ORLANDO — Southern Baptist Convention President Willy Rice stated that the issue of sexual abuse in the denomination has been "weaponized" and politicized during a news conference at the conclusion of the annual meeting in Orlando, Florida.

Rice, a pastor in Florida, described the 2022 Guidepost Solutions report as a "snipe hunt" and said some individuals with political motives "weaponized" the issue against the denomination. He compared the situation to sexual assault allegations against Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh. Rice also said, "The sexual-abuse reform effort 'absolutely was weaponized, just like the #MeToo movement in the secular culture was weaponized.'"

The Southern Baptist Convention received the Guidepost Solutions report in 2022. This report asserted that top leaders had minimized sexual abuse reports by clergy, intimidated survivors, and stonewalled reforms. The report also concluded that survivors repeatedly encountered resistance, stonewalling, and hostility from some within the Southern Baptist Convention's Executive Committee.

In 2022, the Southern Baptist Convention's annual meeting passed a resolution apologizing to abuse survivors and authorized reforms, including the creation of a database for credibly accused church workers. The annual meeting also authorized a task force to oversee these reforms. Rice acknowledged at the news conference, "To the degree that there have ever been times that Baptist churches or Baptist institutions did not handle abuse correctly, that has damaged our witness." He added, "We have tried very hard over the last several years to correct that."

Christa Brown, a survivor of sexual abuse by a Southern Baptist Convention pastor and a longtime advocate for reforms, disagreed with the characterization of the issue being weaponized. She stated via email, "For clergy sex abuse survivors, there has never been anything to gain in speaking out. To the contrary, it almost always comes with a heavy personal cost." Brown added, "There's no political agenda." Brown, who has been working in sexual abuse reform for over two decades, also said, "There is no place within the SBC where someone who was sexually abused by a pastor or church worker can safely report it and get a proper response."

The task force authorized in 2022 was discontinued without creating the database, partly due to liability concerns. The issue of the database was then referred to the Southern Baptist Convention's Executive Committee, which is now focusing on abuse prevention, education, and referring churches to existing sex-offender databases. Tiffany Thigpen, a survivor of sexual abuse who attended the 2022 annual meeting to advocate for reform, stated on X, "For all those who watched us lead the reform, they also watched us get verbally attacked, maligned, bullied & in the end dropped." Thigpen has avoided recent meetings.

Rice stated that churches should provide training on abuse prevention, report "any hint of illegal activity to the appropriate authorities," and care for victims.