Crisis Communication Analysis: Too Little, Much Too Late: An Analysis of The Southern Baptist Convention’s Sexual Abuse Crisis

Abstract

The Southern Baptist Convention has experienced a long-time crisis of sexual abuse allegations from stakeholders with the issues compounding because of their crisis response strategies. The Southern Baptist Convention enacted crisis response strategies, using denial, attacking the accuser, scapegoating, excusing, apology, and praising the stakeholders responses. These crisis responses were found in statements from the organization from 2019, 2021, and a third-party investigation into the Southern Baptist Convention’s handling of sexual abuse allegations. The theory used for analysis was Coomb’s (2023) situational crisis communication theory. Overall, the Southern Baptist Convention’s crisis response was ineffective because of their responses being reactive and being released much later than they should have.

Sample of Introduction and Conclusion

Introduction

Considering the #MeToo movement regarding sexual abuse and religiously based sexual abuse scandals through organizations such as The Catholic Church, it is important for organizations to consider how they will handle sexual abuse allegations from stakeholders. While some organizations may choose to handle sexual abuse allegations through the legal system or through their own disciplinary system, others will choose to actively ignore the allegations, hoping no one would ever find out. The Southern Baptist Convention choose the latter, hiding and ignoring allegations of sexual abuse from their stakeholders hoping nothing would need to be done. However, the news broke about the widespread issue of accountability and responsibility in the organization, creating the instigation of the crisis. Understanding the crisis response strategies that the Southern Baptist Convention enacted in response to their crisis can set the stage for other organizations to consider their response options and the speed at which they should respond. In this paper, the stage for analysis will be set with Coombs’ (2023) situational crisis communication before going into an explanation of the crisis, the artifacts analyzed for response strategies, and the efficacy of the response strategies.

Conclusion

It is often better for the organization to be the first to break the news of a crisis, rather than waiting for traditional or social media to be the first to speak. By taking charge of the narrative and presenting the facts as the organization knows them to be true at the time, the organization can better manage reactions from stakeholders and their own reputation. However, The Southern Baptist Convention failed to be the first to present the crisis to the public and instead worked to hide the issues until traditional news broke the story first. While using a variety of crisis response strategies that should have worked to repair their reputation, the Southern Baptist Convention waited too long for the response strategies to be accepted by stakeholders.

            By using Coombs’ (2023) situational crisis communication theory for analysis of the Southern Baptist Convention’s crisis response, it was found that the organization used denial, diminishment, scapegoating, attacking the accuser, praising the stakeholders, and apology, but was ultimately uneffective in restoring their reputation. Despite their use of many response strategies, the time between the initiation of the crisis and the release of the crisis responses created too much ambiguity for stakeholders to accept any reactive responsibility the organization was taking.