MEMPHIS, Tenn. — A federal civil lawsuit has been filed against the “Executive Committee of the Southern Baptist Convention,” and it mentions the senior pastor of the well-known Bellevue Baptist Church in Cordova.
The lawsuit makes disturbing allegations centered around the cover-up of sexual abuse within the church.
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It comes after six people claimed they at one point had ties to Baptist churches across the country and stated in the complaint, “Defendants have maliciously and systematically engaged in covering up and concealing instances of sexual abuse by the church members and employees as a strategy of denying rights of sexual abuse survivors.”
None of those making the complaints in this lawsuit are from the Mid-South, but they are suing the Executive Committee of the Southern Baptist Convention, which is headquartered in Nashville.
Cited in the 20-page federal lawsuit is an investigation done by newspapers out of Texas in 2019 where “widespread sexual abuse” was uncovered by those who worked or volunteered at Southern Baptist Churches.