When a pastor or leader is involved in a sexual scandal, the language of affair is used, even when its a predatory use of spiritual power, he said. All rights reserved (About Us). Why Midwest Christian Outreach was interested in such a deep dive into Lyells story is not clear. Lyell was labeled on social media as an adulteress rather than an abuse survivor, with users leaving scores of vile comments about her on Lifeways Facebook page and the Baptist Press website. The following year, Jennifer Lyell, a former vice president at Lifeway Christian Resources, told Baptist Press she had been a victim of emotional and sexual abuse by Sills, who had been her professor. David Sills, an ex-Southern Baptist Convention seminary professor accused of sexual abuse by his former student filed a defamation suit in Alabama against her and several SBC entities. 2023 Baptist News Global. According to documents obtained by BNG, however, Ascol, Buck and Basham had collaborated with the source of the original quotation that Sills took out of context in his recent lawsuit. at the height of awareness of SBC scandals.' Venue is appropriate in this court because defendant Ed Litton is a resident citizen of Mobile County, Alabama., Guidepost report documents pattern of ignoring, denying and deflecting on sexual abuse claims in SBC, SBC Executive Committee publicly apologizes to sexual abuse survivor, SBC report shows how five words turn abuse victim from survivor to whore | Opinion by Marv Knox. Lyell was the SBC Lifeway Christian Resources Vice President before she decided to come to the open on the sexual abuse done her by Sills. . By the time Lyell had come forward publicly with her story, she had been in counseling for over two years. I am also grateful for the bold leadership of Grant Gaines, Ronnie Parrot, and Todd Benkert. Sills admitted to engaging in inappropriate sexual activity and tendered his resignation. George's resignation was "due to a personal moral failing," Midwestern told the Recorder on June 1. But her feelings toward the denominations beliefs about gender roles have shifted. On July 6th, this story would resurface because Bob Smietana, a liberal reporter of the pagan Religious News Service wrote an apologetic for Jennifer Lyell, When abuse victims are adults . Jennifer Lyell, who now works as an executive for LifeWay Christian Resources, posted a confession online last week claiming how Sills, who has been married for 30 years and has three grandchildren, sexually abused her and even groomed her from the time she was a master of divinity student until just a few years ago. "She relayed to me what had happened to her. 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She did not revisit all the details of the abuse but did disclose those details to leaders at Lifeway and then to Al Mohler, the president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, where the professor was employed. Litigating this case publicly could cause extreme discomfort for some of the defendants named, forcing them to testify under oath about matters they have tried to handle discreetly. . Use of and/or registration on any portion of this site constitutes acceptance of our User Agreement, Privacy Policy and Cookie Statement, and Your Privacy Choices and Rights (each updated 1/26/2023). And so, we invoked our policies and procedures,"Mohler told The Christian Post in a phone interview. The audio came to the Capstone Report from a source not connected with Midwest Outreach. The Complaint does not hid and it does not disappoint. Jennifer Lyell was trying to do the right thing. In fact, the key facts alleged are right in the first few paragraphs: 1. Geiger said he contacted the other missions agency which he identified as Global Outreach International and they removed Sills from their employment. By clicking Accept All, you consent to the use of ALL the cookies. Instead of reporting she had been abused, Nashville-based Baptist Press, which is overseen by the Southern Baptist Conventions Executive Committee, reported in March 2019 that Lyell, then a vice president at Lifeway Christian Resources, had admitted being involved in a morally inappropriate relationship with her former professor. Pastoral misconduct is seen as a moral failing rather than an abuse of power. My thinking was I could just verbally work through your article and clarify/add the information you didnt have or was inaccurate as well as answer the broader questions you asked when the information you had didnt reconcile for you. . Im also fine to answer any questions you or the other gentleman has to ensure you have clarity and believe me. Photo by Karen Race Photography 2019. Sills was a professor at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary until his resignation on May 23, 2018. NASHVILLE, Tenn. (RNS) Jennifer Lyell was trying to do the right thing. LOUISVILLE, Ky. (BP) -- Nine months after Southern Baptist Theological Seminary professor David Sills resigned for undisclosed reasons, a woman has released a statement of allegations including details of what she says was a morally inappropriate relationship with Sills for more than a decade, beginning while she was a Southern Seminary student. "As the official news service for the Southern Baptist Convention, Baptist Press should be known for integrity, truth and accuracy. In fact, she claims in a newly leaked audio recording that she has been vague intentionallyso that the Sills grandchildren wouldn't find out much about this by using Google. Lyell built a strong relationship with Sills family over the years as she spent many of her weekends and holidays with them. The law should reflect that, Legacy of Wounded Knee occupation lives on 50 years later, Holy Queer author seeks Black church inclusion beyond singing with choir. In a statement posted on her website, Jennifer Lyell, who