Several members of the Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee have expressed outrage over an amicus brief that was submitted in April regarding a reopened case of a sexual abuse survivor.
The Louisville Courier-Journal reported on Oct. 27 that the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, Lifeway Christian Resources and the Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee had signed the brief, yet the article was the first time members of the Executive Committee had heard of it.
Mississippi Baptist pastor Adam Wyatt, a member of the Executive Committee, tweeted, “We had no working knowledge of this as a board. Poor excuse, I know. But it’s true.”
“This is deplorable. Unconscionable. Evil,” tweeted Virginia Baptist pastor Chris Davis. “The SBC is lending its voice against a survivor in a case in which it is not named. This is legal cruelty. And it goes against all the good faith efforts within the SBC to support survivors.”
The case in question is that of Samantha Killary, who was sexually abused throughout her childhood by her adoptive father, a Louisville police officer at the time, who is now serving a 15-year prison sentence.
Killary details in her 2018 book Out of the Blue how she told her youth pastor at Jeffersontown Baptist Church about the abuse. While he promised to report her situation to the church’s elders, no action was taken.
She later sued other police officers and the department for allegedly knowing about the abuse but not reporting it.
The case was thrown out by a Jefferson County circuit judge because Kentucky’s statute of limitations for reporting sexual abuse claims at the time was five years, which had lapsed.
The time in which victims could sue was doubled by the state Legislature in 2017. In 2021, claims could be brought against “non-perpetrator third parties” such as police, government units, or religious organizations.
Killary’s suit was reinstated by the Kentucky Court of Appeals and has garnered national attention. The state Supreme Court now needs to decide if the Legislature’s expansions of the statute of limitations and reach of child abuse claims can be applied retroactively, meaning to cases of alleged abuse that occurred before the law was changed.
Though the SBC, Lifeway and Executive Committee are not specifically named in the case, the outcome could have significant consequences for them.
In the amicus brief, the groups expressed their interest in the current Supreme Court decision because all are “named defendants in a separate civil action pending in a Kentucky circuit court that involves allegations of childhood sexual abuse dating back to 2003.”
The allegations in question were brought in a lawsuit by Hannah Kate Williams, whose father allegedly abused her while he was a student at Southern Seminary and an employee of Lifeway. She alleges she told a seminary employee about the abuse, but no actions were taken.
The same day as the Louisville Courier-Journal report, officers of the Executive Committee issued a statement through Baptist Press about the amicus brief to give “context and clarification.”
“Not one SBC Executive Committee trustee was involved in the decision to join this amicus brief. Counsel for the SBC Executive Committee reviewed the brief and recommended it be joined. The filing of this amicus brief, and the response to it, have prompted the current SBC Executive Committee trustees to reevaluate how legal filings will be approved and considered in the future,” read the statement.
Southern Baptist Convention president Bart Berber asked for forgiveness for approving the brief.
“I did, in fact, wind up hurting survivors by what I did. My determination for us to advance abuse reform in the SBC is no less than it was when I began, but I know that my credibility with you is harmed by this, perhaps irreparably…I hope that I learn a little with every mistake that I make, and I hope that those of you who are angry with me today can find it in your hearts to forgive me,” Berber said in an online statement.
The Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee will hold a meeting on Nov. 16.