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

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

The 205-page listing is a compilation of ministers and other church workers who've been credibly accused of sexual abuse. The checklist is described as a “fluid, working doc” that was also incomplete however largely pulls details about abusers from published information experiences.

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 reports of sexual abuse committed by church employees, pastors and others. However those reports had been largely saved secret and, moderately than performing upon and investigating reviews of sexual abuse, denomination leaders sought to intimidate and vilify victims and their advocates.

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

The crisis rocking the Southern Baptist denomination this week is comparable in many ways to what the Catholic church continues to face. Leaders in both faiths systematically hid information about sexual misconduct, appeared to point out 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 many first to warn of his personal denomination’s clergy sex 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 sex abuse.

Doyle was told, “Southern Baptist leaders actually don't have any authority over native 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 “assist in stopping any future sexual abuse or harassment.”

The database proposal appeared to go nowhere, in keeping with the report, and witnesses at the conference recalled little about it besides to precise their opinion that it might “violate native church autonomy.”

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

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

“Every entry in this checklist reminds us of the devastation and destruction led to by sexual abuse,” said a joint assertion from Willie McLaurin and Rolland Slade, both SBC govt committee members. “Our prayer is that the survivors of those heinous acts discover hope and healing, and that church buildings will make the most of this checklist proactively to protect and look after essentially the most vulnerable amongst us.”

Legal professionals for the SBC executive committee researched the listing of accused abusers, taking steps to confirm info it contained. It left unredacted entries about alleged abusers that might be confirmed, while redacting entries the place someone was acquitted or didn't have a remaining disposition, in addition to information that could determine victims.

Missouri males feature prominently on the record. They embody:

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