is now 41 and works for a major Christian book publisher, said Sills first "sexually acted" against her on a mission trip in 2004 and. Lyell said that at the time, she did not want the seminary or Lifeway to publicly disclose what had happened to her. We must clearly tell the truth so that our churches and ministries are safe and as pure as they can be.. I am not a sinless victim. The Southern Baptist Conventions Executive Committee earlier this year offered a public apology and a confidential monetary settlement to Lyell and announced the resolution during their February meeting in Nashville. She began her thread saying, " What I referenced today about the Baptist Press' defamatory statements regarding @jenlyell and her abuser, former SBTS prof. David Sills, was the tip of the iceberg. Our policies and procedures are clear and are consistently applied. Jennifer Lyell . Lyell wrote that she first shared her story with her boss at LifeWay and then with Mohler. It also names Jennifer Lyell, a former seminarian and vice president for Lifeway, who has repeatedly alleged that Sills was abusive, an allegation Mohler has also made on social media and in an . She lost her reputation, her job and even her health in the process. All this played out as the SBC addressed the independent report of Guidepost Solutions about a long-term pattern of ignoring or mishandling known cases of sexual abuse in SBC churches and agencies. This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. It was a Zoom call conducted June 6, 2021. The outlet additionally reported that Sills has also resigned as a trustee of the SBC International Mission Board and his position on IMB's presidential search committee. While churches say they want to care for survivors of abuse, those survivors are often viewed with suspicion, having to prove they are worthy of compassion and respect. Bishop Scott Jones moves from extreme center of UMC to new Global Methodist Church, Jesus Revolution leaves out the tough stuff but gets the music right, From Super Bowl ads to Kentucky revivals, stop the Christian cannibalism, Holy Queer author seeks Black church inclusion beyond singing with choir, Its time to stop erasing Black Muslim Americans from the story of Islam in the US, Saddleback Church doubles down on support for female pastors. In the lawsuit, David Sills contends that he never even had sex with Jennifer Lyell during this twelve year long affair which he admits was inappropriate. Of course, Lyell spoke to multiple media outlets and is featured in a new documentary on sex abuse in the SBC. Sills resigned from the Kentucky-based schoollast May shortly after Lyell presented her claims to SBTS President Albert Mohler. He said people often turn to clergy when they are at their most vulnerable. He also said churches often believe survivors were participants in their abusers sins. The BP trampled on a survivor and shielded a VIOLENT sexual predator who then sought new employment." She continued: Lyell previously was a vice president at Lifeway, which is located in Nashville, Tenn. She voluntarily agreed to an interview with Baptist Press in 2019, by her account hoping her story would encourage other survivors of sexual abuse to come forward. That report also cited the Lyell case. Neither Smietana nor his editor offered comment to BNG when asked about the situation. Pooler said abusive relationships with clergy often last for years. The same day, Geiger and Lyell contacted Mohler, he said. In a filing made in the Mobile, Ala., Circuit Court, David and Mary Sills allege "defamation, conspiracy, intentional infliction of emotional distress, negligence, and . Advertisement cookies are used to provide visitors with relevant ads and marketing campaigns. One of Lyells advocates over the past three years has been Mohler, who has publicly stated he believed Lyells story as she has told it. Please click the "Register" link below to create a new account. Geiger, senior pastor of Mariners Church in Irvine, Calif., confirmed to BP that Lyell shared her allegations with him. The court filing addresses this issue: This court has personal jurisdiction over the defendants. It conclusively demonstrated the non-consensual nature of what happened to her. This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. We hope you will! Lyell, who served as vice president of LifeWay Christian Resources, posted a confession in 2018 claiming how Sills, who has been married for over 30 years, sexually abused her and groomed her. That was not accurate. "So I want to make very clear that I stand with her in that statement.". Sills files defamation suit against SBC, Lyell, others MOBILE, Ala. (BP) - A former Southern Baptist seminary professor and his wife have filed suit against the SBC and 10 other individuals and entities connected to the SBC, including Jennifer Lyell and Guidepost Solutions. This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. Facebook/The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, Bible teacher Jen Wilkin addresses criticism of her views on sending children to public schools, Teen, 21-year-old man indicted for murder of Memphis pastor, Deion Sanders' prayers are constitutionally protected, lawyer tells University of Colorado, Revival at Kentucky college faces hurdles from school leadership, moves worship off-campus. Lyell told RNS she did not initially report what happened because she was in shock, confused and scared about what people would believe. Her name appears on 37 pages of the report. Survivors dont just lose their trust in that one person, she said. Defamation?! Lyell came to us with an allegation of abuse and should have been cared for throughout the entire process. The fallout was quick and devastating. In the rush to virtue signal support for Jennifer Lyell, SBC pastor Eric Geiger made a public allegation