A prominent sexual abuse survivor and advocate has charged the controversial amicus brief filed by four Southern Baptist Convention entities against a sexual abuse survivor in Kentucky originated with Lifeway Christian Resources.
Lifeway, the denomination’s publishing house based in Nashville, has yet to offer any public statement about the amicus brief. Two other entities — Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and the SBC Executive Committee — have issued explanations of why they joined the brief. Those explanations have been roundly denounced as insufficient by abuse survivors and their advocates.
Lifeway, however, has been notably silent.
Tiffany Thigpen
In a thread of tweets published Oct. 28, abuse survivor and advocate Tiffany Thigpen said: “I want to make this abundantly clear for all of the spin and mistruths. The ones who made this decision to file the #AmicusBrief started with @Lifeway then brought it to the EC (by way of EC atty’s not the EC members) and from there discussions were held & decisions made.”
Meanwhile, the Kentucky case currently before the state’s Supreme Court was thought to have no connection but in fact does. The plaintiff in that case, Samantha Killary, was a member of an SBC church in metro Louisville and says she told her youth pastor about the abuse and he and the church did nothing.
In her 2018 book, Out of the Blue, Killary details how she told her youth pastor at Jeffersontown Baptist Church, Danny Pacetti, about the abuse.
In her 2018 book, Out of the Blue, Killary details how she told her youth pastor at Jeffersontown Baptist Church, Danny Pacetti, about the abuse. She says Pacetti promised to report her problem to the church’s elders. Yet she waited and waited for something to happen, and nothing ever was said.
Killary’s case now has garnered national attention because it lies at the heart of a debate over the allowable statute of limitations for filing sexual abuse claims in Kentucky and over who may be considered liable for not reporting known sexual abuse.
Although the SBC is not directly involved in Killary’s case, the four SBC entities joined to offer an amicus brief — or “friend of the court” brief — in the case, arguing against Killary’s claim for a more expansive definition of the statute of limitations and the scope of who may be held liable. This matters to the SBC, SBC Executive Committee, Southern Seminary and Lifeway because they are named defendants in other litigation in Kentucky related to their alleged failure to address known sexual abuse.
The amicus brief was filed in April but was not widely publicized until this week when a Louisville Courier-Journal article mentioned it. Since then, advocates for abuse reform in the SBC have expressed outrage that the denomination would side against an abuse victim seeking justice.
Both the Executive Committee officers and Southern Seminary President Al Mohler issued statements defending the brief by saying it was done on the advice of legal counsel to protect their legal and financial interests.
Those statements only inflamed abuse advocates even more. The drumbeat for accountability has grown louder. The full board of the Executive Committee has been called to a special meeting in three weeks — which even members of the board say feels like a long time away given the urgency of the situation.
The full board of the Executive Committee has been called to a special meeting in three weeks — which even members of the board say feels like a long time away given the urgency of the situation.
No trustee of the Executive Committee was aware of the amicus brief until this week, according to published statements of trustee leaders. What trustees of Southern Seminary and Lifeway knew has not been stated.
Thigpen, in her latest thread of tweets, said she has spoken directly with Gene Besen, legal counsel for the Executive Committee and learned “he decided as counsel to advise this as the right decision and he received Willie’s nod to do so. There was NO further discussion, no one else was involved or consulted. It was pushed by Lifeway, period. Then Southern, then Gene & team/Willie as interim.”
“Willie” is Willie McLaren, former interim president of the Executive Committee who was ousted in August after it was discovered he had fabricated most of his resume. Thigpen’s accusation is that McLarin agreed to sign the amicus brief without consulting a single one of his trustees.
Even if an entity’s legal counsel advises filing an amicus brief, that doesn’t mean it’s the right thing to do, Thigpen said. It doesn’t mean the entity/SBC/EC/LifeWay/SBTS should take the advice of their counsel, no more than any other person under advisement should if they feel it is wrong morally/ethically for them!! This decision is about LIFEWAY & SBTS covering their behinds 1st & foremost.”
Anger over this legal maneuver to oppose a sexual abuse survivor — after two years of painful debate in the SBC over responding to sexual abuse — has led to a call for local churches to defund the SBC.
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The duplicity of an SBC amicus brief | Opinion by Christa Brown, David Clohessy and Dave Pittman