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

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

The 205-page list is a compilation of ministers and different church employees who've been credibly accused of sexual abuse. The record is described as a “fluid, working doc” that was also incomplete but largely pulls details about abusers from revealed news experiences.

The publication of the record comes after the release Sunday of a 300-page report by an unbiased investigator that described how leaders of the Southern Baptist denomination for decades have acquired reviews of sexual abuse dedicated by church workers, pastors and others. But those reports have been largely saved secret and, reasonably than acting upon and investigating experiences of sexual abuse, denomination leaders sought to intimidate and vilify victims and their advocates.

“The whole thing must be seen for what it's,” wrote former Southern Baptist Convention government committee member and general counsel D. August Boto in an internal e-mail that was published within the report. “It’s a satanic scheme to fully distract us from evangelism.”

The disaster rocking the Southern Baptist denomination this week is comparable in some 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 legal legal responsibility than the victims and at instances failed to expel accused abusers from positions of authority.

In 2007, Father Thomas Doyle, a Catholic priest credited as one of the 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 were repeating the failures of the Catholic church in dealing with sex abuse.

Doyle was instructed, “Southern Baptist leaders truly don't have any authority over native church buildings,” a response that Doyle considered dismissive, based on the investigative report. 

That very same yr, at the SBC convention in San Antonio, Oklahoma pastor Wade Burleson made a movement 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 stopping any future sexual abuse or harassment.”

The database proposal appeared to go nowhere, in line with the report, and witnesses on the conference recalled little about it except to express their opinion that it could “violate local church autonomy.”

Ultimately, a staffer for the SBC government committee since 2007 had maintained an inventory of accused ministers and church workers, nevertheless it was saved hidden from the public and even SBC government committee trustees, based on the report.

Southern Baptist leaders stated publicizing the checklist of credibly accused abusers represented “an initial, but vital, step towards addressing the scourge of sexual abuse and implementing reform within the Convention.”

“Each entry in this checklist reminds us of the devastation and destruction caused by sexual abuse,” said a joint assertion from Willie McLaurin and Rolland Slade, each SBC executive committee members. “Our prayer is that the survivors of those heinous acts discover hope and healing, and that churches will utilize this list proactively to guard and take care of the most weak among us.”

Legal professionals for the SBC executive committee researched the record of accused abusers, taking steps to verify information it contained. It left unredacted entries about alleged abusers that may very well be confirmed, whereas redacting entries where somebody was acquitted or didn't have a remaining disposition, in addition to information that would identify victims.

Missouri men feature prominently on the listing. They embody:

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