High-profile SBC lawsuit ends in win for former leader, loss for abuse reform proponents

A lawsuit against a prominent former Southern Baptist Convention leader for mishandling reports of sexual abuse concluded Wednesday after a federal judge dismissed additional claims.

The win was significant for Paige Patterson, a man who many blame for the SBC’s current abuse crisis, in a controversy that largely caused his public downfall in 2018, when Patterson lost his job as president of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas.

A former Southwestern student who Patterson reportedly mistreated when she came forward about her rape, under the pseudonym Jane Roe, sued Patterson and Southwestern in 2019 for negligence and then later defamation.

U.S. District Court Judge Sean Jordan dismissed Roe’s negligence claims last week and this week, dismissed her defamation claims.

“Roe has failed to create a genuine dispute of material fact … that Patterson directly defamed her,” Jordan said in a memorandum filed Tuesday. The decision arrived just as the case was scheduled to go to trial in Plano, Texas, though only for the defamation claims due to Jordan’s decision last week.

First set of claims dismissed: Judge dismisses claims in high-profile suit against former SBC leader alleging victim intimidation

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Jordan’s decisions to dismiss Roe’s claims angered abuse survivors. Due to Patterson’s influence in the SBC and following revelations about his response to abuse reports and calls for reform, survivors and allies see Patterson as playing a key role in the convention’s history of cover-up and resistance to reform.

Patterson was the architect of the Conservative Resurgence, a late 20th-century movement that pulled the denomination further to the right, and went on to become SBC president, president of Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Wake Forrest, North Carolina and then Southwestern president.

Roe’s attorney, Sheila Haddock, said they are planning an appeal with the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals.

“We are disappointed in the Court’s rulings,” Haddock said in a statement. “We were ready for trial and looking forward to finally being able to present the ample evidence supporting Ms. Roe’s allegations to a jury.”

Patterson declined to comment through his attorney, J. Shelby Sharpe.

Southwestern board chairman Danny Roberts expressed gratitude for Jordan’s decision but stopped short of celebration.

“We recognize that the biblical standard for responding to allegations of abuse and caring for victims of abuse is much higher,” Roberts said in a statement. “It was a failure to live up to this higher standard that led, in part, to a presidential transition in 2018.”

Dismissing defamation claims

Southwestern fired Patterson in 2018 following revelations about Patterson’s response to Roe’s abuse report at Southwestern in 2015 and another instance in 2003 when Patterson was president at Southeastern.

In both cases, Patterson reportedly treated female seminarians with hostility and downplayed the seriousness of the reports.

In the 2003 case at Southeastern, Patterson encouraged the student to not report her rape to the police. In the 2015 case at Southwestern, Patterson said in an email to staff he wanted to meet one-on-one with Roe to “break her down.”

When Southwestern fired Patterson in 2018, the response by Patterson and his allies directly referenced the 2003 and 2015 incidents. References to the latter were defamatory, Roe claimed in her lawsuit against Patterson and Southwestern.

Jordan’s decision Tuesday to dismiss Roe’s defamation claims said Roe had to prove some of those alleged defamatory statements caused her damage. Jordan said there wasn’t sufficient proof to bring before a jury.

Haddock said in a statement about Jordan’s ruling, “We encourage the media and the public to refrain from trying this case on social media by drawing inferences and reaching conclusions based on the extremely limited and skewed information currently available in the sealed court record.”

Jordan said in another 2018 post from a Patterson ally — which falsely claimed Roe’s alleged abuser provided evidence of a consensual relationship to police — “even if incorrect, that statement is not defamatory of Roe.”

Supporters celebrate, survivors remind

Patterson has come under fire for other instances dealing with abuse, both for his direct involvement and for his relationships with other disgraced former SBC leaders. Chief among them is Paul Pressler, Patterson’s co-pilot during the Conservative Resurgence, who is facing a lawsuit for sexual abuse.

Patterson is a defendant in Pressler’s lawsuit, which is scheduled for trial in May.

Patterson has largely withdrawn from public life in the SBC following the revelations about him, and Southern Baptist institutions have severed ties with the man and his name.

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Leaders of a far-right contingent in the SBC, for whom Patterson has been an inspiration and mentor, celebrated the outcome of Roe’s case as a vindication for Patterson.

“The agenda to destroy the ministry of Dr. Paige Patterson in 2018 was completely exposed for what it was in the full dismissal of allegations by the Court this week,” tweeted Brad Jurkovich, spokesperson for the Conservative Baptist Network, an advocacy group within the SBC.

But to abuse survivor Megan Lively, who is the former Southeastern student who reported her rape to Patterson in 2003 and who later spoke out about Patterson’s response starting in 2018, nothing has changed.

“Female grad students are still made in the image of God,” Lively tweeted, commenting on the outcome of Roe’s lawsuit. “Laws were broken. A dismissed lawsuit does not absolve a pattern of behavior that ultimately resulted in termination.”

Liam Adams covers religion for The Tennessean. Reach him at ladams@tennessean.com or on Twitter @liamsadams.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Claims dismissed in lawsuit against SBC leader over abuse report