Abuse database is no longer a priority for Southern Baptist leaders

A proposed online database that would list the names of abusive Southern Baptist pastors is now on hold, with no names likely to be added to the website by the denomination’s annual meeting this summer.

Instead, Southern Baptist leaders working to address abuse in the nation’s largest Protestant denomination say they will focus on helping churches access other databases of abusers and training churches to do better background checks. However, the so-called Ministry Check database, which was a centerpiece of reforms approved by Southern Baptist messengers — or local church representatives — is now on the back burner.

“At this point, it’s not a focus for us,” Jeff Iorg, head of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Executive Committee, told reporters at a news conference Tuesday (Feb. 18) during the committee’s annual meeting in Nashville, Tennessee.

Religion & Politics

Photos of the Week: Hindu pilgrimage; Southern Baptist leaders meet

Pilgrims hold up their saris to dry after a holy dip at the confluence of the Ganges, the Yamuna and the mythical Saraswati rivers during Maha Kumbh festival in Prayagraj, Sunday, Feb.16, 2025. (AP Photo/Rajesh Kumar Singh)

In Opinion

And finally, Hindu devotional singing is having a moment

The winner of the 2025 Grammy Award for best new age, ambient or chant album — a category once dominated by Enya — was an album titled “Triveni,” meaning “the confluence of three rivers” in Sanskrit, an apt description for its weaving of Vedic chants, melodic flute and cello by India’s Chandrika Tandon, South Africa’s Wouter Kellerman and Japan’s Eru Matsumoto.

The name, which is given to the meeting point of the holy Ganges, Yamuna and Saraswati rivers, said singer Tandon, came to her in one of her daily meditations.

“It was a beautiful coincidence that our album called Triveni won the Grammy on Vasant Panchami when the Maha Prayag was going on,” Tandon told RNS, referring to the ongoing Maha Kumbh Mela festival held where the three rivers meet in Prayagraj, India, considered one of the holiest pilgrimage sites in the nation. The world’s largest gathering of humanity, with 400 million people attending this year, the Kumbh Mela happens every 12 years, with this year’s celebration, the Maha Kumbh Mela, happening only every 144 years, when the sun, the moon and Jupiter align.

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