Leading Southern Baptist apologizes for supporting leader, church at center of sex abuse scandal



>>>See reactions from other church leaders to the Southern Baptist sex abuse investigation ... less Al Mohler, a leading Southern Baptist figure, on Thursday apologized for supporting a religious leader who was accused of helping conceal sexual abuses at his former church.

>>>See reactions from ... more Al Mohler, a leading Southern Baptist figure, on Thursday apologized for supporting a religious leader who was accused of helping conceal sexual abuses at his former church. Photo: SOUTHERN BAPTIST THEOLOGICAL SEM Photo: SOUTHERN BAPTIST THEOLOGICAL SEM Image 1 of / 27 Caption Close Leading Southern Baptist apologizes for supporting leader, church at center of sex abuse scandal 1 / 27 Back to Gallery

A leading Southern Baptist figure on Thursday apologized for supporting a religious leader who was accused of helping conceal sexual abuses at his former church, and for making a joke that he said downplayed the severity of the allegations.

In an interview with the Houston Chronicle, Al Mohler said for the first time publicly that he regrets his embrace of C.J. Mahaney, the former leader of the non-Southern Baptist group Sovereign Grace Ministries, now known as Sovereign Grace Churches.

Mahaney and his former organization were sued in 2012 by 11 people alleging that their abuses were concealed by leaders, at least one of whom was later convicted.

FOR SUBSCRIBERS: Read the complete investigative report on sexual misconduct at Southern Baptist churches, only on HoustonChronicle.com

Mahaney has long denied the accusations, and the lawsuit was later dismissed because of the statute of limitations. Despite the high-profile and well-publicized scandal, Mohler and others continued to welcome Mahaney at religious conferences, and at one point released a statement in which they called him a “friend” with “personal integrity.”

"I believe in retrospect I erred in being part of a statement supportive of (Mahaney) and rather dismissive of the charges," Mohler said. "And I regret that action, which I think was taken without due regard to the claims made by the victims and survivors at the time, and frankly without an adequate knowledge on my part, for which I'm responsible."

Mohler, the longtime president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky., has long been silent about his support for Mahaney. His comments to the Chronicle on Thursday came just days after the newspaper reported hundreds of sexual abuses committed by Southern Baptist church leaders and volunteers, some of which were not reported to law enforcement.

After resigning from the Maryland-based organization, Mahaney started a new church in Louisville in part, he said, to be closer to Mohler's seminary.

Mohler also apologized for a joke he made while introducing Mahaney at a 2016 conference that was being protested by former Sovereign Grace members and others.

“What I did was wrong and caused hurt to the victims and survivors who felt that their experience had been trivialized and dismissed,” Mohler said. “And I grieve that, I apologize for that, it was wrong. I would never make such a comment again.”

Mohler said he should have been more forceful in his denunciation of Mahaney.

"Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes," he said. "I should have been very clear about insisting on an independent, credible third-party investigation.”

He added, “I should have said nothing until I had heard from those who were victims and who were making the allegations. I should have sought at that time the advice and counsel of agencies and authorities who were even then on the front lines of dealing with these kinds of allegations.”

Mohler also said he did not think it was necessary to return any of the roughly $100,000 that he said Mahaney's organization has over the years donated to the seminary.

Mohler’s comments come as Southern Baptist leaders grapple with the findings of the Chronicle’s three-part report, which identified more than 700 victims of sexual abuse since 1998. Among those who say Southern Baptist leaders need to do more is Rachael Denhollander, an outspoken survivor of sexual abuse by former USA Gymnastics coach Larry Nassar, who was convicted last year.

Denhollander has long decried the support of Mahaney by Southern Baptist leaders, including Mohler.

She responded to Mohler's apology on Thursday night.

"I am deeply grateful for this step," she wrote on Twitter. "Recognizing error and grieving over it is something we all must do. I hope other SBC leaders follow this example. Integrity and the safety of the members, depends on it."

Others have raised suspicions about the timing and motivations for Mohler's comments. Brent Detwiler is a former Mahaney associate and helped found Sovereign Grace in the 1980s, but broke off from the church because of Mahaney's leadership, he said

He said Mohler's comments were a "feeble" acknowledgment, and that if Mohler "was really sincere " he should contact "of all the victims and ask for their forgiveness."

"I have written (Mohler) I don't know how many times, but I clearly sent him thousands of pages of evidence and appealed to him time and time and time again, and he has either adamantly refused to read anything I've sent him or read it and not acted upon it in any way, shape or form," Detwiler said in an interview Friday. "In fact, to the contrary he has gone out of his way to protect (Mahaney), promote (Mahaney), advance (Mahaney) and cover up for (Mahaney). And that continued as recently as last year."

One day after Mohler's comments to the Chronicle, his office released a statement in which Mohler said he supported Mahaney because he believed Sovereign Grace was participating in an independent investigation into the allegations.

"I did not realize until this past year that (Sovereign Grace) and its leaders had not participated in that investigation, nor was I equipped to know the shortcomings of how that investigation was conducted," Mohler wrote. "I wrongly believed that an investigation had been done, and relied on that assurance and the court dismissal of the civil suit, along with my personal knowledge of (Mahaney), when I issued my statement of support in 2013. I deeply regret this."

Another Southern Baptist seminary president, Danny Akin, expressed similar regrets in an interview with the Chronicle Thursday.

Akin, the president of Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Wake Forest, North Carolina, was one of 77 recipients of a letter in which a former Mahaney associate pleaded for them to denounce Sovereign Grace.

Akin said he has not had a close relationship with Mahaney since a speech Mahaney was slated to give at the seminary was cancelled.

On Thursday, he said he was wrong to support Mahaney without properly investigating the allegations. He also criticized how Mahaney and Sovereign Grace handled the allegations.

“Do I think that Sovereign Grace handled the accusations brought against them well?” Akins said. "No, I don’t. I think they could have been far more transparent. I think they could have been far more forthcoming. Even to this day, there’s still a lack of clarity.”

He added, “I absolutely think they've handled (the allegations) poorly and that they have not been as transparent as they should have been or could have been, and (that they) could have saved a lot of people a lot of grief,” Akin said.

robert.downen@chron.com

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