Baptist leaders urge accountability, concrete reforms to prevent abuse
By Aaron Weaver, Baptist History & Heritage Society
WACO, Texas — In a plenary session titled “The Lord is an Avenger: Patriarchy, Predators and Preventing Exploitation,” the Rev. Dr. Meredith Stone and the Rev. Dr. Jay Kieve challenged churches and institutions to take seriously the systemic roots of abuse and to adopt practices that prioritize safety, consent and accountability over protecting institutional power.
Their May 20 presentation came as part of the joint annual conference of the Baptist History & Heritage Society, National Association of Baptist Professors of Religion and Association of Ministry Guidance Professionals focsed on Addressing Abuse in Baptist Communities.
It came on the heels of an opening plenary session by David Pittman, a survivor of child sexual abuse perpetrated by a Southern Baptist minister, who shared his story of being abuse and silenced within the church. Pittman emphasized that only concrete, meaningful action can prevent future abuse and support those who have suffered it.
Stone and Kieve continued that theme with a detailed examination of how institutional power structures often enable abuse, and how churches and leaders can work to dismantle those dynamics.
Kieve, who serves as the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship’s Abuse Prevention and Response Advocate, opened with an anonymized case study based on a real event with permission from the survivor. A denominational pastor invited a young woman, a denominational employee, to what he described as a party in his hotel suite following a conference session. When she arrived, she was the only one there.
“She accepted, thinking others would arrive shortly,” Kieve said. “Sure enough, no one else arrived or was invited.”
The pastor offered her wine and invited her to dance. “She tasted the wine but declined to dance,” Kieve said. She attempted to make small talk about her work and her husband, who was an associate pastor, but the pastor complimented her appearance and moved closer. Flustered, she left the room and called her husband to tell him what happened.
“He encouraged her to quickly write down all that she could remember,” Kieve said. “She felt awful, like she had done something wrong.”
The next day, she told her boss, naming the pastor. But instead of support, the boss told her to remain quiet and took no action. “The impression left with the young woman was, the boss felt a need to protect the flagship church and an important person in the denomination from scandal,” Kieve said.
In contrast, her local pastor affirmed her experience and took immediate action. “The pastor stated, ‘This is not your fault. You did nothing wrong. The sin of this belongs to the other pastor.’ And then, in their presence, he called the offending pastor and said, ‘Before you say anything, I believe her. You must stop this kind of behavior. It is sin.’”
Stone, executive director of Baptist Women in Ministry, analyzed the dynamics of that situation through the lens of sociologist Michael Mann’s four sources of power—ideological, economic, political and military (or physical)—arguing that these intersecting forms of power perpetuate harm in the patriarchal Christian church.
“Power always acts to protect itself,” Stone said. “Even denominations that have tried to move away from patriarchy are not immune. These deeply embedded foundations of power don’t want to let go.”
She began with ideological power. “Patriarchy provides the justification for why those in power—men, specifically male church leaders—should be empowered and why the rest of us should submit to them,” she said.
She connected this to the case study: “So for those who might say, ‘Well, she should have been suspicious of such a request from that pastor,’ listen—that is the system itself working within our minds.”
Moving to economic power, Stone said the fear of losing financial support can lead to the silencing of victims. “The bigger the institution, the larger the financial bureaucracy. When actions might cost the institution money, they are often forbidden or covered up,” she said.
Political power, she explained, includes both written and unwritten rules. “While political power comes from rules and policies that exist, it also comes from the rules and policies that don’t exist,” she said. “The people in power—they’re the ones who make the rules, and in the absence of them, they’re the ones who just get to decide what happens.”
On physical or military power, Stone highlighted how the physical presence of men—and the threat of harm—functions as a form of control. “Women have the memories of the destruction that the physical power of men has caused them or people they love, which makes them have fear,” she said.
Kieve shifted to how those same structures operate on an interpersonal level, stressing that trust is not a sufficient safeguard. “Write this down,” he told attendees. “Trust is insufficient to ensure safety. 91% of children who are sexually abused are abused by somebody known and trusted in the family.”
“Clergy sexual abuse occurs because ministers are trusted. They’re given access,” he continued. “In the case example, this political realm of trust created access to the young woman and shielded the pastor from consequences.”
He urged churches to focus on behavior, not just position. “Power must be used to protect the vulnerable—never to protect the harmful,” Kieve said. “Everyone’s behavior is accountable. We must commit to having nowhere in our system where any one person’s behavior is beyond scrutiny.”
He emphasized the importance of observable behavior and visibility in ministry, including policies like background checks, two-adult rules, and avoiding secret communications with minors. “Things have to be observable to be accountable,” he said. “We have to make a practice of when adults are communicating with children, other people are in on those conversations.”
Consent, Kieve and Stone both emphasized, must be freely given and can be revoked at any time.
“Consent is only the consistent presence of yes,” Stone said. “It is not the absence of no. And people who are incapacitated cannot give consent.”
She shared how she used this teaching in general education New Testament classes she taught in the past. “I would say to my students, if you take advantage of one another sexually or treat one another as sexual objects, the Lord is an avenger,” she said, referencing 1 Thessalonians 4.
The session title, “The Lord is an Avenger,” came from that same passage. “If you take advantage of a sibling in Christ… the Lord is an avenger in all these things, just as we have warned,” she said.
Stone concluded with a call for institutional change, naming specific reforms related to physical, political, economic and ideological power.
“Advocate for effective Title IX policies,” she said. “Make sure your student conduct policies do not punish victims. Create equitable opportunities for leadership. Advocate for equal pay.”
She encouraged attendees—many of whom are professors, clergy and denominational leaders—to use their roles to create cultures of safety.
“Jesus didn’t shy away from using his power and influence,” she said. “He used it to challenge the systems that oppress… not to protect those who abuse.”
Kieve added one final reminder: “Abuse happens on purpose,” he said. “Someone with intent and some amount of power and access chooses to use their power in a way that gratifies their own desires… and without regard to the actions and its impact on the other person.”
The joint annual conference of the Baptist History & Heritage Society featured 27 paper presentations exploring diverse Baptist topics alongside four plenary sessions focused on the theme of Addressing Abuse in Baptist Communities.
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