Report: Southern Baptist executive smeared Louisville victim advocate in 'satanic scheme'

A top executive in the Southern Baptist Convention referred to Louisville sex abuse survivor Rachael Denhollander and another victim as part of a "satanic scheme" to "distract us from evangelism."

The comments by the general counsel of the Southern Baptist Convention's executive committee were revealed in an independent investigative report released Sunday detailing how the denomination hid abuse claims to avoid liability.

In a 2019 email to another Southern Baptist leader, in which he mentioned Denhollander by name, attorney David August “Augie” Boto said: “The whole thing should be seen for what it is — a satanic scheme to completely distract us from evangelism. It is not the Gospel. It is a misdirection play."

The 288-page report cites a pattern of intimidation of victims and advocates.

“Rather than focusing on accused ministers,” executive committee leaders “turned against the very people trying to shine a light on sexual abuse,” the report says.

'The devil was involved'

Denhollander, an attorney and advocate who lives in Louisville, was the first woman to publicly accuse Larry Nassar, the former Michigan State University and USA Gymnastics doctor, of sexual assault.

She helped more than 500 of his victims win a combined $880 million from the university, USA Gymnastics and the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee.

Denhollander could not be immediately reached for comment Monday.

More news: She exposed her secrets to put away sexual predator Larry Nassar. But her work isn't done

Boto, who resigned in July 2019, has a disconnected number at his home in Brentwood, Tennessee, and could not be reached for comment.

But when he was interviewed for the report earlier this year, it says he again mentioned "the devil was involved in the magnitude of the sexual abuse issue."

The explosive report reveals how the nation’s largest Protestant denomination perpetuated a cycle of abuse for two decades by ignoring reports of sexual abuse and by saying they couldn’t be investigated because every Southern Baptist Church is independent.

Sexual abuse victim labeled an 'adulterer'

The report says one of the worst betrayals was of a former student at Louisville’s Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.

It describes how in March 2019, Jennifer Lyell was asked by Baptist officials to write a first-person account of how she was abused years earlier by a seminary professor.

But rather than publishing her story as she had drafted it, Baptist Press, the official arm of the Southern Baptist Convention communications office, changed it to read she had a “morally inappropriate relationship” with her former abuser.

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As a result, according to the report, she was called an “adulterer” and subject to other vicious attacks on Southern Baptist social media.

The report says Southern Baptist Convention used Baptist Press to portray victims, including Lyell, who worked at a Baptist affiliate in Nashville, in an unflattering light.

The article was finally retracted after the seminary’s president, R. Albert Mohler, vouched that that Lyell was a victim.

In February, the executive committee apologized to Lyell, in part for failing to report her allegations of sexual abuse were investigated and "unequivocally corroborated by the SBC entities.”

The professor, David Sills, resigned.

Lyell said Sills first acted sexually against her on a mission trip in 2004, establishing a pattern of abuse that continued for more than a decade.

More news: Southern Baptist professor accused of sexually abusing student 'by design' over a decade

In tweets this week, Lyell said she had left the faith, and condemned Southern Baptist leaders for being more concerned with the denomination’s reputation than with justice.

“Unity at the expense of transparency is the foundation for an abuse of power,” she said. “We cannot play it safe and stay quiet about things that we know about and have seen from leaders who are pursuing more influence and power.”

She also seemed doubtful the report will help much.

“Tonight there are children, teens and adults going to bed having been sexually exploited, abused and assaulted in SBC churches that the @SBCExecComm heard about and did nothing to stop or serve,” she said in another tweet. “It will not stop being the case because this report is out.”

In a statement, Mohler said Lyell is "absolutely right that the release of the report is the beginning and not the end of our challenge as a convention of churches."

However, he said, "I am absolutely confident that this investigation will move Southern Baptists to action."

In his daily brief post on his website Monday, Mohler called the report "devastating, heartbreaking, and infuriating."

He also noted that "horrible evil and serious crimes are often hidden within a religious context, precisely because those same contexts provide opportunity and camouflage."

Andrew Wolfson: 502-582-7189; awolfson@courier-journal.com; Twitter: @adwolfson.

This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Southern Baptist lawyer accused KY victim advocate of 'satanic scheme'