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

The Southern Baptist Conference on Thursday released a once-secret and prolonged record of accused sex abusers — several of whom are in the Midwest — inside the denomination.

The 205-page record is a compilation of ministers and different church workers who've been credibly accused of sexual abuse. The listing is described as a “fluid, working doc” that was additionally incomplete but largely pulls details about abusers from printed information studies.

The publication of the listing 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 acquired reviews of sexual abuse dedicated by church employees, pastors and others. But those stories had been largely kept secret and, reasonably than acting upon and investigating reports 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 general counsel D. August Boto in an internal electronic mail that was printed in the report. “It’s a satanic scheme to completely 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 each faiths systematically hid details about sexual misconduct, appeared to show extra concern about their own legal legal responsibility 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 many first to warn of his own denomination’s clergy sex abuse disaster, wrote a letter to SBC management conveying his concern that Southern Baptist leaders have been repeating the failures of the Catholic church in dealing with intercourse abuse.

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

That very same year, on 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 “assist in preventing 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 specific their opinion that it would “violate local church autonomy.”

In the end, a staffer for the SBC govt committee since 2007 had maintained a listing of accused ministers and church staff, nevertheless it was saved hidden from the general public and even SBC govt committee trustees, in response to the report.

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

“Each entry on this listing reminds us of the devastation and destruction brought about by sexual abuse,” said a joint statement from Willie McLaurin and Rolland Slade, each SBC government committee members. “Our prayer is that the survivors of those heinous acts find hope and healing, and that church buildings will make the most of this list proactively to guard and care for probably the most vulnerable among us.”

Lawyers for the SBC executive committee researched the checklist of accused abusers, taking steps to verify data it contained. It left unredacted entries about alleged abusers that could possibly be confirmed, while redacting entries the place someone was acquitted or did not have a final disposition, in addition to data that might identify victims.

Missouri males characteristic prominently on the checklist. They embody:

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