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

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

The 205-page list 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 document” that was additionally incomplete but largely pulls details about abusers from published news reports.

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 acquired studies of sexual abuse dedicated by church employees, pastors and others. But those reports had been largely kept secret and, quite than acting upon and investigating reports 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 executive committee member and basic counsel D. August Boto in an internal email that was published in the report. “It’s a satanic scheme to fully distract us from evangelism.”

The disaster rocking the Southern Baptist denomination this week is similar in many ways to what the Catholic church continues to face. Leaders in each faiths systematically hid details about sexual misconduct, appeared to show extra concern about their very own authorized liability than the victims and at instances 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 own denomination’s clergy sex 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 advised, “Southern Baptist leaders truly have no authority over local churches,” a response that Doyle regarded as dismissive, in keeping with the investigative report. 

That same year, on the SBC convention 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 stopping any future sexual abuse or harassment.”

The database proposal appeared to go nowhere, based on the report, and witnesses on the convention recalled little about it besides to express their opinion that it could “violate local church autonomy.”

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

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

“Every entry in this checklist reminds us of the devastation and destruction led to by sexual abuse,” said 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 therapeutic, and that church buildings will make the most of this listing proactively to protect and take care of essentially the most susceptible amongst us.”

Attorneys for the SBC govt committee researched the checklist of accused abusers, taking steps to verify data it contained. It left unredacted entries about alleged abusers that could be confirmed, whereas redacting entries where somebody was acquitted or didn't have a closing disposition, as well as info that could establish victims.

Missouri men 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 News, St. Louis Public Radio and NPR. For more in-depth information from Iowa, Kansas, Missouri and Nebraska, we invite you to follow us on Twitter.