(FL)
Relevant [Winter Park, FL]
August 20, 2026
By Emily Brown
A group of survivors launched a searchable database of more than 2,700 people publicly accused of abuse in Protestant churches Wednesday, at an online press conference organized by the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, known as SNAP. Florida survivors and a veteran archivist run ProtestantAccountability.org, modeled directly on BishopAccountability.org, the 20-year-old Catholic database that has spent two decades collecting the same kind of records.
The database draws entries from court records, state attorney general reports, news accounts and existing survivor-run archives. The site sorts them by tradition: Episcopal, Presbyterian, Pentecostal and charismatic, non-denominational and other categories. Protestantism has no central authority that keeps a list like this on its own, no single office that holds personnel files across denominations.
The names aren’t only lead pastors. The database covers church workers broadly, including youth leaders, worship leaders, associate pastors and staff who never held a pulpit.
Founding member Chellee Taylor said the project’s purpose is simple.
“We started this group to protect the vulnerable, expose the wrongdoers, deter coverups and heal the wounded,” Taylor said.
Every page of the site carries the same disclaimer. It relies on public news stories and publicly available information, nothing on it should be construed as an accusation of guilt, and those accused of crimes are innocent until proven guilty. That distinction, between a record of people publicly accused and a record of people convicted, is printed on every entry.
BishopAccountability.org has operated as a public record of accused Catholic clergy for two decades. Protestant churches have had no equivalent until this week.
The Southern Baptist Convention moved toward building something similar. Messengers at the SBC’s 2022 annual meeting voted overwhelmingly to create Ministry Check, a database of ministers convicted or credibly accused of abuse. The project stalled for years over legal concerns, and by last year SBC Executive Committee President Jeff Iorg said it was “not a focus.”
ProtestantAccountability.org’s organizers said the list isn’t finished. They plan to keep adding names as new cases surface.