EXPOSED

Southern Baptist Church Leaders Release Secret Sex Abuser Database

The list of alleged church-related sex offenders was kept secret for over a decade before coming to light.

Southern Baptist leaders have released a list of alleged sex offenders that was kept secret for more than 10 years. The list, which was published late Thursday, comes after an investigation suggested a huge coverup by church leaders who ignored or discredited stories of sexual abuse. The database contains the names of people who have previously confessed to abuse or been convicted of abuse, an SBC lawyer said. Leaders had previously told worshippers that such a list of accused abusers couldn’t be assembled because of the way the Southern Baptist church is structured, with congregations operating independently from each other. “This is a fluid, working document,” a note at the top of the database of the 600-plus entries reads. “The information is largely pulled from news articles complied from 2007 until 2022. It is incomplete. It has not been proofed. It has not been adequately researched. It is not Southern Baptist specific.” The database comes after a lengthy campaign calling for such a list to be created to stop abusers moving easily among churches without detection.