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

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

The 205-page record is a compilation of ministers and different church employees who have been credibly accused of sexual abuse. The checklist is described as a “fluid, working doc” that was also incomplete however largely pulls information about abusers from printed news reports.

The publication of the record 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 obtained studies of sexual abuse dedicated by church workers, pastors and others. But those experiences have been largely saved secret and, quite than acting upon and investigating experiences of sexual abuse, denomination leaders sought to intimidate and vilify victims and their advocates.

“The entire thing must be seen for what it's,” wrote former Southern Baptist Conference govt committee member and normal counsel D. August Boto in an internal email that was revealed 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 many ways to what the Catholic church continues to face. Leaders in each faiths systematically hid information about sexual misconduct, appeared to show more concern about their own authorized 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 many first to warn of his personal denomination’s clergy sex abuse crisis, wrote a letter to SBC management conveying his concern that Southern Baptist leaders had been repeating the failures of the Catholic church in dealing with intercourse abuse.

Doyle was advised, “Southern Baptist leaders truly don't have any authority over local churches,” a response that Doyle considered dismissive, according to the investigative report. 

That very same yr, 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 “assist in stopping any future sexual abuse or harassment.”

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

Finally, a staffer for the SBC government committee since 2007 had maintained an inventory of accused ministers and church staff, but it was stored hidden from the public and even SBC govt committee trustees, in accordance with the report.

Southern Baptist leaders said publicizing the listing of credibly accused abusers represented “an preliminary, however essential, step towards addressing the scourge of sexual abuse and implementing reform within the Convention.”

“Every entry in this record reminds us of the devastation and destruction led to by sexual abuse,” stated a joint assertion 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 church buildings will make the most of this listing proactively to guard and care for the most vulnerable amongst us.”

Lawyers for the SBC government committee researched the record of accused abusers, taking steps to confirm data it contained. It left unredacted entries about alleged abusers that could be confirmed, whereas redacting entries the place somebody was acquitted or did not have a ultimate disposition, as well as information that would establish victims.

Missouri males feature prominently on the record. They include:

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 more in-depth information from Iowa, Kansas, Missouri and Nebraska, we invite you to observe us on Twitter.