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

The Southern Baptist Conference on Thursday released a once-secret and prolonged listing of accused sex abusers — several of whom are in 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 listing is described as a “fluid, working document” that was additionally incomplete however largely pulls details about abusers from printed information studies.

The publication of the list comes after the release Sunday of a 300-page report by an independent investigator that described how leaders of the Southern Baptist denomination for decades have acquired reports of sexual abuse dedicated by church workers, pastors and others. However those reviews had been largely stored 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 should be seen for what it's,” wrote former Southern Baptist Conference executive committee member and normal counsel D. August Boto in an internal email that was printed in the report. “It’s a satanic scheme to fully 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 point out 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 the first to warn of his own denomination’s clergy intercourse abuse crisis, wrote a letter to SBC management conveying his concern that Southern Baptist leaders have been repeating the failures of the Catholic church in dealing with sex abuse.

Doyle was advised, “Southern Baptist leaders actually don't have any authority over native church buildings,” a response that Doyle thought to be dismissive, in response to the investigative report. 

That same year, 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 response to the report, and witnesses at the conference recalled little about it except to express their opinion that it might “violate local church autonomy.”

Finally, a staffer for the SBC government committee since 2007 had maintained an inventory of accused ministers and church staff, but it surely was saved hidden from the public and even SBC government committee trustees, according to the report.

Southern Baptist leaders stated publicizing the checklist of credibly accused abusers represented “an preliminary, but essential, step in the direction of addressing the scourge of sexual abuse and implementing reform in 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, both SBC government committee members. “Our prayer is that the survivors of these heinous acts find hope and therapeutic, and that churches will utilize this list proactively to protect and care for the most vulnerable amongst us.”

Attorneys for the SBC government committee researched the list of accused abusers, taking steps to verify information it contained. It left unredacted entries about alleged abusers that could possibly be confirmed, whereas redacting entries where someone was acquitted or didn't have a last disposition, as well as info that could establish victims.

Missouri men characteristic prominently on the list. They embody:

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