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Black Collar Crime: Southern Baptist Leader Joe Knott Terrified Over What Will Happen if Convention Tries to Stop Sexual Abuse in Their Churches

joe knotts

Southern Baptist executive member Joe Knotts recently stated:

I am terrified that we are breaching our long-standing position of being a voluntary association of independent churches, when we start telling churches that they should do this or do that to protect children or women.

I guarantee you women and children are going to be victimized no matter how much — and that is going to make us potentially targets of great class-action lawsuits, which could be the end of the Southern Baptist Convention.

The Roy’s Report, June 2, 2022

I am speechless. Until the Joe Knotts of the world are run out of the Southern Baptist Convention, no real and lasting change will take place. He is part of the problem, not the solution. For Knotts and others like him, ecclesiology is more important than protecting children and women (and men too) from sexual predators who freely roam the halls of Southern Baptist churches. Why, if the SBC does anything to protect children and women from abuse, it could open the Convention to lawsuits. Your point, Joe? The executive committee, along with countless churches, pastors, and other leaders should be held accountable for the abuse that has happened on their watch. That’s the price that must be paid for decades of concealment and inaction.

Bruce Gerencser, 66, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 45 years. He and his wife have six grown children and thirteen grandchildren. Bruce pastored Evangelical churches for twenty-five years in Ohio, Texas, and Michigan. Bruce left the ministry in 2005, and in 2008 he left Christianity. Bruce is now a humanist and an atheist.

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11 Comments

  1. Avatar
    Yulya Sevelova

    He looks like what he is,this Joe Knotts. I hope what he said backfires in a major way, both on him and other like-minded church creeps ! He needs some real, unwelcome publicity yesterday !

  2. Avatar
    Brian Vanderlip

    Again, as is almost always the case, the ‘church’ does exactly as it designed to do, spreading ‘love’ across the world. Mr. Knotts is clearly a man of God! Are you suggesting, Gerencser, that women and children are more important than the Convention? If so, Sir, you need to be properly churched!

  3. Avatar
    Trenton

    This man and any like him who think that the traditions of the church are more important than protecting kids are nothing more than pure unadulterated evil. This man clearly is not pro family or pro life if he thinks that protecting woman and children is a lower priority than avoiding lawsuits. He is about as useful as a pro life republican is on gun control. I have 3 words for him and his precious church, go to hell.🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥

  4. Avatar
    sjl1701

    And these are the same people who say we need to listen to them about sexuality. They want to prevent discussions about sexuality in schools for a broad age spectrum. They want to remove books that deal with LGBT+ issues in any way from school libraries and some of them are starting on public libraries and private bookstores. These people are after power, pure and simple. It’s time to call them on it and tell them to clean up their own mess or we’ll do it. I’m done with these yahoos telling me they are morally superior to anything more than dead cockroach because they believe in a god.

  5. Avatar
    ObstacleChick

    According to this guy, WWJD involves throwing sexual abuse victims under the bus to protect the precious Southern Baptist Convention. Because an institution raking in millions of dollars is WAY more important than protecting innocent people from sexual abuse, and bringing to justice those who perpetrate it.

  6. Avatar
    Astreja

    If this destroys the SBC forever, I see absolutely no problem with this. May it crumble forever into the dust and muck of history, and good fucking riddance. 😀

  7. Avatar
    michaelbsmithjr

    Lets be honest here. They are NOT an affiliation of independent churches. They dictate the materials used, they get money for the Cooperative Program, and if they loan money to said church, they can and do take the property. They also dictate who can and cannot be pastors. (i.e. homosexuals and women are banned from the pastorate.) This is a smokescreen to absolve themselves of taking any responsibility for the depravity of their pastors. The tone deafness of the Convention boggles my mind!

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