Demanding justice (in America and the SBC)
Breonna Taylor, Jennifer Lyell, and Duane Rollins
TW: police brutality, violence, and sexual abuse
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Disclaimer: In one of my first pieces for this newsletter, I outlined the qualities I hoped Slow Faith would stand for. One of those qualities was justice. I wrote this, back in 2020:
“Cornel West said in a speech once that, ‘Justice is what love looks like in public. Tenderness is what love feels like in private.’1 Just as we show those closest to us our love through our actions, so to do we show the public our love through standing in solidarity with those hurting and abused.”2
My goal is never to be controversial just for controversy’s sake, but I believe this is a moment to stand with those hurting and abused, whether controversial or not.
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On March 13th, 2020, Breonna Taylor was in bed with her boyfriend just past midnight. They heard loud banging and got out of bed to watch four plain clothes police officers break their door in with a battering ram. Those police officers were serving a no-knock warrant and had, an hour before the raid, told the standby ambulance to leave the area.
Ms. Taylor’s boyfriend thought the police were intruders and potentially Taylor’s ex-boyfriend. He fired one warning shot, which pierced a police officer’s thigh, although this is debated.3 The officers opened fire, and Breonna Taylor was shot five times, in her hallway.
The police officers called for an ambulance and rushed to support the officer with the thigh wound. No attention was given to Ms. Taylor. In fact, her wounds were not discovered by emergency personnel until her boyfriend called 911.4
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I need to tell you the story of another woman. Jennifer Lyell.
She was at one point a top executive at LifeWay, which meant she was also a top executive in the Southern Baptist Church—a denomination with few female executives and very few female pastors.
In 2018, she came forward to her boss as well as to SBC leadership about sexual abuse she experienced as a seminary student at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in the mid-2000s.5 The abuser—David Sills—admitted and resigned his professorship; however, nothing was shared publicly, and he was able to find another job in ministry a year later.
Not wanting this abuse to repeat with another young woman, Lyell decided to share her story to Baptist Press—a Southern Baptist news outlet. Here’s
with Christianity Today:“Rather than portraying her claims as abuse, the Baptist Press article said Lyell had had ‘a morally inappropriate relationship’ with a seminary professor. That story was later retracted and Baptist Press apologized.
But the damage was done. Lyell was labeled a temptress and adulteress who led a Christian leader astray. She was showered with hate, with pastors and churches calling for her to be fired…. Lyell eventually left her job at Lifeway amid the turmoil.”6
It was around this time that she reached out to
. She told Dr. Du Mez that she knew “two things without a doubt: I have not lied at any time in any place about anything related to my case and I have honored any/all legal agreements of which I’ve been party….”7“Jennifer did what she did for love. She did it to protect other women. She also did it to protect the church that she loved.
That love placed her directly in the line of fire.”8
Further adding to the clamor, in 2022, David Sills brought a lawsuit against the denomination and Jennifer Lyell, claiming Lyell and the denomination worked together to “ruin his reputation” by scapegoating him.9 That trial will not happen until 2026.10
Jennifer will not be in attendance, however. She passed away last week from “a series of massive strokes.”11 She was 47.
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Duane Rollins died on Friday, May 23rd.12 He was the first man to go public about SBC leader and rapist Paul Pressler’s years-long abuse. When Rollins came forward in 2017, Mr. Pressler “‘generally and categorically [denied] each and every allegation’ in Rollins’ petition.”13
Since then, six other men have come forward with their own stories of abuse, corroborating Rollins’ account. Pressler died in 2024 having never been criminally charged.14
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, in her tribute to Jennifer Lyell, wrote that Lyell confessed to Dr. Du Mez three years ago that she didn’t think she would live.15While scheduling an interview in a recent email exchange, Lyell closed with this note:
“Maybe hold print as long as possible because at this rate they're going to truly do me in…and if so, your publisher could definitely work some marketing around that. I'm all for selling books forever!”16
The reporter who originally reported on Duane Rollins’ abuse also announced his death on May 25th. He wrote,
“Per his attorney, Duane died from cardiac arrest. I will update this once I have more details, but: Duane had dealt for a long time with serious health issues stemming from addictions that were directly related to the trauma of his abuse.”17
I do not think it is hyperbole to say leaders in the SBC (both former and current) and systems of abuse hidden by the SBC are at least partially responsible for these deaths.
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A few months after Breonna Taylor’s story sparked national outrage, in the summer of 2020, no officer had been charged. #SayHerName and #SayTheirNames were justice rallying cries, and the rapper Tobe Nwigwe released the song “I Need You To.” It runs just over forty seconds and features these lyrics:
“Arrest the killers of Breonna Taylor.
All of y'all who think we need more evidence, you goofy.
I said, arrest the killers of Breonna Taylor (that's right).
You catch the vibe?"
