FILE - In this Wednesday, June 16, 2021 file photo, people attend the morning session of the Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting in Nashville, Tenn. On Tuesday, Oct. 5, 2021, a top committee of the SBC agreed to open up legally protected records to investigators who will look into how it handled, or mishandled, cases of sexual abuse within the nation's largest Protestant denomination over the past two decades.
Proponents said the Executive Committee really had no choice because it was directed to waive privilege by the ultimate authority in Southern Baptist government: the church representatives, or messengers, who voted at the convention's annual meeting in Nashville in June to authorize an investigation of the committee.
“We have victims who have been waiting for a long time for a tangible step towards healing," he said. Seminary presidents and state Baptist leaders also called for the committee to follow the messengers' directive.