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

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

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

The publication of the list comes after the release Sunday of a 300-page report by an impartial investigator that described how leaders of the Southern Baptist denomination for many years have received reviews of sexual abuse committed by church employees, pastors and others. However these experiences had been largely saved secret and, slightly than acting upon and investigating reviews of sexual abuse, denomination leaders sought to intimidate and vilify victims and their advocates.

“The entire thing needs to be seen for what it's,” wrote former Southern Baptist Conference executive 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 comparable in some 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 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 many first to warn of his own 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 dealing with sex abuse.

Doyle was instructed, “Southern Baptist leaders really haven't any authority over local churches,” a response that Doyle considered dismissive, in line with the investigative report. 

That very same yr, on 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 “help in stopping any future sexual abuse or harassment.”

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

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

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

“Each entry on this list reminds us of the devastation and destruction brought about by sexual abuse,” stated a joint statement from Willie McLaurin and Rolland Slade, both SBC govt committee members. “Our prayer is that the survivors of those heinous acts discover hope and therapeutic, and that church buildings will utilize this list proactively to protect and take care of probably the most weak amongst us.”

Attorneys 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 could be confirmed, while redacting entries the place someone was acquitted or did not have a closing disposition, in addition to info that would establish victims.

Missouri men feature prominently on the record. They embody:

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