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

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

The 205-page checklist is a compilation of ministers and other church employees who have been credibly accused of sexual abuse. The checklist is described as a “fluid, working doc” that was additionally incomplete but largely pulls information about abusers from revealed news experiences.

The publication of the checklist 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 stories of sexual abuse dedicated by church staff, pastors and others. But these stories have been largely stored secret and, slightly than appearing upon and investigating experiences 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 common counsel D. August Boto in an inner e mail 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 both faiths systematically hid information about sexual misconduct, appeared to show more concern about their own legal legal responsibility than the victims and at times failed to 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 informed, “Southern Baptist leaders really have no authority over native churches,” a response that Doyle thought to be dismissive, based on the investigative report. 

That same 12 months, on the SBC convention 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 preventing any future sexual abuse or harassment.”

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

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

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

“Each entry in this listing reminds us of the devastation and destruction caused by sexual abuse,” said a joint statement from Willie McLaurin and Rolland Slade, both SBC government committee members. “Our prayer is that the survivors of these heinous acts discover hope and healing, and that churches will make the most of this checklist proactively to guard and take care of the most weak amongst us.”

Lawyers for the SBC executive committee researched the listing of accused abusers, taking steps to confirm information it contained. It left unredacted entries about alleged abusers that may very well 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 listing. They include:

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