Southern Baptist Convention report on sex abuse shines a light on evangelical culture

This means we’ve mostly lacked the kind of bureaucratic record that might prove systemic abuse the way it’s been documented in Catholic dioceses.Now, a report on a major evangelical denomination is changing all that.A joint investigation by two Texas papers, the Houston Chronicle and the San Antonio Express-News, resulted in a three-part report revealing that over 200 Southern Baptist pastors, youth pastors and deacons were convicted or took plea deals for sex crimes over the past 20 years — leaving behind over 700 survivors. We had to walk, talk and dress just right to ensure the alleged purity of our entire community, safeguarding against all sexual expression outside of marriage — the implication being that anything that did happen, even sexual violence, was our fault.When women and girls come forward as survivors, purity culture — which focuses largely on them — can be used against them.Sexual abuse of adults is too often lumped in with so-called sexual sin more generally speaking.