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

The Southern Baptist Convention on Thursday released a once-secret and prolonged list of accused intercourse abusers — several of whom are in the Midwest — throughout the denomination.

The 205-page listing is a compilation of ministers and other church employees who've been credibly accused of sexual abuse. The listing is described as a “fluid, working document” that was also incomplete but largely pulls information about abusers from printed information reports.

The publication of the record comes after the discharge Sunday of a 300-page report by an unbiased investigator that described how leaders of the Southern Baptist denomination for decades have received studies of sexual abuse committed by church staff, pastors and others. However these studies have been largely kept secret and, quite than performing upon and investigating reports of sexual abuse, denomination leaders sought to intimidate and vilify victims and their advocates.

“The whole thing ought to be seen for what it is,” wrote former Southern Baptist Conference executive committee member and normal counsel D. August Boto in an inner e-mail that was printed in the report. “It’s a satanic scheme to completely 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 both faiths systematically hid information about sexual misconduct, appeared to show extra concern about their own legal liability than the victims and at instances did not 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 crisis, wrote a letter to SBC leadership conveying his concern that Southern Baptist leaders were repeating the failures of the Catholic church in coping with intercourse abuse.

Doyle was informed, “Southern Baptist leaders truly don't have any authority over native church buildings,” a response that Doyle regarded as dismissive, in line with the investigative report. 

That very same year, at the SBC conference 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 preventing any future sexual abuse or harassment.”

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

In the end, a staffer for the SBC govt committee since 2007 had maintained a listing of accused ministers and church staff, but it surely was stored hidden from the general 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 preliminary, but important, step in the direction of addressing the scourge of sexual abuse and implementing reform in the Conference.”

“Each entry in this listing reminds us of the devastation and destruction led to by sexual abuse,” said a joint statement from Willie McLaurin and Rolland Slade, both SBC executive committee members. “Our prayer is that the survivors of those heinous acts discover hope and healing, and that churches will make the most of this checklist proactively to protect and care for probably the most vulnerable among us.”

Legal professionals for the SBC govt committee researched the record of accused abusers, taking steps to verify data it contained. It left unredacted entries about alleged abusers that might be confirmed, whereas redacting entries the place somebody was acquitted or did not have a remaining disposition, as well as information that might establish victims.

Missouri men feature prominently on the listing. They embrace:

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 news from Iowa, Kansas, Missouri and Nebraska, we invite you to comply with us on Twitter.