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

The Southern Baptist Conference on Thursday launched a once-secret and lengthy list of accused sex abusers — a number of of whom are in the Midwest — throughout the denomination.

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

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 obtained stories of sexual abuse dedicated by church workers, pastors and others. But these stories have been largely saved secret and, slightly than acting 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 is,” wrote former Southern Baptist Convention government committee member and basic counsel D. August Boto in an inner email that was printed in the report. “It’s a satanic scheme to utterly distract us from evangelism.”

The disaster 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 point out more 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 the first to warn of his own denomination’s clergy intercourse abuse crisis, wrote a letter to SBC leadership conveying his concern that Southern Baptist leaders were repeating the failures of the Catholic church in dealing with sex abuse.

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

That very same year, at the SBC convention 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 “assist in preventing any future sexual abuse or harassment.”

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

Ultimately, a staffer for the SBC govt committee since 2007 had maintained an inventory of accused ministers and church staff, nevertheless it was stored hidden from the general public and even SBC govt committee trustees, in line with the report.

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

“Every entry in this checklist reminds us of the devastation and destruction caused 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 discover hope and therapeutic, and that church buildings will utilize this checklist proactively to guard and take care of essentially the most weak among us.”

Lawyers for the SBC govt committee researched the record of accused abusers, taking steps to confirm data it contained. It left unredacted entries about alleged abusers that may very well be confirmed, while redacting entries the place somebody was acquitted or did not have a remaining disposition, as well as data that would determine victims.

Missouri males feature prominently on the record. They embrace:

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