In the US, Todd Benkert leaves SBC abuse task force after conflict over pastor’s restoration
United StatesRNS Todd Benkert, a Southern Baptist pastor who helped force reforms in the nation’s largest Protestant denomination’s sexual abuse policies, has stepped down from a task force he was appointed to last year to implement those reforms. Benkert’s role on the committee became controversial this week due to a public dispute involving a Florida […]
SBC President Bart Barber says predecessor Johnny Hunt is unfit to return to ministry
United StatesRNS Bart Barber, a country pastor who also happens to be the sitting president of the Southern Baptist Convention, began his Tuesday as he does most days, with prayer and feeding his cows. Before the day was out he would take the rare step of denouncing one of his predecessors. “I would permanently ‘defrock’ […]
Pastors say Johnny Hunt, former SBC president accused of abuse, can return to ministry
United StatesRNS Disgraced former Southern Baptist Convention President Johnny Hunt plans a return to ministry after completing a restoration process overseen by four pastors, according to a video released last week. Hunt, a longtime megachurch pastor in Georgia, was named earlier this year in the Guidepost Solutions report on sexual abuse in the SBC, which alleged that […]