against Mary Sills, wife of David Sills. Photo via Baylor University. I stand behind her in [her public statement] and believe she is acting righteously, he told BP. Baptist Press reporting did, in fact, mislead people. And Christian theology about sin and about the roles of men and women often makes it difficult for survivors who come forward. The suit states: On June 18, 2022, Defendant Lyell wrote to Religion News Services (RNS) and Reporter Bob Smietana, the following: My thinking was I could just verbally work through your article and clarify/add the information you didnt have or was inaccurate as well as answer the broader questions you asked when the information you had didnt reconcile for you. BNG has confirmed Midwest Christian Outreach was working with Ascol, Buck and Basham in the background into 2022. She claims . David Sills She has alleged Sills abused her over a multi-year period. But we must not be silent. The string of email correspondence viewed by BNG implies Buck contacted Lyell to ask questions about her claims. And these men couldnt even lift a finger when she was defamed and crushed and destroyed. George resigned on May 3 while Sills resigned on May 23, the Biblical Recorder reported. If you purchase a product or register for an account through one of the links on our site, we may receive compensation. And there were aspects of it certainly that I think is something that an abuser can use., Abuse advocate and attorney Rachael Denhollander said that Lyells story reflects a bigger problem with a complementarian culture that defends male leaders but views women leaders and survivors of abuse as expendable., Abuse survivor Rachael Denhollander, right, discusses the Southern Baptist Conventions history of addressing sexual abuse with ERLC President Russell Moore at the Caring Well conference in Dallas, on Oct. 4, 2019. she disclosed to her boss at Lifeway that a former professor named David Sills had first "sexually acted . NASHVILLE, Tenn. (RNS) Jennifer Lyell was trying to do the right thing. Lyell urged denominational leaders as well as pastors to recognize the responsibility they have to protect survivors from more harm when they come forward. In the spring of 2019, Lyell, then a well-respected leader in Christian publishing, decided to publicly disclose that she was a survivor of sexual abuse. (RNS) A former seminary professor and missionary who admitted sexual misconduct has sued a gaggle of Southern Baptist Conference leaders and entities, claiming they conspired with an abuse survivor to damage his repute. Lyell is a former Reaching and Teaching International board member. Police is an important part of Lyells narrative. Nine months after The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary (SBTS) professor David Sills resigned for undisclosed reasons, a woman has released a statement of allegations including details of what she describes as sexual abuse by Sills, beginning while she was a Southern Seminary student. Louisvilles Ninth and O Baptist Church told BP it is the congregation referenced in Lyells statement. Once the person gets access, they keep that access, he said. Instead, for many this incident may have contributed to a perception that the Southern Baptist Convention is not a safe place for sexual abuse survivors to disclose, the statement read. Join thousands of others to get the FREEDOM POST newsletter for free, sent twice a week from The Christian Post. Lyell says Sills, who was a surrogate father figure to her, eventually abused her again and then continued for years, even after she left seminary. That happened three months prior to release of a bombshell report from an independent investigation that found widespread mishandling of known cases of sexual abuse in the SBC and its churches. In that email, Lyell makes the exact statement the lawsuit attributes to communication with Smietana. The timeline raises many natural and difficult questionsquestions that are not prompted by a desire for lewd details, but rather to fully understand what has become a public case used to discredit how the SBC handles abuse allegations. What happened instead was a controversy over what kind of relations are consensual and nonconsensual and who gets to make that determination and challenges to the veracity of Lyells account. The abuser often spends years grooming a victim and then does not let the victim go. For example, why did Lyell continue the relationship with the alleged abusers after graduating from Southern Baptist Theological Seminary (SBTS)? Now, David Sills and Mary Sills contend they have been smeared repeatedly in the process and seek monetary damages from the SBC; the SBC Executive Committee; former SBC President Ed Litton; current SBC President Bart Barber; Lyell; Lifeway Christian Resources; Eric Geiger, a former executive vice president at Lifeway; Willie McLaurin, interim president of the Executive Committee; Rolland Slade, former chairman of the Executive Committee; Southern Baptist Theological Seminary; Al Mohler, president of Southern Seminary; and Guidepost Solutions, the firm that conducted the independent investigation. She mentions them many times during this recording. In 2004, Lyell was a 26-year-old master of divinity student when she met cultural anthropology professor David Sills, who is 23 years her senior, on the Louisville campus of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. Nine months after The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary (SBTS) professor David Sills resigned for undisclosed reasons, a woman has released a statement of allegations including details of what she describes as sexual abuse by Sills, beginning while she was a Southern Seminary student. Geiger alleged that Mary Sills threatened Jennifer Lyell in text messages and that Mrs. Sills knew of the relationship between