Southern Baptists press for sex abuse review to advance

By HOLLY MEYER
The Associated Press

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — A top committee in the Southern Baptist Convention is facing mounting pressure from within the denomination over issues related to sexual abuse. Many seminary presidents, state leaders and pastors want the Executive Committee to stop delaying and act. They want the committee to accept the terms of a third-party investigation into how it handled sexual abuse allegations. Those terms include the Executive Committee waiving its attorney-client privilege for the investigation. Attempts to waive it have failed so far and pushback is growing. One seminary president said the Executive Committee is facing a crisis of confidence. The investigation was set in motion in June by thousands of Southern Baptists at their national gathering.