Southern Baptist church leaders share secret list of ministers accused of abusing kids
Editor’s note: Victims of sexual assault in Central Florida can speak to an advocate 24/7 by calling 407-500-HEAL.
Survivors of past sexual abuse by pastors and workers in Southern Baptist-denominated churches hesitantly waited Thursday for church leaders to acknowledge what had been done to them, after decades of advocacy.
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Around 10:30 p.m., they were rewarded — sort of.
Church leaders published a formerly secret list of abusive pastors and church workers, that was previously reported to exist by The New York Times, which said denomination leaders kept the list for decades while ignoring calls from victims and allowing the pastors to move to other congregations.
READ: Southern Baptist Church leaders share secret list of ministers accused of abusing kids
However, the list, which comprises hundreds of names, contained many redactions. Attorneys had previously said redactions would take place when accusations couldn’t be confirmed, but they hadn’t said how many would remain secret.
Therefore, most publicized names were already known to the public through news reports and court cases.
The following seven men were listed with ties to Central Florida:
Harley Francis, of Powers Drive Baptist Church. He was sentenced to prison for abusing six girls in 1986.
Nathan John Gorzelancz, of the Guardian ad Litem program in Volusia County. He was sentenced to prison for abusing a child under 16 in 2017.
Thomas Warren Halsey, of First Baptist Church Leesburg. He was sentenced to prison for abusing a child under 12 in 2016.
David Joe Rich, of Springs Community Baptist Church Apopka. He was sentenced to prison for abusing second and third graders between 1995 and 1998.
John Maxwell Ware, First Baptist Church Pine Castle. He was sentenced to prison for abusing a child under 12 in 2018.
Samuel Yoon from California. He pleaded guilty to soliciting a 14-year-old girl during an Orlando youth conference in 2013.
Thomas Gilmore, of First Baptist Church Oviedo. He was accused of abusing a teenager in 1969 while he worked in Texas.
Gilmore’s name was widely expected ahead of the publication. His alleged victim, Christa Brown, was named in the investigation. She said he assaulted her more than 30 times as a teenager in Texas before being moved to congregations in Atlanta and Oviedo. She filed a lawsuit against the Texas church a few years after Gilmore was let go from his Florida job as a youth minister, almost 40 years after the alleged attacks.
“People knew,” she said. “Even then, no one did anything. [They told] me to not talk about it and he was allowed to move on to another church.”
READ: Southern Baptist Convention to release names of 703 ministers accused of sexual abuse
Brown said she stayed silent until her daughter turned 16, the age she was during the attacks. She recalled looking Gilmore up and finding out he was still working as a minister.
“I notified 18 Southern Baptist leaders in four states, including Florida. Not one of those men did a thing,” she said.
Brown eventually settled with the Texas church, which included a letter confirming Gilmore’s guilt. Church leaders also sent the letter to the other congregations the man worked at. Gilmore was never charged or convicted in a criminal court.
Gilmore was unable to be reached for comment Thursday, as his whereabouts and whether he is still alive are unknown. A leader with the Oviedo church where he worked from 1999 to 2003, CrossLife (formerly First Baptist Church of Oviedo) said no one in their congregation had ever accused him of sexual abuse.
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“We wouldn’t have hired [Gilmore] if there was a list nationwide of pastors accused of sexual assault,” Pastor Ryan Ritchie said, adding that they’ve strongly pushed for that measure. “We would have liked the opportunity to avoid that mistake.”
Brown warned that the list of names represented just the tip of the iceberg. There are more than 47,000 congregations worldwide, and most abusers are never tried in court, she explained.
“It’s really important that we believe survivors, that we don’t victim blame them,” Emilie Mitchell, the education coordinator for Victim Service Center of Central Florida, said.
Mitchell said people will naturally react differently to the news. Some survivors might have old wounds opened, find closure or face disappointment when their abusers weren’t named.
“There are so many people in the community in Central Florida that are there to give you that validation to let you know that what happened wasn’t your fault and you are believed,” Mitchell said to that last group. “Just because there isn’t a name that you were expecting to see doesn’t mean that what happened didn’t happen.”
For Brown, Gilmore’s outing at the highest levels of the church brought relief. However, she said it was up to congregations to swallow the news, support the victims and move forward.
“This is what many, many, many survivors have been saying for many, many years,” she said. “It is a hard truth. I get that, but it is a truth that must be reckoned with.”
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