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 prolonged record of accused intercourse abusers — several of whom are within the Midwest — within the denomination.

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

The publication of the checklist comes after the release Sunday of a 300-page report by an independent investigator that described how leaders of the Southern Baptist denomination for many years have obtained stories of sexual abuse dedicated by church employees, pastors and others. But those reviews had been largely stored secret and, quite than acting upon and investigating studies of sexual abuse, denomination leaders sought to intimidate and vilify victims and their advocates.

“The whole thing ought to be seen for what it's,” wrote former Southern Baptist Convention government committee member and general counsel D. August Boto in an internal email that was published within 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 both faiths systematically hid information about sexual misconduct, appeared to show more concern about their own authorized legal responsibility than the victims and at times 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 own 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 coping with sex abuse.

Doyle was told, “Southern Baptist leaders truly haven't any authority over local church buildings,” a response that Doyle regarded as dismissive, in line with the investigative report. 

That very same yr, 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 “help in stopping any future sexual abuse or harassment.”

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

Finally, a staffer for the SBC govt committee since 2007 had maintained an inventory of accused ministers and church employees, nevertheless it was saved hidden from the public and even SBC executive committee trustees, based on the report.

Southern Baptist leaders stated publicizing the checklist of credibly accused abusers represented “an initial, but necessary, step in the direction of addressing the scourge of sexual abuse and implementing reform within the Convention.”

“Each entry in this record reminds us of the devastation and destruction brought about by sexual abuse,” stated a joint statement from Willie McLaurin and Rolland Slade, both SBC government committee members. “Our prayer is that the survivors of those heinous acts discover hope and therapeutic, and that church buildings will make the most of this record proactively to guard and take care of essentially the most vulnerable amongst us.”

Attorneys 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 possibly be confirmed, whereas redacting entries where someone was acquitted or didn't have a final disposition, as well as information that might determine victims.

Missouri males function prominently on the record. They embrace:

This story comes from the Midwest Newsroom, an investigative journalism collaboration including IPR, KCUR 89.3, Nebraska Public Media News, St. Louis Public Radio and NPR. For more in-depth information from Iowa, Kansas, Missouri and Nebraska, we invite you to comply with us on Twitter.