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

The Southern Baptist Conference on Thursday launched a once-secret and prolonged record of accused intercourse abusers — several of whom are within the Midwest — within the denomination.

The 205-page checklist is a compilation of ministers and other church workers who have been credibly accused of sexual abuse. The listing is described as a “fluid, working doc” that was additionally incomplete however largely pulls information about abusers from printed information reports.

The publication of the checklist comes after the discharge Sunday of a 300-page report by an unbiased investigator that described how leaders of the Southern Baptist denomination for many years have acquired stories of sexual abuse committed by church staff, pastors and others. But these reports were largely kept secret and, fairly than acting upon and investigating experiences of sexual abuse, denomination leaders sought to intimidate and vilify victims and their advocates.

“The whole thing must be seen for what it is,” wrote former Southern Baptist Conference govt committee member and basic counsel D. August Boto in an inner electronic 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 both faiths systematically hid information about sexual misconduct, appeared to show extra concern about their 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 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 coping with sex abuse.

Doyle was told, “Southern Baptist leaders actually don't have any authority over native church buildings,” a response that Doyle thought to be dismissive, according to the investigative report. 

That very same year, on 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 “assist in stopping any future sexual abuse or harassment.”

The database proposal appeared to go nowhere, based on the report, and witnesses at the conference recalled little about it besides to precise their opinion that it would “violate native church autonomy.”

Finally, a staffer for the SBC government committee since 2007 had maintained a listing of accused ministers and church staff, however it was saved hidden from the general public and even SBC executive committee trustees, in accordance with the report.

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

“Each entry on this list reminds us of the devastation and destruction caused 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 therapeutic, and that church buildings will utilize this checklist proactively to protect and care for the most vulnerable among us.”

Lawyers for the SBC executive committee researched the checklist of accused abusers, taking steps to confirm information it contained. It left unredacted entries about alleged abusers that could possibly be confirmed, while redacting entries where someone was acquitted or didn't have a remaining disposition, in addition to info that would determine victims.

Missouri men function prominently on the record. They include:

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