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

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

The 205-page checklist is a compilation of ministers and other church staff who've been credibly accused of sexual abuse. The record is described as a “fluid, working document” that was also incomplete but largely pulls information about abusers from revealed information reports.

The publication of the listing 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 received reviews of sexual abuse committed by church staff, pastors and others. However those experiences had been largely stored secret and, relatively than performing upon and investigating studies of sexual abuse, denomination leaders sought to intimidate and vilify victims and their advocates.

“The entire thing should be seen for what it's,” wrote former Southern Baptist Conference executive committee member and common counsel D. August Boto in an internal electronic mail that was published in the report. “It’s a satanic scheme to fully distract us from evangelism.”

The crisis rocking the Southern Baptist denomination this week is similar in some ways to what the Catholic church continues to face. Leaders in both faiths systematically hid details about sexual misconduct, appeared to point out extra concern about their very own authorized 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 own denomination’s clergy intercourse abuse crisis, wrote a letter to SBC management conveying his concern that Southern Baptist leaders had been repeating the failures of the Catholic church in dealing with sex abuse.

Doyle was informed, “Southern Baptist leaders really have no authority over local church buildings,” a response that Doyle considered dismissive, in keeping with the investigative report. 

That very same yr, 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 line with the report, and witnesses at the conference recalled little about it except to precise their opinion that it could “violate native church autonomy.”

Finally, a staffer for the SBC executive committee since 2007 had maintained a list of accused ministers and church staff, nevertheless it was saved hidden from the public and even SBC executive committee trustees, in line with the report.

Southern Baptist leaders said publicizing the list of credibly accused abusers represented “an preliminary, however important, step in direction of addressing the scourge of sexual abuse and implementing reform within the Conference.”

“Each entry on this checklist reminds us of the devastation and destruction brought about by sexual abuse,” said a joint assertion from Willie McLaurin and Rolland Slade, both SBC government committee members. “Our prayer is that the survivors of these heinous acts find hope and healing, and that churches will make the most of this record proactively to protect and take care of essentially the most vulnerable among us.”

Lawyers for the SBC govt committee researched the listing of accused abusers, taking steps to verify info it contained. It left unredacted entries about alleged abusers that might be confirmed, whereas redacting entries where someone was acquitted or did not have a ultimate disposition, as well as information that might determine victims.

Missouri males characteristic prominently on the listing. They embody:

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 more in-depth news from Iowa, Kansas, Missouri and Nebraska, we invite you to follow us on Twitter.