Baptistland & A Culture of Clergy Impunity

Content warning: This conversation talks about sexual grooming and abuse by clergy and harms within faith communities. If you need support, please refer to the link to support services located at the bottom of the show notes.

Baptistland & A Culture of Clergy Impunity With Christa Brown

Even from the other side of the world, Christa is an incredible light to me. She’s a survivor of clergy sexual abuse who has tirelessly advocated on behalf of other survivors within the Southern Baptist Church.

Christa speaks powerfully to the importance of truth-telling, not just for ourselves, but for our relationships, communities, and institutions.

Her advocacy has been courageous and relentless. But more than that, her writing in Baptistland is full of clarity, wit, and strength, and has been a healing balm for me.

I ask Christa:

* What is the Southern Baptist Convention, and why do they hold so much power?

* What advice does she have for survivors who want to speak out?

* What can faith leaders do who want to move from complicity to courage?

Our Challenge:

We challenge those leaders who do know about historical clergy abuse, when a survivor speaks out, to come alongside the survivor, to speak out and say:

This was done and it was wrong, we knew and what we did was wrong… we will do better, we will walk along side you and make sure this doesn’t happen again under our watch, that we will take on the burden of keeping track of the perpetator so they can’t hop from church to church to church and find new prey on the way!

Guest Bio: Christa Brown

Named as one of the "top 10 religion newsmakers" of 2022, Christa Brown has persisted for two decades in working to peel back the truth about clergy sex abuse and coverups in the Southern Baptist Convention, the largest Protestant denomination in the United States. She was one of the first to go public with substantiated child sex abuse allegations against a Baptist minister, along with documentation that others knew, and she has consistently demanded reforms to make other kids and congregants safer. She's a retired attorney, a mom, a wife, and a grandma. And now she's the author of the book, Baptistland: A Memoir of Abuse, Betrayal, and Transformation.

Baptistland on Amazon:

“It began with just wanting to tell the truth. But truth-telling has a way of snowballing”.

Support Hotlines:

Link to all support hotlines in NSW, Australia: https://www.health.nsw.gov.au/mentalhealth/services/Pages/support-contact-list.aspx

Link to USA hotlines:

https://www.apa.org/topics/crisis-hotlines

Contact me:

https://www.jaimesimpsoncounselling.au

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Baptistland Front and Back Cover

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