Would someone in the SBC do their denomination a favor and tell J.D. Greear that he has no clothes? Those inside the SBC bubble may not realize it, but Greear is doing a great job of making the SBC the laughingstock of Evangelical Christianity. Greear, President of the SBC, shed some crocodile tears in 2019 after the Houston Chronicle published a groundbreaking story on the sexual abuse of children by pastors in the SBC that rivaled that of the Roman Catholic Church. Greear promised action and tasked the ERLC with rolling out a program tagged “Caring Well.” Promises of reform were made, to my knowledge none were carried out. Ten SBC churches were initially named as the worst offenders in the denomination and it was promised these churches would be scrutinized closely. Sovereign Grace Church of Louisville, pastored by the infamous C.J. Mahaney made the list. They remain a church in good standing! In fact, I believe only one church on the list is no longer in the SBC, and that is because they withdrew on their own accord.
Greear, apparently jettisoning any concern for the abused or “Caring Well” made an ill-advised hiring of Bryan Loritts in May of 2020. The hiring was immediately met with wide-spread criticism as “ten years ago, accusations arose that Rick Trotter, Loritts’s brother-in-law, was involved in sexual misconduct at Fellowship Memphis, a church Loritts helped found in 2003, and where Trotter was worship director.” (Link) Trotter had hidden his phone in a church bathroom and was secretly taking videos.
According to an article by Julie Roys:
“The employee gave the cell phone, with dozens of secret recordings on it, to Loritts. Loritts did not report the incident to police. He instead took the phone home with him overnight. The phone has since vanished. Loritts initially said he gave the phone to the elders at Fellowship Memphis. He later said he gave the phone to Fellowship Memphis Pastor Bill Garner and doesn’t know what happened to it afterwards.”
Fast forward to Monday, December 14, 2020. I was informed that yet another SBC pastor had been arrested for child pornography. William Dalton Milam, pastor of Olivet Baptist Church in Milton, FL was jailed and charged with two counts of promoting the sexual performance of a child and 25 counts of possession of child pornography.
As you can see, Olivet Baptist Church is a member in good standing of the SBC!
On Tuesday, December 15, 2020 web scrubbers at Olivet Baptist Church were busy. They removed all photos of William Milam, most of his sermons (though, curiously, they left his two most recent sermons up), his introductory video where he gives a short Gospel presentation, and they have removed the names of him and his wife (Nancy) from their staff. Below is the revised page showing they are no longer listed as staff.
Pastor Milam is a former Navy Chaplain. I was unable to determine if he has been a pastor at any other churches. If you have young children and attend Olivet Baptist Church or have attended any church where Milam has worked I would be very concerned. Relatives of Milam with children would also be advised to question their children who are old enough to comprehend sexual abuse.
It appears to me that those who hired Milam failed to exercise due diligence in their hiring process. I did a quick background check on the alleged pedophile today and found that he was arrested in Denver, CO in 1998 for “any act of prostitution” and “solicit of prostitution.” Clearly, William Milam has some serious issues and is totally unfit for working as a pastor. I find it hard to believe that over the years nobody is aware that this man is a dangerous predator.
Perhaps as a minimum “Caring Well” could conduct a criminal background check on every pastor in their denomination. That would be a good start on caring well for SBC church members.
Oh, Geez…
Sigh….
I bet the SBC will say that the church is practicing the Baptist Faith and Message and they are really good guys!
> “Perhaps as a minimum “Caring Well” could conduct a criminal background check on every pastor in their denomination.”
Perhaps it has been considered and dropped as too dangerous. Or perhaps it has already been done and the results buried as too disheartening. Either path could be justified to the public as an expression of confidence in the redeeming power of God to change the hearts of truly repentant people.
Though the history related in the OP suggests that such repentance, if it does happen, might not always be durable.
“Olivet embraces ALL the tenants of the Baptist Faith and Message.”
*facepalm*
As Father Mulcahy said, “I didn’t know tennis was a religion!”
“Greear, President of the SBC, shed some crocodile tears in 2019 after the Houston Chronicle published a groundbreaking story on the sexual abuse of children by pastors in the SBC that rivaled that of the Roman Catholic Church.”
