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

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

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

The publication of the checklist 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 received experiences of sexual abuse committed by church staff, pastors and others. But these stories have been largely saved secret and, somewhat than acting upon and investigating reviews 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 within the report. “It’s a satanic scheme to fully distract us from evangelism.”

The disaster rocking the Southern Baptist denomination this week is analogous in some ways to what the Catholic church continues to face. Leaders in each faiths systematically hid details about sexual misconduct, appeared to show extra concern about their very own authorized liability 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 the first to warn of his own denomination’s clergy sex 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 intercourse abuse.

Doyle was advised, “Southern Baptist leaders truly have no authority over local church buildings,” a response that Doyle considered dismissive, in line with the investigative report. 

That same 12 months, on the SBC conference 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 “assist in preventing any future sexual abuse or harassment.”

The database proposal appeared to go nowhere, in accordance with the report, and witnesses on the convention recalled little about it besides to specific their opinion that it could “violate local church autonomy.”

Finally, a staffer for the SBC government committee since 2007 had maintained a listing of accused ministers and church employees, however it was stored hidden from the public and even SBC govt committee trustees, in response to the report.

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

“Every entry on this checklist reminds us of the devastation and destruction brought about 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 these heinous acts find hope and therapeutic, and that churches will make the most of this listing proactively to protect and look after the most weak among us.”

Lawyers for the SBC executive committee researched the checklist of accused abusers, taking steps to verify information it contained. It left unredacted entries about alleged abusers that might be confirmed, whereas redacting entries where somebody was acquitted or did not have a ultimate disposition, as well as data that would identify victims.

Missouri males characteristic prominently on the checklist. They embody:

This story comes from the Midwest Newsroom, an investigative journalism collaboration including 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 follow us on Twitter.