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

The Southern Baptist Convention on Thursday launched a once-secret and lengthy record of accused sex abusers — several of whom are within the Midwest — inside the denomination.

The 205-page record is a compilation of ministers and different church staff who have been credibly accused of sexual abuse. The list is described as a “fluid, working doc” that was also incomplete but largely pulls details about abusers from published news stories.

The publication of the record comes after the release Sunday of a 300-page report by an impartial investigator that described how leaders of the Southern Baptist denomination for many years have received experiences of sexual abuse dedicated by church employees, pastors and others. But these reports were largely kept secret and, fairly than acting upon and investigating studies of sexual abuse, denomination leaders sought to intimidate and vilify victims and their advocates.

“The entire thing needs to be seen for what it's,” wrote former Southern Baptist Conference government committee member and basic counsel D. August Boto in an inner e mail that was published 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 some ways to what the Catholic church continues to face. Leaders in each faiths systematically hid information about sexual misconduct, appeared to indicate more concern about their own legal 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 crisis, wrote a letter to SBC management conveying his concern that Southern Baptist leaders were repeating the failures of the Catholic church in dealing with intercourse abuse.

Doyle was instructed, “Southern Baptist leaders truly haven't any authority over native churches,” a response that Doyle considered dismissive, according to the investigative report. 

That same year, on 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 “help in stopping any future sexual abuse or harassment.”

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

Finally, a staffer for the SBC government committee since 2007 had maintained an inventory of accused ministers and church employees, however it was saved hidden from the general public and even SBC government committee trustees, according to the report.

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

“Each entry on this listing reminds us of the devastation and destruction caused 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 these heinous acts find hope and healing, and that churches will utilize this record proactively to guard and look after probably the most vulnerable among us.”

Legal professionals for the SBC government committee researched the checklist of accused abusers, taking steps to verify info it contained. It left unredacted entries about alleged abusers that might be confirmed, whereas redacting entries the place someone was acquitted or didn't have a closing disposition, as well as info that would determine victims.

Missouri males feature prominently on the record. They embrace:

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