Southern Baptist seminary announces mandatory abuse response course

• Southern Baptist Convention is developing abuse prevention and response measures
• SBC seminaries play a key role in abuse prevention and response, and have faced criticism for when they have failed to do that
• Southeastern course to teach students about identifying abuse in ministry settings and communicating about it

Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary announced it will require all students to enroll in a sexual abuse prevention and response course starting this fall.

Southeastern, located in Wake Forrest, North Carolina, is the first of six seminaries affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention to implement this program at a moment the convention is trying to respond to a sexual abuse crisis.

“Southeastern is committed to preventing sexual abuse and training students to respond well to survivors with proper care and advocacy," Southeastern President Danny Akin said in a statement Monday.

The convention's seminaries are key in abuse prevention and response and have faced scrutiny for their role in allowing the abuse crisis to continue.

Some higher-profile cases of abuse in the SBC involved seminary students who committed the abuse while they were students. Meanwhile, Southern Baptist pastors who committed abuse while in ministry have graduated from SBC seminaries.

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A report released in late May from Guidepost Solutions, a third-party firm, revealed how SBC leaders failed to address the abuse crisis for two decades. Guidepost's investigation focused on other SBC organizations than the seminaries, but the seminaries still responded to the findings.

Southeastern announced it would remove the names of specific SBC figures named in Guidepost's report from campus facilities and academic programs. In a news release, Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas identified former students who were included in a list of ministers credibly accused of abuse that SBC leaders had secretly maintained.

Southeastern's new course is a more tangible step.  

"The course is not only designed to inform students about proper responses — how to care well — but also about prevention, creating a culture of prevention and open communication," the seminary said in its news release.

The course's instructors will include Southeastern Provost Keith Whitfield, Bradley Hambrick, a Southeastern biblical counseling professor, and Samantha Kilpatrick, a local attorney who trains churches on screening employees and volunteers, according to Kilpatrick's law firm. 

"The concepts and principles in this training will benefit all students as they seek to serve both in ministry contexts and in secular spaces," Kilpatrick said in the news release about the course, which will be free and available online. 

Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky requires students to participate in a third-party training on abuse prevention and response. 

Among Guidepost's many recommendations — some of which received approval from voting delegates, known as messengers, at the SBC annual meeting last month — the firm said seminaries could establish a system of writing "letters of good standing" for graduates. 

A newly approved task force will be studying and implementing abuse reform measures this year once the task force's members are named. SBC President Bart Barber told Baptist Press he plans to announce the task force's members soon. 

Liam Adams covers religion for The Tennessean. Reach him at ladams@tennessean.com or on Twitter @liamsadams.