Guide to the Southern Baptist Meltdown Over Sexual Abuse

Sometime in the next few days, members of the Southern Baptist Convention's Executive Committee will meet for the third time in three weeks -- hoping to resolve a stalemate over the details of an investigation into the committee's own handling of sexual abuse in the nation's largest Protestant denomination. The committee, which is charged with making decisions for the SBC between its annual meetings, has held several epic, hourslong meetings wrestling with how much access it will grant a third-party investigator to its previous communications about sexual abuse allegations. Their hesitation has invited accusations of a coverup, while their defenders say full transparency could result in lawsuits that would bankrupt the denomination.