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 checklist of accused sex abusers — a number of of whom are in the Midwest — within the denomination.

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

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 obtained stories of sexual abuse dedicated by church workers, pastors and others. But these reports had been largely saved secret and, somewhat than performing upon and investigating reviews 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 government committee member and normal counsel D. August Boto in an inner e mail that was published within the report. “It’s a satanic scheme to utterly distract us from evangelism.”

The crisis rocking the Southern Baptist denomination this week is analogous in some ways to what the Catholic church continues to face. Leaders in each faiths systematically hid details about sexual misconduct, appeared to point out extra concern about their very own authorized legal responsibility than the victims and at times failed to 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 personal denomination’s clergy intercourse abuse disaster, wrote a letter to SBC management conveying his concern that Southern Baptist leaders had been repeating the failures of the Catholic church in dealing with sex abuse.

Doyle was told, “Southern Baptist leaders truly don't have any authority over local churches,” a response that Doyle regarded as dismissive, in keeping with the investigative report. 

That same 12 months, at 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 “help in stopping any future sexual abuse or harassment.”

The database proposal appeared to go nowhere, according to the report, and witnesses on the conference recalled little about it except to express their opinion that it might “violate native church autonomy.”

Finally, a staffer for the SBC govt committee since 2007 had maintained a list of accused ministers and church staff, but it was stored hidden from the general public and even SBC executive committee trustees, in response to the report.

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

“Every entry in this list reminds us of the devastation and destruction brought about by sexual abuse,” mentioned a joint assertion from Willie McLaurin and Rolland Slade, both SBC govt committee members. “Our prayer is that the survivors of these heinous acts find hope and healing, and that church buildings will make the most of this record proactively to protect and care for essentially the most susceptible among us.”

Attorneys for the SBC govt committee researched the list of accused abusers, taking steps to verify information it contained. It left unredacted entries about alleged abusers that could possibly be confirmed, while redacting entries where someone was acquitted or did not have a closing disposition, as well as information that would establish victims.

Missouri men characteristic prominently on the record. They embrace:

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 information from Iowa, Kansas, Missouri and Nebraska, we invite you to observe us on Twitter.