Sex Abusers Listed on Website, Post-Pandemic Mindset, & Detours in Life

Messengers to the Southern Baptist Convention in Anaheim voted Tuesday to move forward in establishing a website where pastors and church leaders who are credibly accused sexual abusers will be listed. The website was included in one of the recommendations presented by the SBC’s Sexual Abuse Task Force.

The task force has worked for the past year with Guidepost Solutions to investigate the alleged mishandling of sexual abuse claims by the SBC Executive Committee.

In addition to the website, messengers approved the formation of an Abuse Reform Implementation Task Force to guide the convention in the creation of policies and practices to eliminate sexual abuse in Southern Baptist churches. New SBC President Bart Barber, pastor of FBC Farmersville, Texas, is tasked with appointing the member implementation task force.

Americans are expressing more confidence about moving into a post-pandemic mindset. A March 2022 YouGov tracking poll found less than 40% of Americans are scared they’re going to catch COVID-19. This is down from 45% in January 2022 and the more than 60% who said the same for much of 2020.

A full third of Americans say the coronavirus pandemic is over, according to a May 2022 Gallup poll. Almost 4 in 5 (79%) say their lives are at least somewhat if not completely back to normal. For 21%, everything has returned to a pre-pandemic normal, while 58% say things are somewhat but not completely back to normal.

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Detours can be frustrating and disappointing. In a Lifeway Study on the book “Detours,” by pastor and author Tony Evans the reader learns how God uses in the Christian life.

Evans says one reason for a detour is that we might not be prepared for our destiny…the destination at the end of a detour.

In Genesis 40, Joseph interpreted the dreams of Pharaoh’s chief cupbearer and chief baker, requesting the cupbearer upon his release mention Joseph’s plight to Pharaoh. Had the cupbearer immediately remembered Joseph and mentioned him to Pharaoh, and had Pharaoh promptly freed Joseph, Joseph could have believed his actions resulted in the release. Joseph was not prepared for his destiny. God would not share credit for His work with Joseph.

As much as Joseph surely hated the additional two years he spent in prison, there was a much bigger picture he couldn’t see that would have been distorted had the detour ended early.

You can find the full story at our website, Baptist Press.com.