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

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

The 205-page listing is a compilation of ministers and different church employees who have been credibly accused of sexual abuse. The listing is described as a “fluid, working document” that was additionally incomplete but largely pulls information about abusers from revealed information experiences.

The publication of the listing 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 reviews of sexual abuse committed by church workers, pastors and others. But these reports have been largely saved secret and, fairly than appearing upon and investigating stories 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 Convention government committee member and common counsel D. August Boto in an inner e mail that was revealed in 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 each faiths systematically hid details about sexual misconduct, appeared to show more 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 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 sex abuse.

Doyle was told, “Southern Baptist leaders truly haven't any authority over local churches,” a response that Doyle thought to be dismissive, according to the investigative report. 

That same year, at 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 preventing any future sexual abuse or harassment.”

The database proposal appeared to go nowhere, in response to the report, and witnesses on the convention recalled little about it except to precise their opinion that it would “violate native church autonomy.”

Finally, a staffer for the SBC govt committee since 2007 had maintained an inventory of accused ministers and church staff, but it surely was kept hidden from the public and even SBC executive committee trustees, in line with the report.

Southern Baptist leaders mentioned publicizing the checklist of credibly accused abusers represented “an preliminary, but essential, step towards addressing the scourge of sexual abuse and implementing reform within the Conference.”

“Each entry in this checklist reminds us of the devastation and destruction caused by sexual abuse,” mentioned a joint statement from Willie McLaurin and Rolland Slade, each SBC government committee members. “Our prayer is that the survivors of those heinous acts discover hope and healing, and that church buildings will utilize this listing proactively to guard and look after essentially the most vulnerable among us.”

Lawyers for the SBC executive committee researched the list 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 final disposition, as well as info that might determine victims.

Missouri men feature prominently on the listing. They include:

This story comes from the Midwest Newsroom, an investigative journalism collaboration together with 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 follow us on Twitter.