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 — within the denomination.

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

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 obtained experiences of sexual abuse committed by church employees, pastors and others. But these studies were largely kept secret and, reasonably than appearing upon and investigating studies of sexual abuse, denomination leaders sought to intimidate and vilify victims and their advocates.

“The entire thing ought to be seen for what it is,” wrote former Southern Baptist Convention govt committee member and basic counsel D. August Boto in an internal email 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 analogous in some ways to what the Catholic church continues to face. Leaders in each faiths systematically hid information about sexual misconduct, appeared to indicate more concern about their own legal liability than the victims and at times 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 management conveying his concern that Southern Baptist leaders had been repeating the failures of the Catholic church in coping with sex abuse.

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

That very same yr, 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 conference recalled little about it except to express their opinion that it might “violate native church autonomy.”

Finally, a staffer for the SBC executive committee since 2007 had maintained a listing of accused ministers and church employees, nevertheless it was kept hidden from the public and even SBC executive committee trustees, in accordance with the report.

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

“Every entry on this list reminds us of the devastation and destruction brought about by sexual abuse,” said a joint assertion from Willie McLaurin and Rolland Slade, both SBC executive committee members. “Our prayer is that the survivors of those heinous acts discover hope and healing, and that churches will utilize this record proactively to guard and look after essentially the most weak among us.”

Legal professionals for the SBC government committee researched the record of accused abusers, taking steps to confirm data it contained. It left unredacted entries about alleged abusers that might be confirmed, while redacting entries the place someone was acquitted or didn't have a remaining disposition, as well as data that could identify victims.

Missouri men feature prominently on the record. They embody:

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 observe us on Twitter.