The Southern Baptist Convention, the largest Protestant denomination in the United State, has agreed to open up hundreds of thousands of confidential records to investigators looking into sexual abuse allegations against the organization, the Associated Press reports.
By a 44-31 vote, the denomination’s Executive Committee agreed to waive lawyer-client confidentiality, allowing records on how leadership dealt with accusations of abuse and harassment at its churches and institutions. It was the third vote on this issue for the Committee in less than three weeks; the other two attempts were voted down, despite church messengers–representatives from member congregations–voting at the denomination’s Convention in June to release the records. Experts on church law say the vote by the messengers would ultimately prevail.
“What we’re doing is about creating chaos,” committee member Joe Knott of North Carolina said in opposition to the waiver. The messengers “voted to investigate sexual abuse” but not to “void our insurance,” he said.