Dear Alabama Baptists,

By now you’ve heard about the Sexual Abuse Task Force report. It’s either been seen by you in terms of reading the report or parts of it, or perhaps you’ve heard it on the news. Now we all are saddened. We’re grief stricken, deeply grief stricken concerning those who had to endure experiences that no one should have to face. But we as Alabama Baptists need to join together with the larger Southern Baptist family in praying for those who have experienced this trauma.

As Alabama Baptists here at the State Board of Missions, we wanna let you know that, for many years now, we’ve had on our website and in terms of training and our conferencing, protection and prevention of abuse, especially of those of the underage category. We have partnered with MinistrySafe now for a number of years. Last Friday, our State Board of Missions authorized $200,000 for participation in churches to scholarship them to be involved in training for good policies, for prevention, for protection. That $200,000 will be a $200 scholarship for the first 1,000 Alabama Baptist churches wanting to participate.

There are many more things we’ll be doing and you’ll be hearing about them in the future. But for now, as we look toward Anaheim, let us gather in a solemn way and understand that we’ve got to do better, and we look toward the future and the opportunity to do that. We lament in a heartfelt way, but hopefully, in Anaheim, we can receive clarity because we have sought the Lord’s wisdom in the midst of all this. God bless you.