Secular Abuse in Southern Baptists. Saddest Story Ever

 


A woman in her 40's, Jennifer Lyell, died of a stroke this week. She had been a rising female star in the Southern Baptist Convention until she decided to go public with her experience. He experience was that as a student in a prominent Southern Baptist Seminary she was befriended by a professor. He groomed her for sex, using among other tricks, Bible passages. He was married but their affair went on for several years. He found a job as a pastor.

When she went public with her life's story the faculty member, then a preacher did not deny but said he had received forgiveness from God. Lyell, however, was condemned as a harlot and had to abandon her goal of being a missionary. She went on to become an attorney but her case in Southern Baptist kept coming up for years. There was the injustice but also the push back by men in the denomination who wanted no success from women no matter the issue.

The public criticism of Lyell was so long-standing and vicious she said a few years ago if she had it to do over again she would not have revealed the sexual abuse.

The entire schtick of forgiveness of sins in Christianity makes is all a joke. A few years ago, I asked my friend, the late Vice Governor Lloyd Amdahl wrote a popular column about many topics including religion, what he thought were the most grievous of sins. He replied that sin is not a big issue because Jesus forgave all of them. How can a person who commits terrible sins just waltz on as if he is a wonderful person by simply being granted a pass by the "authorities?"

 

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