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

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

The 205-page record is a compilation of ministers and different church staff who have been credibly accused of sexual abuse. The listing is described as a “fluid, working doc” that was additionally incomplete however largely pulls details about abusers from published news studies.

The publication of the list comes after the release Sunday of a 300-page report by an impartial investigator that described how leaders of the Southern Baptist denomination for many years have acquired experiences of sexual abuse dedicated by church staff, pastors and others. But these studies were largely kept secret and, relatively than acting upon and investigating reviews of sexual abuse, denomination leaders sought to intimidate and vilify victims and their advocates.

“The whole thing should be seen for what it's,” wrote former Southern Baptist Convention government committee member and general counsel D. August Boto in an inside electronic mail that was printed within 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 both faiths systematically hid details about sexual misconduct, appeared to point out 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 the first to warn of his own denomination’s clergy sex 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 sex abuse.

Doyle was instructed, “Southern Baptist leaders truly haven't any authority over local churches,” a response that Doyle regarded as dismissive, in accordance with the investigative report. 

That 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, in accordance with the report, and witnesses at the convention recalled little about it besides to specific their opinion that it might “violate native church autonomy.”

In the end, a staffer for the SBC govt committee since 2007 had maintained an inventory of accused ministers and church workers, however it was kept hidden from the public and even SBC government committee trustees, in response to the report.

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

“Each entry in this list reminds us of the devastation and destruction led to by sexual abuse,” said a joint statement from Willie McLaurin and Rolland Slade, each SBC executive committee members. “Our prayer is that the survivors of these heinous acts find hope and healing, and that church buildings will utilize this list proactively to guard and care for essentially the most weak among us.”

Attorneys for the SBC government committee researched the checklist of accused abusers, taking steps to confirm information it contained. It left unredacted entries about alleged abusers that might be confirmed, whereas redacting entries where someone was acquitted or did not have a closing disposition, in addition to info that might identify victims.

Missouri men function prominently on the list. 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 more in-depth information from Iowa, Kansas, Missouri and Nebraska, we invite you to comply with us on Twitter.