Jezebel: Sex. Celebrity. Politics. With Teeth: Southern Baptists Vote to Expel Churches With Women Pastors https://jezebel.com/southern-baptists-vote-to-expel-churches-with-women-pas-1850537613 #Jezebel #southernbaptistconventionconservativeresurgence #sexualabusescandalinsouthernbaptistchurches #conservatismintheunitedstates #southernbaptistconvention #southernbaptists #evangelicalism #religionbelief #augustageorgia #protestantism #jaredwoodfill #christianity #paulpressler #socialissues

Downen writes,

"Pressler is best known for his work in the Southern Baptist Convention, where he was instrumental in pushing its 16 million members and 47,000 churches to adopt literal interpretations of the Bible, strongly denounce homosexuality and align more closely with the Republican Party."

#PaulPressler #Houston #LGBTQ #Republicans #Texas
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Robert Downen reports that "outspoken anti-gay activist Jared Woodfill," a Houston lawyer and once head of the Texas Republican party, has admitted under oath that he knew from 2004 forward that his law partner Paul Pressler had allegedly abused a minor.

When a young attorney told Downen in 2016 that Pressler had made sexual advances towards him, Downen indignantly said he'd never heard of any lewd behavior by Pressler.

#PaulPressler #Houston #LGBTQ
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https://www.texastribune.org/2023/03/27/houston-jared-woodfill-gop-paul-pressler-southern-baptist/

Also central to this hard-right turn of the SBC was the insistence that gay people were a threat to the moral foundations of America and should be denied rights at every turn. SBC churches have become a religious arm of the Republican power, working to elect Republicans who attack LGBTQ human beings.

And now we learn more about Paul Pressler's story.

#SouthernBaptists #PaulPressler #SexualAbuse #homophobia
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Why does this matter? Pressler was a key architect of the hard-right turn the Southern Baptist Convention took in 1979, weeding out seminary professors who did not adhere to hard-right doctrines of biblical literalism and to beliefs that women should be excluded from ministry and were to subordinate themselves to men.

#SouthernBaptists #PaulPressler #Houston #SexualAbuse #homophobia
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"Journalist Robert Downen, writing for the Tribune, also reports Pressler’s law partner — a prominent conservative Republican known for his anti-LGBTQ stances — knew about the serious allegations yet continued to work with Pressler for another decade and provide him young male 'personal assistants, most of them young men who typically worked out of his River Oaks mansion. Two have accused Pressler of sexual assault or misconduct.'”

#SouthernBaptists #PaulPressler #SexualAbuse #homophobia
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Mark Wingfield reports,

"Leaders of First Baptist Church of Houston knew about Paul Pressler’s alleged inappropriate sexual activity with young men in 2004, according to correspondence from the church to Pressler obtained by the Texas Tribune."

#SouthernBaptists #PaulPressler #Houston #SexualAbuse #homophobia
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https://baptistnews.com/article/new-court-documents-show-first-baptist-houston-leaders-knew-of-allegations-against-pressler-in-2004/