey Church, a Southern Baptist congregation with multiple locations in Florida, alleging that senior church leaders mishandled her report that she had been sexually abused by a campus pastor.
Taylor told The Roys Report that she later learned about earlier allegations involving church leadership that she hadn’t known about while working there.
Journey Church ultimately settled her lawsuit for an undisclosed amount.
Taylor says having access to that information earlier might have changed decisions she made about whether the church was a safe place to work.
Database Pulls Previously Scattered Abuse Records Into One Place
One of the longstanding problems surrounding church sexual abuse is that allegations and disciplinary histories may be scattered among local news stories, court filings, police reports and records from different churches.
Someone moving from one congregation to another may therefore be difficult for an ordinary church member, parent or prospective employee to research.
Protestant Accountability is attempting to put much of that information in one searchable location.
The site launched in August with more than 2,700 entries and says its records are based on publicly available sources such as court documents, government records and published news reports.
Profiles may include a person’s photograph, church positions, congregations where the person reportedly worked and links to the underlying sources.
The database isn’t limited to people accused of directly committing sexual abuse. It also includes some church leaders accused of concealing, minimizing or mishandling allegations involving others.
Survivors in the Southern Baptist abuse crisis have repeatedly alleged not only abuse by individual pastors or church workers but institutional failures to respond appropriately after allegations became known.
Protestant Accountability says inclusion on the site shouldn’t be interpreted as a determination of guilt.
The organization doesn’t conduct its own criminal investigations or decide whether an allegation is true. Instead, it collects information that has already become public and provides links so users can examine the underlying material themselves.
The site also maintains a submissions and corrections process for inaccurate information, dismissed cases and other updates.
A criminal conviction, a civil lawsuit, an arrest, a news report about an allegation and an accusation that a church leader mishandled somebody else’s report has to be evaluated on its own facts and sources.
Why Survivors Say the Database Is Needed
For survivors, however, the larger issue is what happens when important information never reaches the people who could use it.
Taylor has said that knowing about previous concerns at her church could have made her less vulnerable.
That’s the premise behind Protestant Accountability: information that already exists shouldn’t be so fragmented that parents, church members, employees and prospective employees have little realistic chance of finding it.
The project also reflects a larger frustration that has followed the Southern Baptist Convention for years.
Despite extensive reporting, lawsuits, investigations and the SBC’s own sexual abuse task force, survivors and advocates have repeatedly pushed Southern Baptist leaders for greater transparency about clergy and church workers accused of sexual misconduct.
Protestant Accountability is not an official Southern Baptist Convention database, and its reach extends far beyond Southern Baptists.
But its creation illustrates why the demand for searchable abuse records hasn’t disappeared.
For survivors such as Taylor, the argument is straightforward: people can’t factor troubling information into their decisions if they never know that information exists.
Learn More About Southern Baptist Convention Sexual Abuse Lawsuits
Survivors have accused Southern Baptist churches, pastors and other leaders of sexual abuse and of failing to properly respond when allegations were reported. Learn more about the litigation, investigations and options that may be available to survivors in our Southern Baptist Convention Sexual Abuse Lawsuit Guide.
