October 1, 2026
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — It took only a few short minutes into his first report to the SBC Executive Committee on Monday evening for Willy Rice to address the Convention’s sexual abuse response efforts. Rice, elected SBC president in June, later said the EC’s fall meeting in Nashville was the “right place” to bring up the issue in “a positive way.”
Since taking on his new role, the Florida pastor has continued to weather his share of criticism for past statements he’s made about the SBC’s sexual abuse response. After the Department of Justice closed its investigation against the Convention in 2025, Rice posted on social media, “there was no systemic sexual abuse crisis or coverup in the SBC. It was a snipe hunt, a ruse to destroy good people and gain power.” The statement has drawn a strong response from some abuse survivors and other critics.
On Tuesday, Rice said he chose to focus on progress, not mistakes, the SBC has made — and how the Convention’s efforts have made churches a safer place to gather and worship.
“Last night was the right place for me to do it, now that I’m the president — to say that this is all that Southern Baptists have done,” he told The Baptist Paper. “Look at the proactive ways at which Southern Baptists have and are addressing the issue.”
Southern Baptists, Rice said, are “taking extraordinary steps to address this issue.”
Since 2021, he told the Executive Committee, MinistrySafe has reported that over 5,200 Baptist churches have trained more than “a quarter million” staff members, volunteers and parents. SBC entities, he noted, also have provided training, equipped new church plants with resources and emphasized other prevention and response initiatives.
SBC Executive Committee’s decision to hire Jeff Dalrymple as the director of Abuse Prevention and Response was another positive step, Rice said.
“I’m encouraged by the work that they are doing, by the resources they are providing and the help they offer,” he said during his report. “In short, there are few organizations that have done as much to meet this challenge and take this responsibility as seriously as the Southern Baptist Convention.”
Rice, pastor of Calvary Baptist Church in Clearwater, Florida, noted he has invited Dalrymple and his team to host a training at the church early next year for local ministry leaders in sexual abuse awareness and prevention.
“As clearly as I know how, I call upon all of our churches to practice ongoing training, install proper protocols,” he told The Baptist Paper. “And when faced with an accusation of abuse in their ministries, to take those seriously, to report to law enforcement immediately and to cooperate with all legal investigations fully. … You do not have to navigate this alone. We are ready to help.”
“I have some concerns over some of the decisions that were made over the last five years,” he also noted. “I spoke about that (in the past) because that was the time to do so. But at this point, I wanted to make a positive statement about what Southern Baptists have done. … And the headline is, ‘We’ve made huge progress. We are taking it seriously.’”
The “sexual abuse reform movement,” he told the EC, “has been one of those chapters that has sorely tested us. The tragic reality of sexual abuse was, is, and will remain a grievous wickedness and a threat that requires constant vigilance.”
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This article appeared in The Baptist Paper.
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