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

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

The 205-page checklist 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 document” that was additionally incomplete however largely pulls details about abusers from published news studies.

The publication of the list comes after the discharge Sunday of a 300-page report by an impartial investigator that described how leaders of the Southern Baptist denomination for decades have acquired reviews of sexual abuse dedicated by church workers, pastors and others. However those reports were largely kept secret and, slightly than performing upon and investigating reports 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 govt committee member and basic counsel D. August Boto in an inside e-mail that was published within the report. “It’s a satanic scheme to completely distract us from evangelism.”

The disaster 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 indicate extra concern about their own legal liability 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 disaster, wrote a letter to SBC leadership conveying his concern that Southern Baptist leaders were repeating the failures of the Catholic church in dealing with intercourse abuse.

Doyle was instructed, “Southern Baptist leaders truly have no authority over local church buildings,” a response that Doyle thought to be dismissive, according to the investigative report. 

That same 12 months, 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, based on the report, and witnesses at the conference recalled little about it except to specific their opinion that it might “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 staff, however it was stored hidden from the public and even SBC executive committee trustees, in keeping with the report.

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

“Each entry on this record reminds us of the devastation and destruction led to by sexual abuse,” said a joint statement from Willie McLaurin and Rolland Slade, both SBC govt committee members. “Our prayer is that the survivors of these heinous acts discover hope and healing, and that church buildings will make the most of this listing proactively to guard and look after essentially the most weak among us.”

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

Missouri males feature prominently on the listing. 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 news from Iowa, Kansas, Missouri and Nebraska, we invite you to comply with us on Twitter.