Minister kept accused abuser on the job

Minister kept accused abuser on the job

Now, he’s been named a college trustee

Police say he “refused to cooperate” with them

Other university trustees are upset with the move too

Groups want him ousted & external investigators hired

And they call on MO Attorney General to do statewide probe

Baptists are the second largest denomination in the Missouri

WHAT

Holding signs and childhood photos, abuse victims and their supporters will urge Missouri’s attorney general to launch a statewide investigation into Baptist child sex crimes and cover ups (like he did last year with Catholic officials).

They will also prod the statewide statewide Missouri Baptist Convention (MBC) to:

--create and post a list of ministers who are proven, admitted and credibly accused child molesters, and

--hire an outside firm to investigate and expose other wrong-doers – both predators and enablers – who are holding or have held posts at Baptist churches and schools.

Finally, they will also

--blast MBC officials for putting a controversial minister on the board at a prominent Baptist university in Missouri, insist that he - and those who nominated him - be ousted, and

--beg anyone who "saw, suspected or suffered" crimes and cover up in Baptist churches and institutions to “step forward, start healing, protect others and call law enforcement” (not church staffers).

WHEN

Wednesday, Feb. 26 at 2 p.m.

WHERE

Outside the MO Southern Baptist Convention headquarters, 400 E. High St., Jefferson City, MO (573 636 0400)

WHO

Two-four abuse victims and advocates including leaders of nonprofits that help clergy abuse victims: “For Such a Time as This” and SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests

WHY

In a move that is generating controversy in Baptist circles, the Missouri Baptist Convention has named Rev. Mike Roy a trustee at Southwest Baptist University (SBU) in Bolivar.  https://www.sbuniv.edu/about/leadership/trustees.php

But police say that Roy

----let a minister keep working around children for months even after they had notified him of their child sex abuse investigation and

----made their investigation more difficult by his unwillingness to cooperate (and that another pastor, Rev. Bobby Albers also knew of the allegations and did nothing.

(KCTV-5, 7/7/2006).

A detective has said he “has reason to believe” that Roy may have been privy to or known about some improprieties before he fired Shawn Davies, who pled guilty in 2007 to molesting boys at First Baptist Church of Greenwood where Davies was youth and music minister, according to the Associated Press. (Roy was then senior pastor at Greenwood, which is near Kansas City MO.)

https://www.snapnetwork.org/news/baptist/baptist_minister_convicted.htm

This month, the SBU president wrote that Roy “may have mishandled child sex abuse allegations against one of his staff.”

https://wordandway.org/2020/02/23/sbu-investigates-imposed-trustee/

Roy has evidently declined to speak with authorities or the media.

https://baptistnews.com/article/missouri-baptist-pastor-sentenced-to-20-years-for-child-sex-abuse/#.XlWSNShKhPY

http://d3n8a8pro7vhmx.cloudfront.net/snap/legacy_url/1916/Baptists_Asked__20Crack_Down.pdf__r_3_oref_slogin_pagewanted_print?1315377001

"It was mishandled," admitted Lee Orth, a Greenwood church official. https://www.christianpost.com/news/little-talk-on-missouri-s-biggest-clergy-sex-abuse-case.html   

Roy hired Davies at the Greenwood church. The two went to a Kentucky seminary together.

According to one news source “In 2005, police in Missouri began investigating Davies after a boy from the Greenwood church came forward with charges of sexual molestation. From First Baptist alone, seven boys said they were abused. The detective found that at least 13 victims from Missouri, Kentucky and Michigan have come forward with allegations.”

http://www.bishop-accountability.org/news2007/01_02/2007_01_20_Barrick_LittleTalk.htm

https://www.snapnetwork.org/news/baptist/baptist_minister_convicted.htm

http://stopbaptistpredators.org/scandals/greenwood.html

Roy now pastors Pathway Church in Raymore (also near Kansas City). He can be reached at 816 535 7075, http://pathwayraymore.com/about/contact/. He’s represented by Lee’s Summit attorney James Freeman (816 886 4810, 816 410 4600,  [email protected])

Davies reportedly now lives in Reeds Spring MO.

https://mbcpathway.com/2020/02/24/sbu-allegations-against-trustee-untrue/

2) Last year, Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt investigated Catholic abuse and cover up cases. Last week, as a result of that probe, one Missouri priest was arrested and charged with abuse.

https://www.stltoday.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/attorney-general-s-probe-leads-to-sex-abuse-charges-against/article_14ce172f-38a6-59a3-9c6b-9a5b4cdddfe8.html

The two groups want Schmitt to launch a similar investigation into the Missouri Baptist Convention, the second largest religious group in the states. (In 2000, Missouri had 856,964 Catholics. The Baptists had 797,732 adherents and the Methodists had 226,578.) http://www.city-data.com/states/Missouri-Religions.html

The two organizations believe that even more abuse by Baptists remains ‘under the radar’ because a) most media attention has focused on the Catholics, and b) Catholic entities are more easily sued than Baptist entities (because it has a clearer hierarchy), so more Catholic predators are exposed than Baptist predators.

3) Like most bishops have done, the two groups want Missouri Baptist officials to ‘protect kids by setting up a public database of ministers who are proven, admitted and credibly accused child molesters, which would make it harder for predators to quietly move from congregation to congregation. They also want the MBC to bring in an independent agency (like GRACE, Godly Response to Abuse in a Christian Environment) to search church records and hold hearings to expose other wrong-doers – both predators and enablers – who are holding or have held posts at Baptist churches and schools.

CONTACT

Cheryl Summers 314 267 8828, [email protected], David Clohessy 314 566 9790, [email protected], Judy Jones 314 974 5003, [email protected]