Look more closely. He is crying without tears. Some preachers do the sob thing, without really weeping … it’s part of the stage performance to go along with certain sermons.
“Another SBC pastor caught with child porn while railing against liquor sales on Sundays.”
Beware of pastors who preach really hard about certain things. Could be they are living in gross sin themselves. Remember Ted Haggard?
Which means absolutely nothing if pulpit and pew don’t embrace the moral law.
Based on this and multiple accounts of SBC abusive pastors recorded by the Houston Chronicle, it’s way too easy for a bad-boy to become an SBC pastor. Church search committees are too trusting of a “man of God” to do their due diligence. Wolves dress in sheep clothing, Satan is disguised as an angel of light, beware of false prophets in your midst, etc. etc.
I had never heard of darknet sites as posted above. I caution any reader here to avoid going to that site. There are links that indicate potentially hundreds or more “child porn” links. I did not tab any link but did take note that this is not a safe site to visit. Once you tab a link, even out of curiosity, you too can be indicted for “child porn”. Always use the utmost caution at these sites…
If SBC was really “caring well”, they would hold Mohler’s feet to the fire re: his affiliation with Mahaney. A 2013 SBC resolution “On Sexual Abuse of Children” had Mohler’s relationship with Mahaney in mind when the resolution author wrote:
“We encourage all denominational leaders and employees of the Southern Baptist Convention to utilize the highest sense of discernment in affiliating with groups and or individuals that possess questionable policies and practices in protecting our children from criminal abuse”
Shortly after that, Mahaney showed up in Louisville near Mohler to pastor an SGC church and subsequently became a member of SBC!! Mohler only “repented” after the Houston Chronicle shed light on the extent of SBC sins against children. Mohler sort of said he was wrong, but remains on the SBC throne.
“Perhaps as a minimum “Caring Well” could conduct a criminal background check on every pastor in their denomination. That would be a good start on caring well for SBC church members.”
https://www.sbc.net/about/becoming-a-southern-baptist-church/faq/
But aren’t current affiliation benchmarks such as these rigorous enough?
https://www.sbc.net/about/becoming-a-southern-baptist-church/faq/
“In order to qualify as a church that can seat messengers at an SBC annual meeting, the church must have met two criteria — (1) the church must be openly identified as a cooperating Southern Baptist church through a credentialing process with its state Baptist convention or directly with the SBC Executive Committee and (2) the church must have made “bona fide” contributions to Convention work in the fiscal year which precedes the annual meeting
“The Executive Committee is always happy to assist churches that truly want to partner with the Convention, openly identifying with the Convention, its purposes, and its work and contributing as “bona fide” contributors to Convention work through its ministry entities.
“The Executive Committee does not encourage churches or pastors to make a token identification with the Convention if the pastor and church leadership have no long-term intention of leading the church to participate fully in Convention work and contribute systematically and regularly to support the Convention’s missions and ministries.“
“Perhaps as a minimum “Caring Well” could conduct a criminal background check on every pastor in their denomination. That would be a good start on caring well for SBC church members.”
That should have been done after the Houston Chronicle series of articles! I figure there must be well over 100,000 senior and associate pastors at SBC’s 47,000 churches. And then there are 1,000 new church planters each year – many fresh out of seminary with no prior experience as a pastor, let alone someone looking over their shoulder at church plants. SBC leaders need to pause and rethink their strategy. In the meantime, church congregations need to have some “family talks” about this – perhaps organize a “neighborhood watch” group to watch the pulpit … the little ones are at risk.
And all you single people and married people without kids are sinning against God!! Adulthood means marriage and marriage means children!!
The other concern I have is if they can’t screen their staff, how about all the volunteers? I’m in a church of about 500, and we have at least 50 volunteers for the Sunday School to keep our staff/child ratios at levels for best practices. We are all required to be fingerprinted and background/reference checked, and we have strict rules about how we handle children (I have always been thankful for the new pastor who came several years ago and required the upgrade in the rather informal paperwork process the church had for volunteers). Sometimes people fill out applications, but they aren’t chosen. I never ask why, but I’m glad someone is keeping an eye out. There is always the person who can get through who may have never been caught, but there is some buffer there. Which causes me to ask, what Mr. Milam might have been doing between his arrests in the late 90s and now (before he was caught).
