A federal judge on Tuesday (Sept. 29) dismissed most of the claims against Southern Baptist Convention leaders in a lawsuit filed by a former SBC seminary professor who lost his job due to sexual misconduct allegations. The judge also postponed a trial in the case and ordered a settlement conference to resolve the remaining disputes in the lawsuit, filed by former missionary and Southern Baptist Theological Seminary professor David Sills and his wife, Mary.
The Sills had asked Judge William Campbell of the U.S. District Court for Middle Tennessee to order settlement talks in part because SBC President Willy Rice, a Florida megachurch pastor elected in June, has said the SBC’s abuse crisis was a “snipe hunt” and claims of a crisis were overblown, according to court records. In a court filing, lawyers for the Sills said Rice’s comments could indicate the SBC’s current leadership may be willing to agree to a settlement with the Sills.
Campbell postponed the trial in the case, which had been set for November. “The Court believes a judicial settlement conference will be beneficial before the case proceeds to trial,” he wrote.
Background
David Sills first lost his job as a seminary professor in 2018, after Jennifer Lyell, then a vice president at Lifeway Christian Resources, an SBC publishing arm, accused him of abuse. The allegations against Sills did not become public until a year later, after Sills attempted to return to ministry.
He was eventually named in a 2022 Guidepost Solutions report that covered how SBC leaders dealt with allegations of abuse in the denomination. That report, which found leaders in the SBC had mistreated abuse survivors and sought to downplay the issue of abuse, made national headlines and led to a series of abuse reforms.
In 2023, Sills sued Guidepost, the SBC’s Executive Committee, former SBC Presidents Bart Barber and Ed Litton, Al Mohler, president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, and other SBC leaders, along with Lyell, alleging “defamation, conspiracy to defame, negligence, and intentional infliction of emotional distress.”
In the suit, David admitted sexual misconduct but said it had been voluntary, not abuse. Lyell, who died at age 47 last year, insisted in a deposition for the lawsuit before her death that he had coerced her into sexual acts without her consent.
The Sills’ lawsuit and a similar lawsuit filed by former SBC President Johnny Hunt, which was dismissed earlier this year, cost the SBC’s Executive Committee millions in legal fees and largely derailed the denomination’s abuse reforms.
In his ruling, Campbell dismissed the negligence, conspiracy and intentional infliction of emotional distress claims. He also resolved the case with Barber, Litton and other Baptist leaders.
David Sills did not respond to a request for comment.
Motions for summary judgment, or resolution, in the defamation claims against Guidepost, the SBC Executive Committee, Mohler and Southern Seminary were denied.
‘Close call’
The Mohler defamation claim was based on tweets from the seminary president about Sills, in which he said the former professor’s conduct was abuse. In a memorandum explaining his ruling, Campbell said a jury could decide Mohler was being truthful, or it could decide he should have been more careful in his language.
“As before, this is a close call — perhaps even closer here because Mohler spoke directly with Sills about the allegations of nonconsensual sexual conduct, Sills admitted an inappropriate relationship and, when given the choice between an investigation or resignation, chose resignation, and then never publicly refuted subsequent statements accusing him of abuse and nonconsensual conduct,” Campbell wrote.
He also wrote that it was unclear whether a jury would decide that the Executive Committee had acted appropriately when it published a report that labeled Sills an abuser.
Sills had accused the defendants in the case of labeling him as an abuser “without evidence.” That allegation was not accurate, Campbell wrote in the memorandum.
“They had considerable evidence in the form of Lyell’s statements, an investigation by Guidepost, the Baptist Press, and the Seminary, and Sills’s lack of response in the face of those allegations,” Campbell wrote in dismissing the intentional infliction of emotional distress claim.
Campbell ordered the parties to contact Magistrate Judge Lynda Hill to schedule a settlement conference. A date for a trial in the case, if needed, would be set after the conference.
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EDITOR’S NOTE — This story was written by Bob Smietana and originally published by Religion News Service.
