美国国家公共电台 NPR Southern Baptists To Confront Sexual Abuse And Role Of Women In The Church

 

RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:

Southern Baptists in the U.S. have a complicated legacy¹. The denomination² once supported slavery and then racial segregation³ and has long struggled with social concerns. Some new ones will be top of the agenda when the Southern Baptist Convention opens its annual meeting today in Birmingham, Ala. At the top the list - how to deal with sex abuse allegations.

Here's NPR's Tom Gjelten.

TOM GJELTEN, BYLINE⁴: The problem of clergy⁵ sex abuse, most often associated with the Catholic Church, has also plagued the Southern Baptist denomination. Years ago, a few Baptist women began speaking out about sexual misconduct by male church leaders. Among them, Dee Parsons - so outraged⁶ over the failure of her North Carolina church to take action that she started a blog. She called it The Wartburg Watch.

DEE PARSONS: I'm kind of a nobody. And I figured nobody would be reading anything I had to say. And I was startled by the response that I started getting.

GJELTEN: Parsons is now a leading monitor of sex abuse allegations in the evangelical world. There are many others. Earlier this year, the Houston Chronicle reported that nearly 400 male Southern Baptist Church leaders have been accused of sexual abuse in recent years. The problem has gotten so serious that the president of the Southern Baptist Convention, Pastor⁷ J.D. Greear, has made sex abuse the top issue for his annual meeting.

Speaking from his car in route to Birmingham, Greear said he and other Southern Baptist authorities have no choice but to act.

J D GREEAR: Yeah. There's a question of, can we trust our church leaders to not only not be at using but to also be prohibiting people who could be abusers from having a place where they could do it with impunity⁸?

GJELTEN: The Southern Baptists research arm recently found that about 1 out of 3 church members surveyed believe there are more accounts of sex abuse by their pastors⁹ still to come. Greear says the convention will consider stronger action against churches that are considered unsafe places because they don't deal with abuse allegations.

GREEAR: You're going to see a convention that is united in its agreement on the fact that this cannot be tolerated in our churches and that we have to do whatever it takes, regardless of what it costs us, to make our churches safe places.

GJELTEN: And now a related issue is emerging. Some Southern Baptist women are concerned about their lower status. They can't serve as ministers or even preach. Some women argue that a patriarchal culture in the church may contribute to a climate of impunity. Albert Mohler, president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, tweeted last month that such complaints have brought his church to a critical moment.

And he addressed the issue in one of his Ask Anything programs on YouTube.

ALBERT MOHLER: If you look at the denominations¹⁰ where women do the preaching, they're also the denominations where people do the leaving. I think there's just something about the order of creation that means that God intends for the preaching voice to be a male voice.

GJELTEN: The Southern Baptist Convention, the largest Protestant denomination in the U.S., is itself experiencing membership decline, though at a somewhat lower rate than other churches. Finally, there's the question of politics. Southern Baptists are the core of the white evangelical base of the Republican Party. Their president, J.D. Greear, doesn't want that to be what his church is known for.

GREEAR: What brings us together should not be a cultural identity. It should not be a political persuasion¹¹. Southern Baptists are supposed to be a people that are united around the gospel and the gospel mission.

GJELTEN: His theme for the convention opening today - the Gospel above all.

Tom Gjelten, NPR News.

1 legacy   

n.遗产，遗赠；先人(或过去)留下的东西

参考例句：

• They are the most precious cultural legacy our forefathers left.它们是我们祖先留下来的最宝贵的文化遗产。
• He thinks the legacy is a gift from the Gods.他认为这笔遗产是天赐之物。

2 denomination   

n.命名，取名，(度量衡、货币等的)单位

参考例句：

• The firm is still operating under another denomination.这家公司改用了名称仍在继续营业。
• Litre is a metric denomination.升是公制单位。

3 segregation   

n.隔离，种族隔离

参考例句：

• Many school boards found segregation a hot potato in the early 1960s.在60年代初，许多学校部门都觉得按水平分班是一个棘手的问题。
• They were tired to death of segregation and of being kicked around.他们十分厌恶种族隔离和总是被人踢来踢去。

4 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

5 clergy   

n.[总称]牧师，神职人员

参考例句：

• I could heartily wish that more of our country clergy would follow this example.我衷心希望，我国有更多的牧师效法这个榜样。
• All the local clergy attended the ceremony.当地所有的牧师出席了仪式。

6 outraged   

a.震惊的，义愤填膺的

参考例句：

• Members of Parliament were outraged by the news of the assassination. 议会议员们被这暗杀的消息激怒了。
• He was outraged by their behavior. 他们的行为使他感到愤慨。

7 pastor   

n.牧师，牧人

参考例句：

• He was the son of a poor pastor.他是一个穷牧师的儿子。
• We have no pastor at present:the church is run by five deacons.我们目前没有牧师：教会的事是由五位执事管理的。

8 impunity   

n.(惩罚、损失、伤害等的)免除

参考例句：

• You will not escape with impunity.你不可能逃脱惩罚。
• The impunity what compulsory insurance sets does not include escapement.交强险规定的免责范围不包括逃逸。

9 pastors   

n.（基督教的）牧师( pastor的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Do we show respect to our pastors, missionaries, Sunday school teachers? 我们有没有尊敬牧师、宣教士，以及主日学的老师？ 来自互联网
• Should pastors or elders be paid, or serve as a volunteer? 牧师或长老需要付给酬劳，还是志愿的事奉呢？ 来自互联网

10 denominations   

n.宗派( denomination的名词复数 )；教派；面额；名称

参考例句：

• Christians of all denominations attended the conference. 基督教所有教派的人都出席了这次会议。
• The service was attended by Christians of all denominations. 这次礼拜仪式各教派的基督徒都参加了。 来自《简明英汉词典》

11 persuasion   

n.劝说；说服；持有某种信仰的宗派

参考例句：

• He decided to leave only after much persuasion.经过多方劝说，他才决定离开。
• After a lot of persuasion,she agreed to go.经过多次劝说后，她同意去了。