Since Jennifer Lyell is dead, David and Mary Sills will not seek legal damages against her estate but they will continue their litigation against the Southern Baptist Convention and 10 other people or entities.
Sills, a former professor at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky., has accused the SBC and others of “defamation, conspiracy, intentional infliction of emotional distress, negligence, and wantonness concerning untrue claims of sexual abuse.”
Sills has admitted he carried on a years-long sexual relationship with Lyell, who at one point was his student. He contends the relationship was immoral but consensual. Lyell contended the relationship was coerced and abusive.
Jennifer Lyell
Lyell died June 7 at age 47 after a brief illness. She had left her job as a vice president at the SBC’s Lifeway Christian Resources and had changed her name professionally to avoid the scrutiny associated with her past.
In 2019, Baptist Press — the SBC’s in-house news organ — reported on Lyell’s allegations of being sexually abused by Sills and framed what happened as a “morally inappropriate relationship.”
In February 2022, the SBC Executive Committee made an undisclosed payment to Lyell and formally apologized to her for “failure to adequately listen, protect and care for” her. Yet some convention leaders and pastors criticized that settlement, choosing to side with Sills and, in some cases, call Lyell a temptress — and worse.
Now, in a Sept. 12 court filing, Sills and his wife — plaintiffs in the lawsuit — said they would not “proceed with claims against the decedent’s estate.”
David Sills
However, their case continues against the SBC, the SBC Executive Committee, former SBC presidents Bart Barber and Ed Litton, Lifeway Christian Resources, former Lifeway executive Eric Geiger, former SBC Executive Committee Interim President Willie McLaurin, former SBC Executive Committee Chairman Rolland Slade, Southern Seminary and its president Al Mohler, and Guidepost Solutions.
Five days later, on Sept. 19, the defendants filed motions seeking summary judgment in the lawsuit, stating the plaintiffs “fail to establish any evidentiary support for their claims of tortious conduct.”
Ministry Watch reported that before she died, Lyell sat for a deposition in the case and her lawyer filed excerpts of that deposition in a federal court: “In it she detailed alleged sexual and spiritual abuse by Sills in graphic detail and insisted he had coerced her into sexual acts without her consent, and then asked her to join him at family meals afterward.”
In one excerpt quoted, Lyell says: “He always knew that I never, ever wanted any instance. And I always, always tried to stop it.”
Last week, the SBC Executive Committee met in Nashville, including a lengthy period in executive session closed to the press. It is widely believed that session included updates on the Sills case and other pending litigation against the SBC. No public report of such was made after the closed meeting.
Related articles:
Jennifer Lyell, key figure in SBC abuse crisis, dies after brief illness
SBC Executive Committee publicly apologizes to sexual abuse survivor
Judge rules discovery may continue in Sillses’ lawsuit against SBC parties