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

The Southern Baptist Conference on Thursday launched a once-secret and lengthy list 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 record is described as a “fluid, working doc” that was additionally incomplete however largely pulls information about abusers from revealed news 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 decades have received stories of sexual abuse committed by church employees, pastors and others. But those experiences have been largely stored secret and, rather than performing upon and investigating experiences of sexual abuse, denomination leaders sought to intimidate and vilify victims and their advocates.

“The whole thing should be seen for what it is,” wrote former Southern Baptist Conference government committee member and basic counsel D. August Boto in an internal email that was printed within the report. “It’s a satanic scheme to fully distract us from evangelism.”

The disaster rocking the Southern Baptist denomination this week is analogous in many ways to what the Catholic church continues to face. Leaders in both faiths systematically hid information about sexual misconduct, appeared to show more concern about their own legal legal responsibility 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 the first to warn of his own denomination’s clergy sex abuse crisis, wrote a letter to SBC leadership conveying his concern that Southern Baptist leaders had been repeating the failures of the Catholic church in dealing with intercourse abuse.

Doyle was told, “Southern Baptist leaders actually haven't any authority over local church buildings,” a response that Doyle regarded as dismissive, according to the investigative report. 

That same yr, at the SBC convention 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 “help in stopping any future sexual abuse or harassment.”

The database proposal appeared to go nowhere, in accordance with the report, and witnesses on the conference recalled little about it besides to precise their opinion that it might “violate local 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 general public and even SBC govt committee trustees, according to the report.

Southern Baptist leaders mentioned 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 in the Convention.”

“Every entry on this record reminds us of the devastation and destruction brought about 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 those heinous acts find hope and healing, and that church buildings will utilize this checklist proactively to guard and care for probably the most susceptible among us.”

Lawyers for the SBC government committee researched the listing of accused abusers, taking steps to confirm data it contained. It left unredacted entries about alleged abusers that might be confirmed, while redacting entries the place somebody was acquitted or did not have a ultimate disposition, as well as info that could determine victims.

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