A complete investigative report on the life of Paul Pressler, the former judge and Southern Baptist Church leader who died on June 7, 2024 at the age of 94, was just published in the TexasMonthly detailing four decades of predatory sexual assault within the Southern Baptist Church. The author is Robert Downen, one of the primary reporters that broke the story of rampant sex abuse in the Southern Baptist Churches by its Pastors and leaders back in 2019 in the Houston Chronicle.
In his newly released TexasMonthly essay on the life of Paul Pressler, titled: “He Remade the Southern Baptist Convention in His Image. Then Came the Allegations of Abuse.” – Downen revises the reforms to shield victims of sexual predators in the Southern Baptist Convention since his article rocked the very foundations of the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC), where most of these pedophiles continue to pastor churches and still hold leadership positions within the SBC. In chronicling the life of Paul Pressler, a founder of the modern Evangelical Christian Conservative movement, he shows how sexual abuse charges were routinely swept under the rug and then blamed on “liberals” who they claimed were attacking them on their Conservative religious and political views.
What a beautifully crafted piece of investigative journalism! I learned a ton from it. He notes, for example, how those who exposed and suffered from the predatory sexual abuse among Catholic Priests, that was widely reported in the corporate news after the Boston Globe exposed it, which was made into a movie, also tried to warn leaders in the Southern Baptist Convention that they were doing the same things in their churches, but their warnings fell on deaf ears. The SBC is the largest Protestant denomination in the U.S. and only second to the Catholic Church. Downen shows how influential Paul Pressler was, who was also a Judge in Texas, in shaping Conservative politics in the U.S. during the Reagan and Bush presidencies when covering up sexual abuse and child sex trafficking became the norm and continues to this day in Trump’s second term where we know so much more now due to the release of the Jeffrey Epstein files.
These People Do-not Server The Same GOD That Some Do!
