Not sure I can do this story justice, but I ran across an article from The Texas Tribune about the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) settling a lawsuit against one of their leaders, Paul Pressler, for multiple counts of rape and sexual abuse of underage boys and young men. Pressler is not just any old leader of the SBC. He was one of the architects of the conservatie takeover of the SBC in 1979, when the SBC embraced “biblical inerrancy.” Pressler was not only on the SBC Executive Committee and a deacon of the the SBC churches, but he was an elected Texas judge and state representative. Pressler was influential in forming the alliance between fundamentalism and evangelical “christians’ with the GOP.
Did I mention the part where Pressler was an anti-LGBTQ activist and against women pastors?
The Southern Baptist Convention and others have reached a confidential settlement in a high-profile lawsuit that accused a former leader of sexual assault, ending a six-year legal drama that helped prompt a broader reckoning over child sexual abuse in evangelical churches, expanded victims’ rights in Texas and showed that a prominent conservative activist and Texas House candidate repeatedly downplayed abuse allegations.
In 2017, Duane Rollins filed the lawsuit accusing Paul Pressler, a longtime Southern Baptist figure and former Texas judge, of decades of rape beginning when Rollins was a 14-year-old member of Pressler’s church youth group in Houston.
Rollins claimed in court documents that the alleged attacks pushed him into drug and alcohol addictions that kept him in prison throughout much of his adult life. After disclosing the alleged rapes to a prison psychiatrist, Rollins filed the suit in Harris County against Pressler along with other defendants who he accused of enabling or concealing Pressler’s behavior — including the Southern Baptist Convention and Jared Woodfill, the former chair of the Harris County GOP and Pressler’s longtime law partner.
Emphasis is mine.
Now, Woodfill is this guy:
Prominent anti-LGBTQ+ attorney and former Harris County GOP chair Jared Woodfill is running for the Texas House and to replace House Speaker Dade Phelan.
Woodfill announced his candidacy for House District 138 this week, touting his legal challenges to COVID-19 mandates and LGBTQ+ legislation, and the four “Republican sweeps” that Harris County Republicans saw during his tenure as the local GOP’s leader from 2002 to 2014.
He’s running against incumbent Republican Rep. Lacey Hull, who was first elected to represent the northwest Houston district in 2020 with backing from Gov. Greg Abbott and U.S. Rep. Dan Crenshaw, R-Houston. Hull was ranked as one of the most conservative members of the Texas House this year based on an analysis of voting records by Rice University political scientist Mark Jones.
Woodfill’s campaign has already tried to frame Hull as a Republican in Name Only — RINO — by citing D ratings from two conservative activist groups. His campaign also accuses her of conspiring with Phelan — a longtime nemesis of Woodfill and other ultraconservative Texas Republicans — to “undermine” conservative legislation and impeach Attorney General Ken Paxton.
Keep in mind that Woodfill hates anyone who is part of the LGBTQ+ community, because what you are about to read is part of the typical lies and hypocrisy that that so called conservative religious leaders indulge in.
Here is some of the things that Pressler, now 93 years old, did for many decades as part of the SBC.
As part of Rollins' suit, at least seven other men came forward with their own allegations of sexual misconduct by Pressler in incidents spanning four decades. The suit also showed that Woodfill, a prominent anti-LGBTQ+ activist, was aware of allegations that Pressler was a sexual predator but continued to provide him with young, male personal assistants who worked out of Pressler’s River Oaks home. Three of the men have alleged sexual abuse or misconduct…
Pressler denies the allegations and has not been criminally charged for any of the alleged abuses. An attorney for Pressler did not respond to a request for comment about the settlement, which is not public…
Rollins’ lawsuit also uncovered a 40-year pattern of alleged abuses by Pressler. As part of the suit, a former member of Pressler’s youth group said in a sworn affidavit that Pressler molested him in 1977 while the two were in a sauna at the country club in Houston’s tony River Oaks neighborhood. The man was entering his sophomore year in college at the time; Pressler, meanwhile, was a youth pastor at a Presbyterian church in Houston. He was ousted from that position in 1978 after church officials received information about “an alleged incident,” according to a letter introduced into the court file. Soon after, Pressler ramped up his involvement in Southern Baptist life.