Jennifer Lyell and David Sills. In his lawsuit filed Nov. 21, Sills claimed Lyells allegedly false claims were repeated in SBC media as an opportunity to improve the appearance and reputation SBCs handling of abuse cases and made him a bona fide scapegoat.. Lyell was even commended in an SBC Resolution for her bravery in standing against sex abuse. So she wrote up a statement detailing the abuse and shared it with a reporter from a Christian news organization. . In the spring of 2018, after more than two years of therapy, she disclosed to her boss at Lifeway that a former professor named David Sills had first sexually acted against her without her consent during a mission trip he was leading while she was a seminary student. Some especially a group of Calvinist pastors questioned Lyells account and accused her of trying to make a consensual affair look like abuse. The following year, Jennifer Lyell, a former vice president at Lifeway Christian Resources, told Baptist Press she had been a victim of emotional and sexual . Last year, Southern Baptist Theological Seminary professor David Sills resigned from his position without much of an explanation. In a statement posted on her website, Jennifer Lyell, who is now 41 and works for a major Christian book publisher, said Sills first "sexually acted" against her on a mission trip in 2004 and that the relationship continued until she was 38. As I understand it, that is not accurate. 2023 Advance Local Media LLC. Lyell spends some of the recording taking about a blogpost written by Peter Lumpkins (likely this post.). Buck is an East Texas pastor who shares Ascols beliefs and is aggressive on Twitter in spreading his commentaries and accusations. David Sills and his wife, Mary Sills, claim Lyell 'constructed a false narrative . She did so after learning her abuser, former Southern Baptist seminary professor, author, and missionary David Sills, had recently returned to ministry. Filing claims Guidepost never interviewed or even contacted him before publicly naming him a predator. (Guidepost Solutions is the firm hired by the SBC Executive Committee to investigate charges of sexual abuse within the convention. ), We have changed software providers for our subscription database. The law should reflect that, Legacy of Wounded Knee occupation lives on 50 years later, Holy Queer author seeks Black church inclusion beyond singing with choir, Three big numbers that tell the story of secularization in America. Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. What Ascol, Buck and Sills share in common is adherence to an extreme version of Reformed theology, known as hyper-Calvinism, that has been on the resurgence in the SBC over the past 30 years. For Sills, no reason for his resignation was stated by Southern. I had discussions on our boards here with people who were convinced by the reporting that David Sills and Jennifer had an "affair" and that he was held responsible for it while she was not. Jennifer Lyell claims she never wanted the attention her abuse allegations created nor to harm the family of David Sills, her alleged abuser. In the spring of 2019, Lyell, then a well-respected leader in Christian publishing, decided to publicly disclose that she was a survivor of sexual abuse. She has alleged Sills abused her over a multi-year period. After various mischaracterizations, misstatements, and a contrived investigation by defendants, the plaintiffs, David Sills and Mary Sills, have been wrongfully and untruthfully labeled as criminals and shunned by the SBC.. The group maintained a shared online file of their correspondence. The church needs a way of understanding sin and violence that enables Gods grace without giving abusers back their power, their access and their good regard, she said. Guidepost and the SBC are two of 12 total defendants named in the lawsuit that revolves around allegations that David Sills sexually abused Jennifer Lyell starting in 2004, when Lyell was. Her story has already helped countless other people around the country, in ways that she may not even know about. As of earlier today, we declared his one IVP title (in both print and digital formats) as out of print.. And that retraction happened only after Denhollander had publicly criticized the SBCs treatment of Lyell during a major conference on abuse in the fall of 2019. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Analytics". The conventions statement of faith says women and men are equal in Gods sight but have different roles in the church and the home. In a separate email, Lyell recounts to Henzel her understanding that Ascol put Midwest Christian Outreach on the trail of her story in the first place. She said Lyell had repeatedly asked for the article to be corrected but her requests were denied and a number of Baptist leaders knew the story was wrong but failed to stand up for Lyell. I have never been unwilling to be questioned when making allegations that arent only moral, but are also criminal and Im extremely thankful that all parties who received and investigated my allegations did press me for details necessary to understand what I was alleging given my age and the fact it was not a single occurrence as well as that I did not report anything to them for a very long time.. Jennifer Lyell Lyell previously was a vice president at Lifeway, which is located in Nashville, Tenn. She voluntarily agreed to an interview with Baptist Press in 2019, by her account hoping her story would encourage other survivors of sexual abuse to come forward. Personal jurisdiction over the years as she spent many of her weekends and holidays them! Had happened to her while Sills resigned from the Kentucky-based schoollast May shortly Lyell! Difficult for survivors who come forward publicly with her in [ her public ]. 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