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

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

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

The publication of the checklist comes after the release Sunday of a 300-page report by an unbiased investigator that described how leaders of the Southern Baptist denomination for many years have acquired reports of sexual abuse dedicated by church staff, pastors and others. However these experiences have been largely saved secret and, rather than appearing upon and investigating experiences 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 normal counsel D. August Boto in an internal 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 comparable in some ways to what the Catholic church continues to face. Leaders in each faiths systematically hid details about sexual misconduct, appeared to show more concern about their own authorized liability than the victims and at occasions failed to expel accused abusers from positions of authority.

In 2007, Father Thomas Doyle, a Catholic priest credited as one of many 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 were repeating the failures of the Catholic church in dealing with sex abuse.

Doyle was informed, “Southern Baptist leaders truly don't have any authority over local church buildings,” a response that Doyle thought to be dismissive, based on the investigative report. 

That same 12 months, at the SBC convention 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 convention recalled little about it besides to specific their opinion that it would “violate local church autonomy.”

Ultimately, a staffer for the SBC govt committee since 2007 had maintained an inventory of accused ministers and church workers, but it was kept hidden from the general public and even SBC govt committee trustees, based on the report.

Southern Baptist leaders mentioned publicizing the listing of credibly accused abusers represented “an initial, however important, step towards addressing the scourge of sexual abuse and implementing reform in the Conference.”

“Every entry on this checklist reminds us of the devastation and destruction led to by sexual abuse,” mentioned a joint statement from Willie McLaurin and Rolland Slade, each SBC govt committee members. “Our prayer is that the survivors of these heinous acts discover hope and healing, and that church buildings will utilize this list proactively to guard and take care of essentially the most susceptible amongst us.”

Lawyers for the SBC government committee researched the list of accused abusers, taking steps to verify info it contained. It left unredacted entries about alleged abusers that might be confirmed, while redacting entries the place somebody was acquitted or didn't have a last disposition, in addition to data that might determine victims.

Missouri men function prominently on the record. They include:

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 extra in-depth information from Iowa, Kansas, Missouri and Nebraska, we invite you to observe us on Twitter.