Willie McLaurin has been chosen as interim president and CEO of the Southern Baptist Convention’s executive committee as part of an investigation into how the governing body has handled reports of sexual abuse.
Executive committee leaders announced the selection of 48-year-old McLaurin on Tuesday, according to the Baptist Press, the official SBC news service.
McLaurin served on the Tennessee Baptist Mission Board for 15 years before joining the executive committee in January 2020, where he is vice president of Great Commission relations and mobilization. He also served as executive pastor at Greater Missionary Baptist Church in Clarksville, Tennessee, and senior pastor at Greater Hope Baptist Church in Union City.
“Our EC staff are committed to serving our Congress well,” said McLaurin. “Jesus’ last words in Acts 1:8 should be our first priority as a network of churches. My prayer is that we continue to emphasize cooperation and collaboration. »
“I want to express my deepest gratitude to President Rolland Slade and the members of the Executive Committee for entrusting me with the opportunity to serve,” he added. “It is an honor to partner with Southern Baptists to further the mission of winning the world to Jesus.”
The move comes as the Executive Committee investigates whether leaders have mishandled complaints of sexual abuse within the denomination.
Last October, former SBC chairman Ronnie Floyd resigned as head of the executive committee in opposition to the committee’s decision to waive solicitor-client privilege in the investigation.
The committee voted 44-31 on Oct. 5 to allow Guidepost Solutions, which is leading the investigation into how the convention handled sexual abuse complaints at SBC churches, to examine privileged communications between committee members. and others, as requested by SBC messengers and the Sexual Abuse Task Force.
“What was desired to be put to use for the advancement of the gospel by those who called me here, I will no longer jeopardize because of this role,” Floyd said in a letter sent to the committee. .
“Because of my personal integrity and the leadership responsibility entrusted to me, I will not and can no longer perform the duties assigned to me as Head of the Executive, Fiscal and Fiduciary Entity of the SBC .”
Other committee members also resigned in response to the vote, as did the SBC’s general counsel, attorneys James Guenther and James Jordan of the law firm Guenther, Jordan & Price.
“We just don’t know how to advise a client, and otherwise represent a client, with the quality of advice and representation that the client should have, and in accordance with the standard of practice that our firm tries to uphold, when the client has indicated a willingness to waive this universally accepted principle of confidentiality,” the legal team said.
The investigation was sparked by a 2019 report from the Houston Chronicle documenting hundreds of cases of abuse in Southern Baptist churches over the decades. In September, the executive committee voted to fund the investigation up to $1.6 million.
Some committee members expressed concern about waiving solicitor-client privilege for the investigation, citing risks to the insurance of the agreement and that it could make the denomination susceptible to legal action.
The committee’s lawyers warned that maintaining local church autonomy would protect the SBC. Jordan and Guenther argue that the committee voted to waive the privilege without understanding the “effect” it might have on the convention.
“Attorney-client privilege has been described by some as a diabolical device by which misconduct is somehow allowed to be secret so that wrongdoers can evade justice and defeat the legal rights of others,” the authors wrote. lawyers. “That couldn’t be further from the truth.”
In comments to The Baptist Press, McLaurin said he hoped to restore confidence in the committee, adding that “no church network is without challenges.”
Slade, elected as the first black chairman of the executive committee in 2020, told The Baptist Press that McLaurin’s goal will be to “regain the sense of trust of Southern Baptists.”
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