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

The Southern Baptist Conference on Thursday launched a once-secret and prolonged record of accused intercourse abusers — a number of of whom are within the Midwest — within the denomination.

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

The publication of the checklist comes after the discharge 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 committed by church employees, pastors and others. However those studies had been largely saved secret and, slightly 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 Conference govt committee member and common counsel D. August Boto in an inside email that was revealed in the report. “It’s a satanic scheme to completely 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 details about sexual misconduct, appeared to point out more concern about their own authorized liability 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 crisis, wrote a letter to SBC leadership conveying his concern that Southern Baptist leaders had 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 native church buildings,” a response that Doyle thought to be dismissive, in keeping with the investigative report. 

That very 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 convention recalled little about it except to specific their opinion that it would “violate local church autonomy.”

In the end, a staffer for the SBC government committee since 2007 had maintained a listing of accused ministers and church workers, but it surely was saved hidden from the general public and even SBC executive committee trustees, in response to the report.

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

“Every entry in this listing reminds us of the devastation and destruction brought about by sexual abuse,” said a joint assertion from Willie McLaurin and Rolland Slade, each SBC executive committee members. “Our prayer is that the survivors of these heinous acts find hope and therapeutic, and that church buildings will utilize this checklist proactively to protect and take care of the most weak among us.”

Legal professionals for the SBC government committee researched the listing of accused abusers, taking steps to confirm info it contained. It left unredacted entries about alleged abusers that could be confirmed, while redacting entries the place someone was acquitted or didn't have a last disposition, in addition to information that might determine victims.

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