Eight Missouri ministers accused of intercourse abuse in Southern Baptist Convention report • Missouri Unbiased

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

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

The publication of the record comes after the release Sunday of a 300-page report by an independent investigator that described how leaders of the Southern Baptist denomination for decades have obtained reports of sexual abuse committed by church workers, pastors and others. But these studies have been largely kept secret and, rather than appearing upon and investigating experiences of sexual abuse, denomination leaders sought to intimidate and vilify victims and their advocates.

“The whole thing needs to be seen for what it's,” wrote former Southern Baptist Convention executive committee member and general counsel D. August Boto in an inside e-mail that was revealed in the report. “It’s a satanic scheme to completely distract us from evangelism.”

The disaster 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 information about sexual misconduct, appeared to show extra concern about their very own legal liability than the victims and at occasions didn't 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 had been repeating the failures of the Catholic church in coping with sex abuse.

Doyle was instructed, “Southern Baptist leaders actually have no authority over native church buildings,” a response that Doyle considered dismissive, according to the investigative report. 

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

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

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

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

“Each entry on this checklist reminds us of the devastation and destruction caused by sexual abuse,” stated a joint assertion 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 churches will utilize this record proactively to guard and look after the most vulnerable among us.”

Lawyers for the SBC government committee researched the listing of accused abusers, taking steps to verify information it contained. It left unredacted entries about alleged abusers that could be confirmed, whereas redacting entries the place somebody was acquitted or did not have a last disposition, as well as information that might establish victims.

Missouri males characteristic prominently on the record. They embody:

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