Eight Missouri ministers accused of sex abuse in Southern Baptist Conference report • Missouri Unbiased

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

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

The publication of the checklist comes after the discharge Sunday of a 300-page report by an impartial investigator that described how leaders of the Southern Baptist denomination for many years have received stories of sexual abuse dedicated by church employees, pastors and others. However these reports have been largely stored secret and, somewhat than performing 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's,” wrote former Southern Baptist Conference government committee member and general counsel D. August Boto in an inside electronic mail that was published 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 many ways to what the Catholic church continues to face. Leaders in each faiths systematically hid information about sexual misconduct, appeared to show extra concern about their own authorized legal responsibility than the victims and at instances 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 personal denomination’s clergy intercourse 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 intercourse abuse.

Doyle was instructed, “Southern Baptist leaders actually have no authority over native church buildings,” a response that Doyle regarded as dismissive, according to 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 “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 conference recalled little about it except to precise their opinion that it would “violate native church autonomy.”

In the end, a staffer for the SBC government committee since 2007 had maintained a listing of accused ministers and church workers, but it was saved hidden from the general public and even SBC government committee trustees, in keeping with the report.

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

“Every entry on this checklist reminds us of the devastation and destruction caused by sexual abuse,” stated a joint statement from Willie McLaurin and Rolland Slade, each SBC executive committee members. “Our prayer is that the survivors of these heinous acts discover hope and therapeutic, and that churches will utilize this list proactively to protect and look after essentially the most vulnerable amongst us.”

Lawyers for the SBC government committee researched the record of accused abusers, taking steps to verify data it contained. It left unredacted entries about alleged abusers that may very well be confirmed, while redacting entries the place somebody was acquitted or didn't have a remaining disposition, in addition to information that would establish victims.

Missouri males function prominently on the list. 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 extra in-depth information from Iowa, Kansas, Missouri and Nebraska, we invite you to comply with us on Twitter.