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

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

The 205-page list is a compilation of ministers and other church employees who have been credibly accused of sexual abuse. The listing is described as a “fluid, working document” that was also incomplete however largely pulls information about abusers from printed news stories.

The publication of the checklist 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 stories of sexual abuse committed by church employees, pastors and others. However those stories were largely saved secret and, reasonably than performing upon and investigating reports of sexual abuse, denomination leaders sought to intimidate and vilify victims and their advocates.

“The whole thing should be seen for what it is,” wrote former Southern Baptist Conference govt committee member and common counsel D. August Boto in an inside e mail that was printed within the report. “It’s a satanic scheme to completely distract us from evangelism.”

The crisis rocking the Southern Baptist denomination this week is similar in some ways to what the Catholic church continues to face. Leaders in both faiths systematically hid details about sexual misconduct, appeared to indicate more concern about their own authorized legal responsibility than the victims and at occasions did not 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 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 intercourse abuse.

Doyle was advised, “Southern Baptist leaders really have no authority over native church buildings,” a response that Doyle regarded as 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 keeping with the report, and witnesses at the convention recalled little about it besides to express their opinion that it might “violate local church autonomy.”

In the end, a staffer for the SBC government committee since 2007 had maintained a listing of accused ministers and church staff, however it was saved hidden from the public and even SBC executive committee trustees, in keeping with the report.

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

“Every entry in this record reminds us of the devastation and destruction brought about by sexual abuse,” stated a joint statement from Willie McLaurin and Rolland Slade, each SBC executive committee members. “Our prayer is that the survivors of these heinous acts discover hope and therapeutic, and that church buildings will utilize this listing proactively to guard and care for the most vulnerable among us.”

Attorneys for the SBC government committee researched the list of accused abusers, taking steps to confirm info it contained. It left unredacted entries about alleged abusers that could possibly be confirmed, while redacting entries the place someone was acquitted or did not have a last disposition, in addition to data that would identify victims.

Missouri males function prominently on the checklist. 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 follow us on Twitter.