Nwigwe said God spoke to him in a dream and told him to write that song.18
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Due in large part to the testimonies of people like Lyell and Rollins, along with journalism like the Houston Chronicle’s “Abuse of Faith” series and Guidepost’s report on the sexual abuse coverup within the denomination, reform began to happen within the SBC. First, a previously secret list of sexual abusers was released by the denomination. NPR reported that “the 205-page database” included “more than 700 entries from cases that largely span from 2000 to 2019.”19
Further, and perhaps most important, the denomination promised to create a database of abusers called Ministry Check. Its goal was to make sure abusers couldn’t become serial abusers like Paul Pressler.
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Since #SayHerName and #SayTheirNames gained traction and Nwigwe released “I Need You To,” financial settlements have been doled out and the city of Louisville fired multiple officers connected to the case as well as outlawed the no-knock warrant.20
But systemic, nationwide change has yet to happen. In fact, the upswell in awareness toward systemic racial injustice has brought an even stronger reaction from the other side. Because of the hostility by the Trump administration toward DEI efforts, America is increasingly becoming a less safe place for Black Americans and Americans of color.
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The Religious News Service reported last week that the taskforce assigned to create Ministry Check, the online database for abusers, officially ended its work without putting a single name into the database.21
published that report on June 4th. He published Jennifer Lyell’s obituary on June 8th.Yesterday—June 9th—the SBC’s yearly convention began in Dallas. On the docket is a motion to provide $3 million for legal fees stemming from the abuse cases (the denomination currently owes $13 million). Also proposed is a motion to officially disallow female pastors in the denomination. And, finally, the convention is voting on whether to disband the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission—the group who, under the leadership of
, fought on behalf of victims and for the creation of the abuser database.22—
It seems like everywhere we look, we do not find justice. But just because justice isn’t being served doesn’t mean we shouldn’t demand it. Over and over and over again, just as so many victims—of both church abuse and police brutality—have courageously done.
We must say their names.
One final thought: this past Sunday, I was in Oklahoma visiting family and attended an SBC church. I know stories of people at this church who have gone through great healing after experiencing church hurt and abuse at other churches outside the SBC. By writing about the SBC and the systemic abuses within it, I am not prescribing that abuse on every individual church, nor am I ignorant to abuse happening in other denominations.
https://traffickinginstitute.org/incontext-cornel-west/
https://slowfaith.substack.com/publish/post/165662771
https://web.archive.org/web/20201011184110/https://www.foxnews.com/us/ballistics-dont-support-ag-camerons-claim-breonna-taylors-boyfriend-shot-officer
https://www.nytimes.com/article/breonna-taylor-police.html
https://religionnews.com/2022/11/28/david-sills-former-seminary-prof-accused-of-abuse-sues-sbc-and-guidepost/
https://www.christianitytoday.com/2025/06/died-southern-baptist-abuse-survivor-jennifer-lyell-sbc-lifeway/
https://religionnews.com/2022/11/28/david-sills-former-seminary-prof-accused-of-abuse-sues-sbc-and-guidepost/
https://www.baptistpress.com/resource-library/news/legal-update-hunt-sills-trials-pushed-back/
https://www.christianitytoday.com/2025/06/died-southern-baptist-abuse-survivor-jennifer-lyell-sbc-lifeway/
https://www.christianitytoday.com/2025/05/sbc-abuse-duane-rollins-paul-pressler/
https://www.texastribune.org/2017/12/12/paul-pressler-former-texas-judge-and-religious-right-leader-accused-se/
https://www.texastribune.org/2024/06/15/paul-pressler-dead-southern-baptist-convention/
Ibid.
https://x.com/RobertDownen_/status/1926793059695464661?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1926795249344545192%7Ctwgr%5E3c5e1e468684040ae6f7a65e2e664080ce7d7b78%7Ctwcon%5Es2_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.christianitytoday.com%2F2025%2F05%2Fsbc-abuse-duane-rollins-paul-pressler%2F
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/13/arts/music/tobe-nwigwe-breonna-taylor.html
https://www.npr.org/2022/05/27/1101734793/southern-baptist-sexual-abuse-list-released
On the firings: https://www.npr.org/2021/01/06/953285549/two-louisville-police-officers-connected-to-breonna-taylor-shooting-have-been-fi#:~:text=2%20Louisville%20Officers%20Fired%20Over%20Role%20In%20Breonna%20Taylor's%20Death%20:%20NPR&text=Television-,2%20Louisville%20Officers%20Fired%20Over%20Role%20In%20Breonna%20Taylor's%20Death,killed%20her%2C%20have%20been%20terminated.
On the no-knock warrant: https://www.nytimes.com/article/breonna-taylor-police.html
https://religionnews.com/2024/06/04/sbc-abuse-reform-task-force-ends-its-work-with-no-names-on-database-and-no-long-term-future-plan/
https://www.christianitytoday.com/2025/06/southern-baptist-sbc-meeting-finance-vote-accountability/
It is sad that issues of justice—justice for Breonna Taylor, Jennifer Lyell, and Duane Rollins—are deemed "controversial" just because they disrupt comfortable, complacent power structures with so much social capital. Here's to advocating for safer churches with more accountability structures, where victims of sexual abuse and police brutality are taken seriously.