According to a damning 288-page investigation report released Sunday, leaders of the Southern Baptist Convention, America’s biggest Protestant organization, stonewalled and denigrated survivors of clerical sex abuse for over two decades while working to protect their reputations.

According to the study, these survivors and other concerned Southern Baptists frequently raised concerns with the SBC’s Executive Committee, only to be faced with “opposition, stonewalling, and even open hostility from some inside the EC.”

Guidepost Solutions, an independent business hired by the Executive Committee after delegates at last year’s national convention demanded an impartial inquiry, undertook the seven-month study.

“Our investigation revealed that, for many years, a few senior EC leaders, along with outside counsel, largely controlled the EC’s response to these reports of abuse … and were singularly focused on avoiding liability for the SBC,” the report said.

“In service of this goal, survivors and others who reported abuse were ignored, disbelieved, or met with the constant refrain that the SBC could take no action due to its polity regarding church autonomy – even if it meant that convicted molesters continued in ministry with no notice or warning to their current church or congregation,” the report added.

In a statement issued on Sunday, BC President Ed Litton said he is “grieved to my core” for the victims and praised God for their efforts in bringing the SBC to this point. He urged Southern Baptists to mourn and prepare to change the culture of the denomination and undertake changes.

“I pray Southern Baptists will begin preparing today to take deliberate action to address these failures and chart a new course when we meet together in Anaheim,” Litton said