The rationale used to campaign for sweeping #MeToo overhauls within the nation’s largest Protestant denomination has now been thoroughly discredited. Newly released documents in Sills v. Southern Baptist Convention reveal how unwise decisions by denominational leaders, combined with unethical conduct by investigative consulting group Guidepost Solutions, manipulated Southern Baptists into a manufactured crisis. The result was a self-inflicted unraveling that exposed the denomination to litigation and has already cost $13 million and counting in investigative and legal expenses.
The recent revelations center on Jennifer Lyell, a former student at Southern Seminary, and missions professor David Sills, whom she alleged had abused her over a period of 12 years, as well as the investigation Southern Baptists contracted Guidepost Solutions to conduct regarding sexual abuse within the denomination.
Background
Lyell’s case, along with the 2018 firing of then-president of Southwestern Seminary Paige Patterson, and a series of articles in the Houston Chronicle reporting on abuse victims within the denomination, led to the Guidepost report, the SBC Executive Committee waiving attorney-client privilege, and the formation of an abuse report hotline.
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