Southern Baptist Convention CEO resigns after committee votes for more transparency in sex-abuse investigation

Ronnie Floyd addresses the Executive Committee of the Southern Baptist Convention, which he headed. (SBC photo)

"Ronnie Floyd, the acting CEO of the business arm for the nation’s largest Protestant denomination, has resigned from his position as head of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Executive Committee after a weeks-long internal battle over how the denomination should handle a sex abuse investigation," Sarah Pulliam Bailey reports for The Washington Post. "Floyd’s resignation comes after weeks of intense debates that played out on Zoom and Twitter over an internal investigation into how the Executive Committee has handled sexual abuse allegations."

The debate centers on a 2019 Houston Chronicle investigation that revealed hundreds of reports of sexual abuse. The SBC has cut ties with churches that hired pastors named in the report and created resources churches can use to help prevent sexual abuse, Bailey reports. But many survivors said the SBC hasn't done enough and must track abusers.

"Delegates to the Southern Baptists’ national meeting in June had approved the independent probe and voted for the committee to waive privilege if asked to do so by the investigating firm. The initial vote to defy their decision upset a huge swath of Southern Baptist leaders and lay members. As the controversy escalated, several church leaders had threatened to withhold funds, angry that the committee did not follow through on the will of the messengers," Bailey reports. "During Executive Committee meetings over the past several weeks, some members argued against waiving attorney-client privilege, which would have given investigators access to records of conversations on legal matters among the committee’s members and staff. They said doing so went against the advice of convention lawyers and could bankrupt the SBC by exposing it to lawsuits. Some committee members resigned over the issue."

The committee voted against waiving attorney-client privilege on Sept. 21, but passed the measure on Oct. 5. Floyd resigned on Oct. 14 through an open letter and said waiving attorney-client privilege put the SBC at too high a risk of liability. "Several Southern Baptist insiders said Floyd’s resignation was inevitable. Ahead of his resignation, 25 members of the Executive Committee had planned to call a meeting to discuss issues of leadership within the panel, according to a letter shared with The Washington Post," Bailey reports.

SBC President Ed Litton and many others in leadership supported waiving privilege, but Floyd was against it from the start, said committee member Dean Inserra, who also pastors a large Tallahassee church. "He won’t accept any blame whatsoever and has made this about his integrity," Inserra told Bailey. "He could’ve been the leader of doing what the messengers wanted and could’ve been a hero. Since he did not do that, there had to be a grass-roots movement to counter it."