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

The Southern Baptist Conference on Thursday released a once-secret and prolonged record of accused sex abusers — several of whom are within the Midwest — throughout the denomination.

The 205-page list is a compilation of ministers and different church employees who have been credibly accused of sexual abuse. The checklist is described as a “fluid, working doc” that was also incomplete however largely pulls information about abusers from printed information studies.

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 acquired studies of sexual abuse dedicated by church employees, pastors and others. But these reports were largely stored secret and, fairly than acting upon and investigating studies of sexual abuse, denomination leaders sought to intimidate and vilify victims and their advocates.

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

The crisis rocking the Southern Baptist denomination this week is similar in some ways to what the Catholic church continues to face. Leaders in both faiths systematically hid details about sexual misconduct, appeared to show more concern about their very own authorized legal responsibility than the victims and at instances did not 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 personal denomination’s clergy sex abuse crisis, wrote a letter to SBC management conveying his concern that Southern Baptist leaders had been repeating the failures of the Catholic church in dealing with intercourse abuse.

Doyle was advised, “Southern Baptist leaders really haven't any authority over native church buildings,” a response that Doyle considered dismissive, based on the investigative report. 

That same year, 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 stopping any future sexual abuse or harassment.”

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

Ultimately, a staffer for the SBC executive committee since 2007 had maintained a list of accused ministers and church employees, nevertheless it was stored hidden from the general public and even SBC executive committee trustees, based on the report.

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

“Each entry on this list reminds us of the devastation and destruction brought about by sexual abuse,” mentioned 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 therapeutic, and that churches will make the most of this record proactively to guard and care for essentially the most weak among us.”

Attorneys for the SBC executive committee researched the list of accused abusers, taking steps to confirm info it contained. It left unredacted entries about alleged abusers that could possibly be confirmed, whereas redacting entries the place somebody was acquitted or didn't have a last disposition, as well as information that could establish victims.

Missouri males function prominently on the list. They embrace:

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