In May, Guidepost Solutions, which investigated the SBC scandal, issued a report that found alleges survivors of sexual abuse encountered resistance, stonewalling, and even outright hostility, from some on the SBCs Executive Committee. Jennifer Lyell was trying to do the right thing. She did so after learning her abuser, former Southern Baptist seminary professor, author, and missionary David Sills, had recently returned to ministry. The cookies is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Necessary". The court filing further claims Lyell maintained the relationship by driving several hundred miles from Nashville, Tenn., to Louisville, Ky. to see Sills. The SBCs public relations service, Baptist Press, misrepresented her statements about the situation, which eventually led to a public apology and a financial settlement from the SBC Executive Committee, which runs Baptist Press. Performance cookies are used to understand and analyze the key performance indexes of the website which helps in delivering a better user experience for the visitors. Lyell contends it was not consensual. Read our republishing, terms of use and privacy policies here. Lyell told Religion News Service she wished she had never gone public. Sills also served as an International Mission Board (IMB) trustee and a member of the IMBs presidential search committee. Baptist Press reporting did, in fact, mislead people. UPDATE #1: Shortly after this article was published, Jennifer Lyell graciously reached out to us and provided crucial details of her case both to me and to Midwest Christian Outreach, Inc. President Don Veinot. The lawsuit also claims that Sills broke off the relationship and that Lyell continued to pursue him. It conclusively demonstrated the non-consensual nature of what happened to her. For example, why did Lyell continue the relationship with the alleged abusers after graduating from Southern Baptist Theological Seminary (SBTS)? This led to a general understanding that what happened between Dr. David Sills and Ms. Jennifer Lyell was a consensual affair. First, the defendants widely circulated their herein-described defamatory lies about Dr. and Mrs. Sills throughout Mobile County and the state of Alabama. I am not a sinless victim. Sills has not denied engaging in an inappropriate relationship with Lyell, and he resigned his post at Southern Seminary after being confronted about it. Moore said he and his wife are friends of Lyell and he described her as one of the strongest, most courageous and brilliant leaders I know. He hopes she will eventually return to a leadership role in the church. They simply want to push their agenda & cancel anyone who refuses to kowtow to their self-righteous bloviating. RELATED: Southern Baptist leader, experts say churches should address the abuse of adults. There are elements that sound like an abuse victim pleading with an abuser, I just want you to be like a dad, and there are elements where the story does not seem plausible given what we knowpay special attention to the police. 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. 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. After BNG reported on the Sills lawsuit, Ascol tweeted: Wow. 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. Any criticism of complementarianism is seen as a sort of gateway drug into theological liberalism., I think a culture that believes that its righteousness is dependent on preserving and protecting the strictest form of complementarianism is a culture that sees women as a threat, sees women as a risk, sees women as more likely to sin, she said. If I were not to come forward with this [statement], a church or ministry who receives Dr. Sills [resume] and does an internet search for him would have no way to know the truth behind his resignation. If you purchase a product or register for an account through one of the links on our site, we may receive compensation. They also risk losing their relationships with everybody else who has a relationship with that person because when the chips fall, you dont know how theyre going to fall.. Geiger told Lyell he was responsible to share the allegations with Southern and invited her to participate in the process, Geiger recounted to Baptist Press. Part of Lyells reason for being "compliant at times" and remaining silent for as long as she did, she stated, was because she became like part of [Sills] family and feared the collateral damage that telling would cause for those around him. In her statement, Lyell accused Sills of grooming and taking advantage of his student.. These ultra-conservatives believe the SBC is sliding into liberalism and needs to be rescued by them. And we met with him within hours of his arrival back in the United States since our policies call for an immediate conversation. George, as curator of the Spurgeon Library and digitized archive, worked with the . Pooler said abusive relationships with clergy often last for years. Mohler did that. The audio came to the Capstone Report from a source not connected with Midwest Outreach. The court filing addresses this issue: This court has personal jurisdiction over the defendants. She graduated from Southern with a master of divinity in 2006 and enrolled in an SBTS doctoral program for one year after that. Defamation?! Based on the information we now have I retract any suggestion that Jennifer Lyells physical relationship with David Sills was consensual. 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. By the time Lyell had come forward publicly with her story, she had been in counseling for over two years. We hope you will! The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Advance Local. 