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

The Southern Baptist Conference 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 listing is a compilation of ministers and different church staff who've been credibly accused of sexual abuse. The checklist is described as a “fluid, working document” that was additionally incomplete however largely pulls details about abusers from printed information reviews.

The publication of the listing comes after the release Sunday of a 300-page report by an independent investigator that described how leaders of the Southern Baptist denomination for many years have acquired studies of sexual abuse committed by church staff, pastors and others. However these stories had been largely saved secret and, rather than appearing upon and investigating stories of sexual abuse, denomination leaders sought to intimidate and vilify victims and their advocates.

“The whole thing must be seen for what it is,” wrote former Southern Baptist Conference executive committee member and basic counsel D. August Boto in an inside e mail that was published within the report. “It’s a satanic scheme to completely distract us from evangelism.”

The disaster rocking the Southern Baptist denomination this week is similar in many ways to what the Catholic church continues to face. Leaders in each faiths systematically hid details about sexual misconduct, appeared to point out more concern about their very own legal liability than the victims and at times did not 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 crisis, wrote a letter to SBC management conveying his concern that Southern Baptist leaders were repeating the failures of the Catholic church in coping with intercourse abuse.

Doyle was told, “Southern Baptist leaders really haven't any authority over native church buildings,” a response that Doyle considered dismissive, in keeping with the investigative report. 

That same yr, at 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 line with the report, and witnesses at the convention recalled little about it except to precise their opinion that it might “violate local church autonomy.”

In the end, a staffer for the SBC executive committee since 2007 had maintained an inventory of accused ministers and church workers, however it was saved hidden from the general public and even SBC executive committee trustees, according to the report.

Southern Baptist leaders mentioned publicizing the list of credibly accused abusers represented “an preliminary, but vital, step in the direction of addressing the scourge of sexual abuse and implementing reform in the Convention.”

“Each entry in this list reminds us of the devastation and destruction brought about by sexual abuse,” mentioned a joint assertion from Willie McLaurin and Rolland Slade, each SBC govt committee members. “Our prayer is that the survivors of those heinous acts find hope and healing, and that churches will make the most of this record proactively to guard and care for probably the most susceptible among us.”

Attorneys for the SBC govt committee researched the listing of accused abusers, taking steps to confirm data 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 last disposition, as well as data that might identify victims.

Missouri men function prominently on the record. They embrace:

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