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

The Southern Baptist Convention on Thursday released a once-secret and lengthy record of accused sex abusers — a number of of whom are in the Midwest — within the denomination.

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

The publication of the record 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 studies of sexual abuse dedicated by church staff, pastors and others. But those studies had been largely stored secret and, rather than appearing upon and investigating reports of sexual abuse, denomination leaders sought to intimidate and vilify victims and their advocates.

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

The crisis rocking the Southern Baptist denomination this week is comparable in some ways to what the Catholic church continues to face. Leaders in each faiths systematically hid information about sexual misconduct, appeared to indicate extra concern about their very own authorized legal responsibility than the victims and at instances 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 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 sex abuse.

Doyle was advised, “Southern Baptist leaders actually have no authority over local churches,” a response that Doyle thought to be dismissive, in keeping with the investigative report. 

That very same 12 months, on the SBC convention 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 stopping any future sexual abuse or harassment.”

The database proposal appeared to go nowhere, in line with the report, and witnesses on the conference recalled little about it besides to express their opinion that it would “violate local church autonomy.”

Finally, a staffer for the SBC govt committee since 2007 had maintained a list of accused ministers and church employees, however it was kept hidden from the public and even SBC executive committee trustees, in accordance with the report.

Southern Baptist leaders said publicizing the checklist of credibly accused abusers represented “an preliminary, however necessary, step in the direction of addressing the scourge of sexual abuse and implementing reform within the Conference.”

“Each entry in this listing reminds us of the devastation and destruction led to by sexual abuse,” stated a joint statement from Willie McLaurin and Rolland Slade, each SBC govt committee members. “Our prayer is that the survivors of these heinous acts discover hope and therapeutic, and that churches will make the most of this checklist proactively to protect and care for the most susceptible amongst us.”

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

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