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

The Southern Baptist Conference on Thursday launched a once-secret and prolonged listing of accused sex abusers — several of whom are in the Midwest — inside 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 but largely pulls details about abusers from revealed information studies.

The publication of the listing comes after the discharge Sunday of a 300-page report by an independent investigator that described how leaders of the Southern Baptist denomination for decades have obtained studies of sexual abuse dedicated by church employees, pastors and others. But those reviews were largely saved secret and, moderately than appearing upon and investigating reports of sexual abuse, denomination leaders sought to intimidate and vilify victims and their advocates.

“The whole 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 email that was revealed in the report. “It’s a satanic scheme to utterly distract us from evangelism.”

The disaster rocking the Southern Baptist denomination this week is similar in many ways to what the Catholic church continues to face. Leaders in both faiths systematically hid information about sexual misconduct, appeared to show extra concern about their very own authorized liability than the victims and at occasions 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 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 coping with intercourse abuse.

Doyle was instructed, “Southern Baptist leaders really haven't any authority over local church buildings,” a response that Doyle regarded as dismissive, according to the investigative report. 

That same 12 months, 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, according to the report, and witnesses on the convention recalled little about it besides to express their opinion that it will “violate local church autonomy.”

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

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

“Every entry in this checklist reminds us of the devastation and destruction caused 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 those heinous acts discover hope and healing, and that church buildings will make the most of this checklist proactively to guard and take care of probably the most susceptible among us.”

Legal professionals for the SBC executive committee researched the checklist of accused abusers, taking steps to verify data it contained. It left unredacted entries about alleged abusers that might be confirmed, whereas redacting entries the place someone was acquitted or did not have a final disposition, as well as data that could identify victims.

Missouri men feature prominently on the listing. They include:

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 information from Iowa, Kansas, Missouri and Nebraska, we invite you to comply with us on Twitter.