Eight Missouri ministers accused of sex abuse in Southern Baptist Convention report • Missouri Independent

The Southern Baptist Convention on Thursday released a once-secret and lengthy listing of accused intercourse abusers — a number of of whom are within the Midwest — within the denomination.

The 205-page checklist is a compilation of ministers and different church workers who've been credibly accused of sexual abuse. The listing is described as a “fluid, working document” that was also incomplete however largely pulls information about abusers from revealed news studies.

The publication of the list comes after the release Sunday of a 300-page report by an impartial investigator that described how leaders of the Southern Baptist denomination for decades have received studies of sexual abuse committed by church employees, pastors and others. But these studies had been largely saved secret and, reasonably than appearing upon and investigating studies of sexual abuse, denomination leaders sought to intimidate and vilify victims and their advocates.

“The whole thing needs to be seen for what it's,” wrote former Southern Baptist Convention executive committee member and normal counsel D. August Boto in an inside email that was revealed within the report. “It’s a satanic scheme to completely distract us from evangelism.”

The disaster rocking the Southern Baptist denomination this week is analogous in many ways to what the Catholic church continues to face. Leaders in each faiths systematically hid details about sexual misconduct, appeared to indicate more concern about their very own authorized legal responsibility than the victims and at times didn't expel accused abusers from positions of authority.

In 2007, Father Thomas Doyle, a Catholic priest credited as one of many first to warn of his personal denomination’s clergy intercourse abuse disaster, wrote a letter to SBC leadership conveying his concern that Southern Baptist leaders have been repeating the failures of the Catholic church in dealing with intercourse abuse.

Doyle was advised, “Southern Baptist leaders really haven't any authority over native churches,” a response that Doyle considered dismissive, in accordance with the investigative report. 

That same year, at the SBC convention in San Antonio, Oklahoma pastor Wade Burleson made a motion to create a database of Southern Baptist clergy who had been convicted or credibly accused of, or had confessed to sexual abuse. The proposal was meant to “help in preventing any future sexual abuse or harassment.”

The database proposal appeared to go nowhere, based on the report, and witnesses at the conference recalled little about it except to specific their opinion that it would “violate native church autonomy.”

Finally, a staffer for the SBC executive committee since 2007 had maintained a listing of accused ministers and church employees, but it surely was saved hidden from the public and even SBC govt committee trustees, in keeping with the report.

Southern Baptist leaders mentioned publicizing the checklist of credibly accused abusers represented “an initial, however important, step in direction of addressing the scourge of sexual abuse and implementing reform within the Conference.”

“Every entry on this list reminds us of the devastation and destruction led to by sexual abuse,” stated a joint statement from Willie McLaurin and Rolland Slade, both SBC government committee members. “Our prayer is that the survivors of these heinous acts find hope and therapeutic, and that churches will utilize this list proactively to protect and look after probably the most susceptible among us.”

Attorneys for the SBC executive committee researched the list of accused abusers, taking steps to confirm info it contained. It left unredacted entries about alleged abusers that may very well be confirmed, while redacting entries where someone was acquitted or did not have a remaining disposition, in addition to data that would determine victims.

Missouri males feature prominently on the record. They include:

This story comes from the Midwest Newsroom, an investigative journalism collaboration together with IPR, KCUR 89.3, Nebraska Public Media News, St. Louis Public Radio and NPR. For extra in-depth information from Iowa, Kansas, Missouri and Nebraska, we invite you to comply with us on Twitter.