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	Report: Baptist Site Lists Alleged Sex Offenders Associated Press, carried in AL.com June 25, 2008 http://www.al.com/newsflash/regional/index.ssf?/base/news-36/1214343559142310.xml&storylist=alabamanews NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — The names of at least 10 ministers convicted of or indicted on charges related to sex crimes involving minors were found on an online search directory on the Southern Baptist Convention Web site. The Tennessean reports that number includes three ministers in Tennessee. One has been convicted while the two others listed in the directory of ministers have been indicted but not convicted. Sing Oldham, vice president for convention relations, said the online minister search is a list of Southern Baptist preachers and not an endorsement of any pastor. He says the Nashville-based convention's leaders have removed some pastors with criminal convictions from the online directory in the past and will again. The SBC's executive committee panel earlier this month said the denomination should not create its own database to help churches identify predators, and that it's up to individual churches to take action against sex offenders. In Tennessee, Mark Woodson Mangrum, former pastor of First Baptist Church in Parsons, has pleaded guilty to one federal count of distributing child pornography to a minor. In February, he was sentenced to 70 months in prison. Tim Byars, former youth pastor at Springhill Baptist Church in Dyersburg, was indicted in Knox County on charges of rape and sexual battery by an authority figure. He is charged with fondling a 14-year-old student he was driving to a Knoxville track meet in 2006. He was indicted in Davidson County on charges of fondling another student in Nashville on that trip. Both cases are pending. Steve Haney, former pastor of Walnut Grove Baptist Church in Cordova, was indicted in Shelby County last year on charges of rape and sexual battery by an authority figure. He also faces federal charges of sexual exploitation of a child and child pornography. His case also is pending. Messages seeking comment were left with all three churches. The clergy sexual abuse scandal that struck the U.S. Roman Catholic Church starting in 2002 has touched the SBC, although to a much lesser degree. The past two years have seen a few high-profile allegations against clergy, and a key victims' advocate in the Catholic crisis, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, began lobbying Baptists. In 2006, the executive committee began studying how to address the issue. Then, last year, Oklahoma pastor Wade Burleson proposed the convention develop a database to track clergy and staff who are "credibly accused of, personally confessed to, or legally been convicted of sexual harassment or abuse." The database would then be available to all churches. The executive committee report urges churches to conduct background checks using a U.S. Department of Justice database of sex offenders.
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