I found this article in Baptist Press from September 2020:
https://www.baptistpress.com/resource-library/news/urban-rural-churches-benefit-from-caring-well-challenge/
It mentions that 1000 churches are using the Caring Well program in the first year. Out of 47,000 or so churches, that’s not a very good percentage. I don’t know if the program is good or not, but if the churches are not participating, Caring Well is useless.
Great post, Todd. A dumpster fire well describes the SBC and sexual abuse.
Ken P.,
I asked one pastor of a large Baptist church is he was actually using the curriculum. He wouldn’t tell me.
I am perplexed by this, also. In my brief stint as a church admin assistant, I was told we had to do background checks on all kids ministry volunteers for liability purposes, if the church wanted to keep their insurance. I did notice that particular church didn’t do the same background check on elders or pastors for some reason, but left the position (and church) before getting around to asking about it.
But yes, if the church isn’t organized enough to background check it’s staff, they’re probably not organized enough to background check the volunteers. The church I worked at, even knowing it was an insurance requirement, was a year and a half behind on the kids ministry background checks when I started. Thankfully, the worst I ended up finding was a traffic violation. But it was eye opening as to the church’s priorities.
Fundagelicals are not really offended by sin. They are offended by certain sin and certain groups. It’s about ideology. It’s about the tribe. If you’re on the right team, you’re all good. It has nothing to do with sin. Look at Gothard or Doug Phillips. The most judgmental have the most to hide.
Due diligence and background checks are the bare minimum any church should do. However, remember, even a background check will only red flag someone if they have been caught. Predators can and do lurk around the vulnerable in our churches because they have not been caught by the law and yet may appear to be outstanding clergy or volunteers. Please encourage staffs and volunteers to attend a really good child abuse prevention training to build a so called, “fence of safety “ around children, youth, and the vulnerable.
Also remember that not all background checks are equal. Years ago I was a manager for a retail support company. Our main client, a major retailer, insisted on backgrounds on all vendor employees. When we took over a new area from a previous vendor we were asked to interview their employees in the area for possible switch to us. Many had passed that company’s check because it was a local one only, but we found all kinds of issues because we did a nationwide background.
Max,
Staying on the throne is what lends solidity TO his “sort of saying he was wrong”. If he wasn’t on the throne there would be no point in “saying” it / it would actually negate it.
Pervert church leaders/volunteers have escaped exposure – unlike other criminals – because church members are too trusting of those who lead and volunteer for the cause of Christ … but their mission is not about Him at all.
… and New Calvinism which is approaching antinomianism in some corners of the movement. Their tribal grace-this and grace-that message is really cheap grace which has released some of these bad-boy preachers from the obligation of observing the moral law. Tullian Tchividjian and Pete Wilson are recent examples, but I truly believe this darkness is hidden in the hearts of many pastors swept up by the new reformation. They don’t know God as they ought. There is no cross, no Jesus, no Holy Spirit, no power to overcome sin in their lives … they seldom even preach about these things! It’s all God and grace, which is not Grace at all … it’s another gospel and open to the work of the enemy in both pulpit and pew. TWW continues to report their failings.
If they say that Ronnie Floyd, JD Greear and the others will jump to protect them since they are *one of them”-good Baptists who agree with us.
Max, that’s brilliant! You are correct.
dee,
It’s more observation than discernment. After 70+ years of doing church in America, I’ve observed my share of preachers who cry without tears. They are the same bunch who pray without passion and shepherd without ‘the’ Shepherd. You can’t trust them.
Max,
I just tweeted it. I am getting ready to duck!
Max,
I get really suspicious of those pastors who claim moral superiority in limited areas. It means they are covering stuff in other areas. A former pastor called this *cooking the books.*
You are correct. This reveals the underbelly of the SBC’s vaunted *autonomy of churches.* They claim it’s just an association and they cannot control their individual churches. I don’t believe it for a minute. I believe. it’s a lawyer thing to prevent their gazillion dollars going into the pocket of a child who was abused by an SBC pastor.
The denomination is so theologically bereft that they allow anyone to be ordained in any of their associate churches. Someone needs to start a new denomination.
