(RNS) — Jennifer Lyell, an editor and writer whose promising profession in Christian publishing was derailed when she accused a former Southern Baptist chief of abuse, died Saturday (June 7). She was 47.
“Jennifer handed gently into the arms of her Redeemer, surrounded by family members,” stated her buddy Rachael Denhollander, who stated Lyell had suffered “a collection of large strokes, resulting in her turning into unconscious someday Monday afternoon. She was discovered Thursday night after lacking a medical appointment.”
For a lot of her grownup life, Lyell had been a Southern Baptist success story. She got here to religion at 20 at a Billy Graham campaign, went to seminary, dreamed of turning into a missionary, taught the Bible to younger girls and youngsters and have become a vp at Lifeway, the Southern Baptist Conference’s publishing arm. There she labored on a couple of dozen New York Occasions bestsellers, in keeping with a biography from her time at Lifeway.
By 2019, she was one of many highest-ranking girls leaders within the nation’s largest Protestant denomination.
Lyell had gone into publishing reluctantly, after her need to be a missionary went unfulfilled.
“Ultimately, I’m at all times convicted of the fact that my life will not be my very own. It was purchased at an incomprehensible value,” she stated in a 2009 profile revealed by Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, the place Lyell had earned a grasp of divinity diploma.
Whereas at seminary in 2004, the 26-year-old Lyell met David Sills, a professor in his late 40s who grew to become her mentor and a surrogate father determine, welcoming her into his household. Sills was additionally president of Reaching & Educating Worldwide Ministries, a missionary nonprofit.
In 2018, Lyell advised her bosses that Sills had allegedly used pressure and his non secular affect to coerce her into nonconsensual sexual acts over the course of 12 years. Sills admitted to misconduct and resigned from his seminary put up and as president of the nonprofit, however no particulars have been made public.
However when Sills discovered a brand new job with one other Christian ministry the following yr, Lyell went public together with her allegations of abuse, telling her story to Baptist Press, an SBC information outlet. Fairly than portraying her claims as abuse, the Baptist Press article stated Lyell had had “a morally inappropriate relationship” with a seminary professor. That story was later retracted and Baptist Press apologized.
However the injury was performed. Lyell was labeled a temptress and adulteress who led a Christian chief astray. She was showered with hate, with pastors and church buildings calling for her to be fired. A outstanding activist journalist revealed an account alleging that Lyell had been lower than truthful and arguing that Sills had been denied an opportunity to return to ministry. Lyell ultimately left her job at Lifeway amid the turmoil.
“We’re saddened to listen to the information of the passing of Jennifer Lyell. Lifeway sends our prayers and deepest sympathies to Jennifer’s household and pals,” Lifeway spokesperson Carol Pipes stated on Sunday in an announcement.
“It takes years and years to get better from trauma, and nobody ought to be within the place of getting to elucidate it to the entire public whereas they’re nonetheless attempting to try this,” she advised Faith Information Service in a 2021 interview, through which she stated she regretted coming ahead.
Controversy over the Baptist Press story, in addition to different accusations that SBC leaders had mishandled abuse circumstances, led the denomination to order a significant investigation into the Southern Baptist Conference Govt Committee’s dealing with of abuse. A 2022 report revealed by the investigative agency Guidepost Options discovered that SBC leaders had mistreated survivors and lengthy sought to downplay the issue of abuse within the denomination, resulting in a collection of reforms.
The report, nevertheless, led to extra hassle for Lyell. Sills sued the SBC and its leaders after the Guidepost report appeared, saying they’d conspired to make him a scapegoat and that he was “repentant and obedient.” He additionally sued Lyell.
Lyell by no means backed down from her account. Earlier this yr, in a deposition, she detailed the alleged abuse and the way the Bible had been used to silence her for years.
“I don’t should be underneath oath to inform the reality — and there aren’t any lies that may shake my certainty of what’s true,” she stated in a social media put up when the go well with was filed.
Lyell had rebuilt her life after leaving Christian publishing, attending regulation faculty and discovering a brand new profession. However like many grownup girls who accuse male non secular leaders of abuse, she continued to be seen with suspicion. Her dying comes as reforms within the SBC protocols on abuse have slowed and one of many main deliberate reforms, a database to trace abusive leaders, seems to be stalled completely.
Nonetheless, Lyell by no means relented, stated fellow survivor Tiffany Thigpen. “She impressed me. She inspired me. She made me really feel higher about myself than I assumed I deserved. And once I tried to deflect her phrases, she’d cease me and say, ‘No, cease. I would like you to listen to me,’” Thigpen stated in an e mail.
Megan Energetic, one other abuse survivor, stated her buddy was “rather more than the terrible issues that occurred to her.” In a textual content to RNS, Energetic famous that Lyell, who beloved the music of Wealthy Mullins and the “West Wing” tv present, was a Sunday faculty trainer and writer of “The Guarantees of God Storybook Bible” for teenagers.
“She was one of many smartest and beneficiant folks I’ll know. She beloved her Savior and is now at peace,” Energetic stated in a textual content.
Lyell is the second outstanding SBC abuse survivor to die in latest months. In Might, Gareld Duane Rollins, whose allegations of abuse towards Texas decide and Southern Baptist chief Paul Pressler helped spark a significant reckoning with abuse within the nation’s largest Protestant denomination, died after years of sickness.
Lyell remained an individual of deep religion. A quote from the C.S. Lewis e-book “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe” adorns a pair of paving stones in her entrance garden. The quote explains how Aslan the lion, a Jesus-like determine within the e-book, had come again to life — in a narrative that parallels Easter.
“When a keen sufferer, who has dedicated no treachery was killed in a traitor’s stead … the Desk would crack and dying itself would begin working backwards.”
