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 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 checklist is described as a “fluid, working doc” that was also incomplete but largely pulls details about abusers from published news experiences.

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 many years have received stories of sexual abuse dedicated by church workers, pastors and others. But those reviews were largely saved secret and, moderately than performing upon and investigating reports of sexual abuse, denomination leaders sought to intimidate and vilify victims and their advocates.

“The entire thing ought to be seen for what it is,” wrote former Southern Baptist Convention executive committee member and general counsel D. August Boto in an internal e mail that was revealed in the report. “It’s a satanic scheme to fully distract us from evangelism.”

The crisis rocking the Southern Baptist denomination this week is comparable in many ways to what the Catholic church continues to face. Leaders in both faiths systematically hid information about sexual misconduct, appeared to show more concern about their 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 many first to warn of his own denomination’s clergy intercourse abuse disaster, 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 told, “Southern Baptist leaders really don't have any authority over native church buildings,” a response that Doyle considered dismissive, based on the investigative report. 

That same year, on 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 response to the report, and witnesses at the convention recalled little about it besides to specific their opinion that it could “violate local church autonomy.”

Finally, a staffer for the SBC executive committee since 2007 had maintained a listing of accused ministers and church staff, but it surely was kept hidden from the general public and even SBC govt committee trustees, based on 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 Conference.”

“Each entry on this checklist reminds us of the devastation and destruction caused by sexual abuse,” stated a joint assertion from Willie McLaurin and Rolland Slade, both SBC executive committee members. “Our prayer is that the survivors of these heinous acts find hope and healing, and that church buildings will make the most of this list proactively to guard and care for probably the most vulnerable among us.”

Attorneys for the SBC executive committee researched the listing of accused abusers, taking steps to verify information it contained. It left unredacted entries about alleged abusers that may very well be confirmed, while redacting entries where somebody was acquitted or didn't have a ultimate disposition, in addition to data that might identify victims.

Missouri men characteristic prominently on the listing. They embrace:

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.