If nothing else, this tells me that the whole vetting process of selecting a pastor has GOT to change–especially for the SBC! Churches just can’t hire the next person who comes in with a pulse to be their next pastor. Believe it or not, people DO lie on their applications and pad their resumes! (Shocker–I know! :))
I do a lot of research in my line of work, and I can tell you that it isn’t too terribly difficult to find out a plethora of information about any person and their past. However, most pastor search committees tend to be too trusting, lazy and desperate to dig into a person’s past. Most committees are usually more interested in their candidate’s theology rather than their morality! Did not our Savior implore us to be as shrewd as serpents and as innocent as doves? C’mon people! These con-men wouldn’t even be around if believers were the vigilant sheep we were called to be!
That means that about 90%+ have not been caught. i always laugh and irritae people when they tell me their church is safe because they *do background checks. In my former SBC church, the despicable SEBTS seminary student who molested a ton of boys had a clean background and was known to come from a *good Christian family.* The idiot leaders of the church overlooked the obvious and many boys were harmed.
Todd!
Speaking of Caring Well, they should have done more research into all who spoke. I swear these men are purposely naive.
They won’t do it. They believe in *hans off,* ostensibly to protect the SBc from lawsuits. Itr’;s a game and one of these days they will lose in court.
EricL,
90% of pervs have never been arrested. We should do background checks but understand that it is highly likely it won’t tell us much.
dee,
Oh yeah! Some new reformer is scrambling to photoshop tears as we speak.
There were a lot of questionable people at SEBTS with very obvious moral failings. If the potential ministry leader was male and “from a good family”, their poor moral character was completely overlooked. I think it’s one of the things that led to my deconstruction.
For a really good example, look at Jerry Falwell, Junior. He is no different now than from before Senior died. He’s exactly the same arrogant, mostly faithless jerk who uses other people for his own gain. But he had a celebrity pastor father and that seemed to be the only thing that mattered.
The OTHER guys’ SIN SIN SIN.
Like (pitch pipe tone…) “HOMOSEXUALITY!!!!!!!!!!”
Then the denomination shares responsibility for the bad-boy church leaders among them. It’s been my experience that most SBC deacons are not spiritual men and lack discernment when ordaining pastors/deacons.
“Never be in a hurry to ordain a man, or you may be making yourself responsible for his sins.” (1 Timothy 5:22 Phillips)
Crying on cue?
Max, I think you know the Koine Greek word for “Actor Performing On Stage”?
Remember:
WE ONLY HEAR ABOUT THE ONES DUMB ENOUGH TO SLIP UP & GET CAUGHT.
All poetic imagery for the fact that successful sociopaths are masters of camouflage and deception.
Traditionally (i.e. NOT in present-day Evangelicalism), the Devil was NOT constant fangs-out spittling rage against God, but a con man working a long con of deceit and disinformation. “Anti-” in the sense of “imitation of”, not in the sense of “opposition to”.
Over and over, Born-Again Christians show themselves to be the easiest of Easy Marks.
Oh, there’s been an outbreak of that in the SBC as New Calvinism sweeps through its ranks. It’s quite common for a young pastoral candidate to lie about his theological leaning. He justifies stealth and deception to get control of a traditional (non-Calvinist) SBC pulpit for the glory of the new reformation!
Pastor search committees are too trusting … and pay the price when their new pastor starts changing belief and practice, converts congregational governance to elder-rule, disciplines/excommunicates dissenters, splits the church, and captures the church building for the glory of the new reformation. So why wouldn’t a pervert take advantage of a search committee by charming them with his charisma and gift of gab, to then work his wicked deeds to abuse women and children?!
HUG, I think you just changed my perspective on some things with that revelation! The former “Anti” you note is alive and well in the American church, imitating the things of Christ. While folks look for the great opposing AntiChrist, they miss the imitator already in their midst.
Smallish neighborhood church, in a town very far away from “The City”, a special section on their website for “The Rapture…”, I don’t know, this might be one they’re able to throw the book at.
Yeah, we once got one of those. Fortunately, he tucked tail and ran when we exposed his deception! But he still did enough damage. Reckless hirelings such as him care nothing for the sheep!
