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

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

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

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 many years have received stories of sexual abuse dedicated by church employees, pastors and others. However these reports were largely saved secret and, rather than acting upon and investigating stories of sexual abuse, denomination leaders sought to intimidate and vilify victims and their advocates.

“The whole thing ought to be seen for what it's,” wrote former Southern Baptist Convention government committee member and common counsel D. August Boto in an inside e mail that was published within the report. “It’s a satanic scheme to fully distract us from evangelism.”

The crisis rocking the Southern Baptist denomination this week is analogous in many ways to what the Catholic church continues to face. Leaders in both faiths systematically hid details about sexual misconduct, appeared to indicate more concern about their own authorized legal responsibility than the victims and at times 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 intercourse abuse disaster, wrote a letter to SBC management conveying his concern that Southern Baptist leaders have been repeating the failures of the Catholic church in coping with intercourse abuse.

Doyle was informed, “Southern Baptist leaders truly don't have any authority over local church buildings,” a response that Doyle considered dismissive, in line with the investigative report. 

That same 12 months, on 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, based on the report, and witnesses on the conference recalled little about it besides to precise their opinion that it might “violate local church autonomy.”

Ultimately, a staffer for the SBC government committee since 2007 had maintained a listing of accused ministers and church workers, but it was stored hidden from the general public and even SBC govt committee trustees, according to the report.

Southern Baptist leaders stated publicizing the record of credibly accused abusers represented “an initial, but important, step towards addressing the scourge of sexual abuse and implementing reform within the Convention.”

“Each entry in this listing reminds us of the devastation and destruction led to by sexual abuse,” mentioned a joint assertion from Willie McLaurin and Rolland Slade, both SBC executive committee members. “Our prayer is that the survivors of those heinous acts discover hope and therapeutic, and that church buildings will make the most of this checklist proactively to protect and care for probably the most weak amongst us.”

Lawyers for the SBC executive committee researched the list of accused abusers, taking steps to confirm info it contained. It left unredacted entries about alleged abusers that might be confirmed, whereas redacting entries the place somebody was acquitted or didn't have a final disposition, as well as info that would determine victims.

Missouri males feature prominently on the list. They embrace:

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