Rollins said Pressler began sexually abusing him not long after. He said the rapes continued on and off for nearly a quarter-century, often while he was working as Pressler’s aide….
In 2004, court records show that a small group of leaders at the massive First Baptist Church of Houston were made aware of allegations that Pressler, a powerful deacon at the megachurch, had undressed and groped a young man at his home. In a letter to Pressler that was unearthed as part of Rollins’ lawsuit, the church leaders condemned Pressler’s "morally and spiritually" inappropriate behavior. They also feared that publicizing the allegations would damage Pressler's reputation in their church and the Southern Baptist Convention…
Woodfill similarly downplayed sexual misconduct allegations in 2016, after a 25-year-old lawyer at his firm alerted Woodfill that Pressler had told him “lewd stories about being naked on beaches with young men” and then invited him to skinny-dip at his ranch, court records show. The attorney said he addressed the incident with a longtime employee of Woodfill’s law firm, who made it clear that this was not the first time he’d heard such allegations.
“I discovered that this was not unusual behavior for Pressler, and that he had a long history of lecherous behavior towards young men. Even going as far as bringing scantily clad men and parading them through the office,” the attorney wrote in an affidavit that was filed as part of Rollins’ lawsuit.
Woodfill — who’d just played a key role defeating an equal rights ordinance for LGBTQ Houstonians — responded to the young man’s request for help with shock. “This 85-year-old man has never made any inappropriate comments or actions toward me or any one I know of,” he responded, court records show.
The young attorney’s claims are similar in detail to those from other Pressler accusers, who said he leaned on his stature and connections in conservative religious and political circles to try and coerce them into lewd massages, naked swimming sessions or sex. One accuser — a young Houston Baptist University student — said in a sworn affidavit that he stopped pursuing a career in ministry, frequently had panic attacks and attempted suicide as a result of Pressler’s alleged behavior.
Woodfill knew of all of Pressler’s sexual abusive behavior, but he and the rest of the SBC covered up for Pressler for decades. So we have two men who hate gay men, and one of those men is raping and sexually assaulting boys and young men, while the other looks the other way at those crimes.
According to the article, there is a big dispute that Woodfill’s role in covering up Presslers’s crimes was really “settled.” The SBC, “Yes, it was part of the settelement,” while Woodfill states, “No, I didn’t settle!” And as stated earlier, Pressler continues to deny that he did anything wrong.
How much was the total cash settlement from the SBC? I have no idea.
NOTE: I love the part when those who are not sexually assaulted come to the aid of their friends with the old, “I’ve never had an 85 year old man hit on me!” defense. This same routine was used by a bunch of women who worked for Clarence Thomas, but most of the women were older white women. Thomas liked to harass younger black women. And I know with some certainty that Woodfill is NOT Pressler’s type, so why should Pressler EVER harass Woodfill? Pressler prefers young boys and men who are subordinate to him in power.
And yes, Pressler is a married man with kids. The kids are grown now, and as for his wife, I have not heard anything out of her. Frankly given how men are in charge in the SBC, I’m sure Ms. Pressler is keeping her mouth shut because her husband commanded her to.
So not only is Pressler a liar and a hypocrite, he’s committed adultery as well. Or is Pressler going to argue that sex with a man is not adultery? Last time I checked, the Bible didn’t make some exception for sexual activity with same sex partners out of wedlock.
The other reason I took to write up about this story is that I do remember when folks like Pressler took over the SBC. The local papers were running stories about how the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, KY was having staff changes there. Seems too many of the teachers there were moderates who didn’t believe in biblical inerrancy, so out they went.
As for this settlement, I’m betting that unlike with the Catholic Church scandal, there will be no listing of SBC pastors and deacons who raped kids over the years. Mr. Rollins may get some money for his pain and suffering, but what about the other victims of Pressler’s predations?