Headless Unicorn Guy,
Exactly. There are wholesome gay people who lose everything in their honesty if they happen to grow up evangelical. Meanwhile the straight folks in the congregation (or pastor ) can do any depraved thing in secret and they are honored. Straight sin no matter how disgusting is tolerated.
During my time in-country during the Dispensation of Hal Lindsay, I used to hear a LOT of preaching on The Antichrist. One continuing trope was the claim that in Greek the prefix “Anti-” has two meanings: “Against” or “Imitiation of”. I do not know if this is true or just some preacher BS, but it fitted into something I encountered much later:
A few years ago a contact of mine sent me a book titled “Anti-Christ”, a historical trace of the idea of The Antichrist through the centuries. And it mentioned that for a long time there were TWO archetypes of Antichrist: the Fanatic Persecutor (“Anti-” as “Against”) and the Slick Deceiver (“Anti-” as “Imitation of”).
It immediately struck me that these two Antichrists would work great as a tag team:
Fleeing the Fanatic Persecutor, you seek refuge with (and take the Mark of) the Slick Deceiver.
The book went on to say that Antichrist the Slick Deceiver is pretty much forgotten today; you only hear of Antichrist the Fanatic Persecutor. Another wag I know commented on that: “With a lot of these preachers, the Slick Deceiver hits a little too close to home.” i.e. Keep preaching about the Fanatic Persecutor lurking everywhere outside the refuge of the preacher’s church.
Remember successful sociopaths/serial killers/rapists/abusers?
Only the Victim ever gets to see the Devil without his Angel of Light disguise.
Everyone else has been carefully Groomed(TM) to see ONLY The Angel of Light.
I immediately thought of “preacher hair”
Headless Unicorn Guy,
Pincer movement, a.k.a Gramscian dialectic, beloved of numerous factions / movements since the 1960s.
I would like to tell you what that is like from the inside.
I was told they were going to “insert me into” the church (a distasteful term, with hindsight). They tried to turn me into a wolf. Several of my then acquaintances since became trouble makers, which they find funny.
“Behold I send you amongst wolves” = inside not outside the church.
Shake the dust off = off the movements and the “other” gospels.
Personally i think every church should stick with only women for sunday school and nursery. Far less chance of a sexual abuser among the staff…….
Women are capable of sexual abuse and other kinds of abuse. Ask some of the survivors on this board. (Raises own hand.)
Being a man should not automatically disqualify someone from teaching Sunday school or working in the nursery.
Being a woman should not automatically provide labor for Sunday school or nursery.
What is needed: not just background checks, but also proper training, sound procedures, and safe facilities. Children should not be required to attend Sunday school. Parents should be allowed to check on their children at will.
This wheel has been invented.
While I appreciate the sentiment of wanting to keep children safe, this does more harm than good in the long run, I think. It encourages the myth that men are controlled by their lust, which is demeaning to men and harmful to women because it places the burden of THEIR lust on OUR shoulders. It creates a false sense of security, as women can also be abusers. It funnels women into one specific role in a church, when individual women may be better suited to other roles. It blocks individual men from serving in a role to which they may be very well suited.
And, especially in a complementarian church, it is absolutely illogical. Why can only men be trusted to be rational and spiritual enough to shepherd a body of believers, when they cannot be trusted alone around the most vulnerable of the flock?
Folks…..just do the research….i suggest Gavin DeBecker….most sexual abuse is male. I didnt say all…but most.
Abigail,
Most bank robbers are men, too, so maybe men should not be allowed to work in banks or have bank accounts.
Zero-tolerance policies don’t work. The issue here is not All Men. The issue is authoritarian churches, and one solution is for people to shut their wallets and leave.
Our church Sunday school has had quite a few male teachers over the years. I think it’s healthy for children to see both men and women caring for children. We also have a minimum of two teachers per class, security cameras, doors with windows in them, policies about children visiting the restroom, staff checking in, and parents stopping by.
(All of this was in the Before Time. God willing, we will return to in-person Sunday school sometime in 2021.)
Abigail,
Well, I do not know about that! There seems to be a big increase in HS, female teachers, messing around with underage boys in news these days, and of course, their is “Jr’s” wife!!!
I bet there is much more than we know about…..
