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

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

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

The publication of the record 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 acquired reviews of sexual abuse committed by church staff, pastors and others. However these reports have been largely stored secret and, somewhat than performing upon and investigating stories 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 Conference executive committee member and common counsel D. August Boto in an inside electronic mail that was revealed within the report. “It’s a satanic scheme to utterly distract us from evangelism.”

The disaster rocking the Southern Baptist denomination this week is comparable in many ways to what the Catholic church continues to face. Leaders in both faiths systematically hid information about sexual misconduct, appeared to point out more concern about their own legal legal responsibility 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 own 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 dealing with intercourse abuse.

Doyle was advised, “Southern Baptist leaders really don't have any authority over local churches,” a response that Doyle thought to be dismissive, in accordance with the investigative report. 

That same year, at the SBC conference 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, according to the report, and witnesses on the conference recalled little about it besides to precise their opinion that it could “violate local church autonomy.”

Finally, a staffer for the SBC executive committee since 2007 had maintained a listing of accused ministers and church workers, but it surely was saved hidden from the public and even SBC govt committee trustees, in line with the report.

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

“Every entry on this listing reminds us of the devastation and destruction brought about by sexual abuse,” stated a joint statement from Willie McLaurin and Rolland Slade, each SBC government committee members. “Our prayer is that the survivors of these heinous acts find hope and therapeutic, and that churches will make the most of this record proactively to guard and take care of essentially the most vulnerable amongst us.”

Legal professionals for the SBC government committee researched the listing of accused abusers, taking steps to confirm data it contained. It left unredacted entries about alleged abusers that could possibly be confirmed, while redacting entries where somebody was acquitted or didn't have a ultimate disposition, as well as data that could establish victims.

Missouri males function prominently on the list. 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 information from Iowa, Kansas, Missouri and Nebraska, we invite you to observe us on Twitter.