Every time I think Southern Baptist leaders can’t mess up any more than they already are, they do.
Amy Smith is a courageous woman, who attends a SBC church and who is also the Houston director of S.N.A.P. For years she has been pointing out how SBC churches neglect their responsibilities in reporting paedophiles, protecting children, and SBC failures in ministering to abuse survivors. Her stand has cost her.
And it is costing her again.
Amy and her husband Matt have never named the church they attend on her blog, Watch Keep. Until yesterday.
A pastor at our church of almost 18 years, Houston’s First Baptist Church, has told me and my husband this week that it’s for the best that we step down from serving there, teaching in the youth ministry, since we don’t see what I’m doing is a problem, like he does:..
I want to be clear. The post doesn’t say the pastor demanded the Smiths discontinue in leadership. The post doesn’t say he directly asked that they step down from volunteering in ministry, he just did what he needed to do to steer them in that direction. Why?
The Houston First Baptist Church lead pastor (who is also the President of the SBC Pastors Conference) saw her blog. Particularly, the May 23rd entry:
The SBC annual meeting is June 11-12 in Houston. The SBC pastors’ conference is June 9-10, same place. Jack Graham, pastor of megachurch Prestonwood Baptist Church and former, two-time SBC president, is a featured discussion panel leader on the topic of “leadership.” We are planning an awareness event outside the convention to stand for those abuse survivors who don’t have a voice or whose voices are being callously ignored by pastors and leaders of the Southern Baptist Convention.
You can read Amy’s post about the phone call and her husbands meeting with this pastor, and what S.N.A.P. is planning for the awareness event outside the convention. I’ll wait.
About the last 10 minutes of their meeting was a discussion of us stepping down from teaching. Doug brought this subject up. He told Matt, “Amy told me yesterday that she is stepping down, and I told her we should think about it. But I have been thinking about it overnight, and I think it’s for the best that she step down.”
To that my husband asked “Why?” Doug said, “You don’t see it as a conflict?”
Doug never once told me or my husband that he wanted us to keep serving in the youth ministry.
That’s not the way of the Jesus I know, love and serve. He called out sin, wrongdoing and corruption among his own followers.
No where in the post did I read that the Smiths stated they were asked to step down. I know I said that already, but, if you think this approach by leadership being made public wasn’t going to be protested by Houston First Baptist Church, you’d be wrong.
Associated Baptist Press picked up the story of the pastors approach, and the decision of the Smiths to step away from youth ministry in their home church. This is the statement from Doug Bischoff, the pastor who put the pressure on the Smiths. It’s all the Smiths fault, they ‘misinterpreted’ him:
When I spoke with Amy and then with Matt, I expressed that we as a church are not — nor have we ever been — against them personally, their organization or their mission to protect children,” he said. “Houston’s First Baptist Church takes very seriously the safety and well-being of the children who attend our church, and we hope and pray that other churches — of all denominations –are doing the same. We applaud Amy for her dedication to SNAP and the survivors whom they serve.”
Bischoff said he did not ask them to resign from their position as teachers in the student ministry, but they suggested during conversations that he did. “The resignation from ministry was at Amy’s insistence,” he said.
Oh. Gotta love the spin. Why did he call the Smiths about the blog and his concerns about ‘conflict’ if there wasn’t an agenda by First Baptist Houston? How stupid does church leadership think people are?
It gets even more interesting. Amy Smith received a call from Houston Police later in the week. (Shades of Chris Tynes and Prestonwood?) Amy Smith:
Also, did someone at HFBC or the SBC alert the Houston police department and give them my name and number as well as David Clohessy’s, our national director? I got a voicemail today from an officer in the HPD criminal intelligence division stating he was calling to find out if SNAP is planning a protest or rally next week at the SBC.
S.N.A.P. holds quiet, off site, respectful small protests, holding up pictures of abuse victims and speaking to people who chose to speak to them. This is a well known, professionally run national US organization, not thugs or threats to the SBC status quo. I’d bet the farm the SBC phoned the Houston Police Department, and I won’t hold my breath waiting to be proven wrong. If I am wrong, it will be duly noted.
Houston First Baptist cannot deflect this into ‘misinterpreting’, but they are trying, sending their ‘communications director’ to the Associated Baptist Press article.
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Oh. I am going to say this again. No where in Smith’s post does she say she was asked to resign. I think that is what her friends and colleagues at her church will be told behind her back. I think that is what will circulate at the SBC convention. It’s called spin, deliberate and wilful deflection. Houston First Baptist is not a misunderstood institutional victim here. This is an attempt to marginalize and discredit and sadly, once again, the SBC will probably be successful.
Below is a pic of S.N.A.P. at the 2007 SBC Convention
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The take away for anyone reading Amy’s post, the ABP story and the Houston First Baptist Church comments?
You tell me. Here is what I hear, “If you defend abuse survivors, if you point out the SBC lack of national policies on abuse, if you raise awareness publicly, you are in conflict with your home church and the SBC. Good of you to step down, glad you see it our way…”
Keep speaking up Amy.
S.N.A.P. statement