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. Geiger said he contacted the other missions agency which he identified as Global Outreach International and they removed Sills from their employment. Sills local church, Ninth & O Baptist Church in Louisville, confirmed to Baptist Press that Sills is no longer a member and that the church acted swiftly and firmly after hearing the accusations. Mohler draws praise from Lyell and some criticism too. How did Bob Smietana avoid being named in this lawsuit? Sills, former professor of missions and cultural anthropology at Southern, did not respond to request for comment. Scarsella, who also works with a nonprofit that advocates for abuse victims, noted that clergy abusers also often know how to use the theology of sin for their advantage. I am not a sinless victim. The group maintained a shared online file of their correspondence. At its simplest level, it is abuse because it is not consensual, he said. "[O]ur policies and procedures work and we work hard to make certain that they are up to date with best practices. It was a Zoom call conducted June 6, 2021. She lost her reputation, her job and even her health in the process. Baptist Press eventually apologized for the article, but Lyell said she had already been devastated by the repercussions of its inaccurate reporting. 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. . Her story has already helped countless other people around the country, in ways that she may not even know about. 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. In her statement, Lyell says that it began when she was a student. Lyell built a strong relationship with Sills family over the years as she spent many of her weekends and holidays with them. It looked idyllic on the surface. 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 interview for a documentary about the denomination's response to its sexual abuse crisis. The fallout was quick and devastating. Lyell explained that she decided to go public with her story after hearing that Sills was appointed to serve as a missionary with a mission agency not affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention. Jennifer Lyell in 2019 decided to reveal she had been sexually abused by a former Southern Baptist seminary professor who had recently returned to ministry. As such, Jennifer Lyell seems to be someone who is the victim of horrendous sexual abuse. The 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, claiming the allegations were part of an SBC attempt to improve its image in the wake of the sexual abuse coverup scandal. 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. But we must not be silent.. She claims . Community Rules apply to all content you upload or otherwise submit to this site. 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). Lyell explains why she had not confronted Lumpkins because of Lumpkins history with Lifeway and her personal issues. Jennifer Lyell . And so, we invoked our policies and procedures,"Mohler told The Christian Post in a phone interview. Lyell feared he would once again have the opportunity to abuse others and wanted to stop that from happening. The lawsuit centers on allegations that Sills sexually abused Jennifer Lyell starting in 2004 when Lyell was a student and Sills was a professor. Today, she feels that belief, known as complementarianism, has created an unhealthy culture. In the spring of 2019, Lyell, then a well-respected leader in Christian publishing, decided to publicly disclose that. Hilary Scarsella, assistant professor of ethics and director of women and gender studies at Colgate Rochester Crozier Divinity School, said survivors of clergy abuse can feel trapped because they know publicly disclosing the abuse may have consequences, both to their own faith and their place in the community. The lawsuit challenges what has been accepted as fact in one of the highest-profile cases in the web of allegations regarding mishandling of sexual abuse within the SBC. On October 7, 2019, Jennifer Lyell, a LifeWay employee, penned an open letter to Southern Baptists expressing her grief caused by what she alleges was an erroneous Baptist Press report released in March this year. 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. ), We have changed software providers for our subscription database. But we must not be silent. Lyell came to us with an allegation of abuse and should have been cared for throughout the entire process. This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. Some especially a group of Calvinist pastors questioned Lyells account and accused her of trying to make a consensual affair look like abuse. Jennifer Lyell claims she never wanted the attention her abuse allegations created nor to harm the family of David Sills, her alleged abuser. All rights reserved. David Sills, into having a sexual relationship with him while she was enrolled in a missions class at the seminary. 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. If I were not to come forward with this letter, a church or ministry who receives Dr. Sills CV and does an internet search for him would have no way to know the truth behind his resignation, she wrote. Hope youll give us another try and check out some other articles. Yet victims who are not minors must decide for themselves whether to contact authorities, he said. She challenged those who questioned her motives. Basham frequently tweeted and replied to tweets about the issue, at one point portraying herself as an investigative reporter who was just asking the questions no one else would ask. 2023 Baptist News Global. I think her efforts to call attention to this horrible aspect of abuse are needed.. 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. David Sills, a former seminary professor and missionary who admitted sexual misconduct, has sued a group of Southern Baptist Convention leaders and entities, claiming they conspired with an abuse survivor to ruin his reputation. Yet victims who are not minors must decide for themselves whether to contact authorities, he said plugin... 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