Not again. Poor kids. This guy deserves prison if found guilty, and with the guy being found to have stuff on his drives, he’ll be found guilty.
It seems like fundagelical churches are obsessed with and base their theology on timelines. Dispensationalism with its elaborate predictions and, at the other end of history, Young Earth Creationism. If you subscribe to these two recent innovations, you are accepted as “orthodox.” I can see the appeal of the Anti-Christ being the head of a hostile foreign country (the geopolitical enemy of the moment), and not something at work in a good old ‘merican church.
Jonestown for the 21st Century.
Altogether now, under Dear Leader(s), take the community down.
“Pastor” Milam will discover what awaits him, as a local child-molester-porno minister did … that other prisoners are not fond of convicts who abuse children and make their lives hell while they are waiting on Hell.
As a renegade SBCer, I have read (quickly) the “Caring Well” website. Nowhere did I see the mention of either gender or any age groups ——- note: no mention of either gender……….
Yep, business as usual. They’re caring well alright ……. caring quite well for the SBC men; the elite in particular …… and the cash flow.
It takes one to know one!
Hi Nancy … long time, no see. Getting old ain’t for sissies, but I’m still fighting devils in the blogosphere. Wishing you and yours a Very Merry Christmas!
Personally I think every person should abandon church. Far less chance of running into all types of abusers….
Yes, I know, abusers can found anywhere, but as mentioned earlier zero tolerance policies don’t work and women in patriarchal churches already probably work hard enough. The men don’t need another reason to slack off.
But it does make you wonder – in the bible Lot offers his daughters up for abuse. God didn’t punish him for it. The wife on the other hand? Maybe the more old testament focused a group is, maybe the more likely these behaviours are brushed aside until they reach some critical mass. Focus on pathological patriarchy should be a huge red flag.
Maybe. But these clowns are real masters of manipulation. All it takes is an opening. Better a church have well defined procedures and policies in place to ensure children are safe. Proper training in spotting at risk behaviours and more importantly empowerment to act. Many of these churches have a strong culture of compliance. Especially where elders, pastors and priests are concerned.
You (generic you) must also sign on to the doctrine of PSA (penal substitutionary atonement), otherwise you’re a hell-bound infidel (like Muff).
Nancy2(aka Kevlar),
Muff sez hi too.
Just out of curiosity and to validate my argument….i looked up my states’ criminal sexual offender database. For my area….there are 372 convicted sexual offenders. 356 of them are male.
It concerns me that his wife Nancy Milam was the Children’s Director. Was she in denial? She she know anything? Did she get manipulated by him so he could get what he wanted?
I don’t think that is how Sunday school teacher training works.
So God the Father is primarily a Being of perfect (as it were), eternal wrath, and husbands and fathers are to model themselves on this? Well, that does explain a lot about what is wrong.
Jacob,
Honestly, I think it’s even simpler. It just means that men are supposed to stomp around and yell and spank.
“The Road to Jonestown is paved with little cobblestones of lies, propaganda, overstatements and misdirection, with a big punch bowl of Kool-Aid at the end. Whatever you do, don’t drink it. It’s always got poison in it. One hundred percent of the time. And, as ever, ladies and gentlemen, brothers and sisters, comrades and friends, stay safe.” – Robert Harrington
Like perpetual toddlers who have never heard the word “No” in their entire life.
Sexually-active Perpetual Toddlers in adult bodies with POWER over others.
And they’re in like a Coronavirus in a cell.
Don’t forget those other Godly attributes: Egotistical, Vengeful, Obsessed with their own Glory.
A lot of Christians wouldn’t be happy if there wasn’t someone Getting PUNISHED.
Just WHO are they worshipping and imitating?
But where there’s a LOT of Easy Prey, the Predators will Swarm.
“FEEDING FRENZY!”
I’m not so sure I agree. The same daughters he offered up later got him drunk and slept with him. By modern standards of consent, that would be rape. And his descendants didn’t end up with the best reputation, certain exceptions (Ruth being one) aside.
Jacob,
Holy Trinity models space for potentising the gifts of the other other.
Well that clearly means they aren’t. Church leaders are typically quite open about what measures they are taking to prevent abuse.