SBC selling headquarters to pay expenses of sex abuse investigation

The Southern Baptist Convention shared that leaders spent over $12 million to date on expenses related to widespread sex abuse claims within the denomination, the SBC Executive Committee, or EC, said Tuesday. The committee authorized sitting SBC President Clint Pressley to execute a loan on the convention’s Nashville headquarters before placing the building on the market, SBC EC Chairman Philip Robertson said. Selling the organization’s headquarters has been discussed since at least 2017 when messengers at the annual meeting approved a measure allowing the EC to pursue the option.

The committee tapped third-party consultant Guidepost Solutions to investigate claims of abuse of power and sexual abuse coverups within church leadership stretching back 20 years. Messengers at the 2021 Annual SBC Meeting created the Sexual Abuse Task Force to aid Guidepost Solutions and return with the results of the independent investigation the following year. Investigators published the bombshell report in 2022, which alleged a widespread pattern of SBC leaders ignoring claims of sexual abuse and intimidating abuse survivors.

How did the investigation cost several million dollars? SBC Executive Committee CFO Mike Bianchi broke down the grand total during the Tuesday meeting. Guidepost’s independent review and investigation cost about $3.1 million plus another $3.1 million to indemnify Guidepost, protecting it from damages and liabilities during the investigation. Almost 95 percent of the indemnification money is directly related to the lawsuit former SBC President Johnny Hunt brought against investigators after appearing in the 2022 report, leaders clarified. Other legal expenses were incurred during a Justice Department investigation of the denomination’s leadership and other pending litigation, the Baptist Press reported.

Dig deeper: Read Mary Jackson and Lynde Langdon’s report for more detail on the Guidepost investigation into allegations of sexual abuse in the Southern Baptist Convention.