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

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

The 205-page list is a compilation of ministers and different church employees who have been credibly accused of sexual abuse. The list is described as a “fluid, working doc” that was additionally incomplete however largely pulls details about abusers from published news 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 decades have obtained experiences of sexual abuse committed by church workers, pastors and others. But these studies have been largely saved secret and, somewhat than acting upon and investigating reviews of sexual abuse, denomination leaders sought to intimidate and vilify victims and their advocates.

“The whole thing should be seen for what it's,” wrote former Southern Baptist Convention government committee member and general counsel D. August Boto in an internal e mail that was revealed in the report. “It’s a satanic scheme to fully distract us from evangelism.”

The crisis rocking the Southern Baptist denomination this week is analogous 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 own legal liability than the victims and at instances 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 personal denomination’s clergy intercourse abuse disaster, wrote a letter to SBC leadership conveying his concern that Southern Baptist leaders have been repeating the failures of the Catholic church in dealing with sex abuse.

Doyle was advised, “Southern Baptist leaders actually don't have any authority over native church buildings,” a response that Doyle regarded as dismissive, in keeping with the investigative report. 

That very same year, at 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 “help in preventing any future sexual abuse or harassment.”

The database proposal appeared to go nowhere, in accordance with the report, and witnesses at the conference recalled little about it besides to express their opinion that it might “violate native church autonomy.”

In the end, a staffer for the SBC government committee since 2007 had maintained an inventory of accused ministers and church workers, however it was stored hidden from the public and even SBC government committee trustees, based on the report.

Southern Baptist leaders mentioned publicizing the listing of credibly accused abusers represented “an initial, but essential, step towards addressing the scourge of sexual abuse and implementing reform in the Conference.”

“Each entry on this record reminds us of the devastation and destruction caused by sexual abuse,” mentioned a joint statement from Willie McLaurin and Rolland Slade, both SBC government committee members. “Our prayer is that the survivors of these heinous acts find hope and therapeutic, and that churches will utilize this listing proactively to guard and take care of probably the most weak among us.”

Lawyers for the SBC executive committee researched the listing of accused abusers, taking steps to verify info it contained. It left unredacted entries about alleged abusers that could be confirmed, while redacting entries the place somebody was acquitted or did not have a ultimate disposition, in addition to data that would establish victims.

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