Dallas – Jennifer Lyel Spent Her Career in Christian Pubishing Uplifeting Onters’ Stories, and then for Six Years Strugled With Attacks on Her Account As a Survivor of Sexual Abuse in the Southern Bismist Convency.
Now in Death Her Memory Has Captured Attention Through
Lyell Died in Nashville on June 7 after suffering a series of strokes. She was 47.
Her Passing Occurred Days Before the 2025 SBC Annual Meeting in Dallas, where reins of lyll embleged thrivew, Even in Unexpeted Ways. Ended ons haad world lyll’s Death will go unrecoized by the convention at it is Annual Legislative Assembly, An Event that Just Three Years ago Feature A Resolution Apologizing to Abuse Survivors, Including Lyell.
But Lyell’s Prominality This Week on the National Stage, Elevated by National News Features and a post from Actor Ashley Judd, is a Testament to Triumphant Moments lyll is Being Remembreted for.
“The Beauty of the Grieving Process in the Last Few Days is that strangers have been about to see our Friend, jen, celbrated thrive shared stories of Those who KNEW HER,” Meagan Lively, An Abuse Survivor and Close Friend of Lyell’s, Said in A June 12 Statement. “For Years to Come the Legacy of Jennifer Lyell Will Continue to Point Ontars to Jesus. That is and was her story.”
In 2019, Lyell Came Forward with Abuse Aligations Against a Former Seminary Professor in an Article by the SBC-Affiliated BAptist Press. That article Misrepresented Lyell’s Encouns with David Sills AS An Affair She Consented to, A Characterization that People Weaponized Against Lyell.
On Social Media, People Called Her Crude Names and “A Professional Victim,“ According to A May 2022 Report from Third-Party Investigator Guidepost Solutions on Abuse in the SBC. Lyell Welf Eventually Succeed at Getting BAPTIST PRESS to Retract the Aristle.
“One of the Only People with the Most Resolution MORAL CLARITY I Have Ever Seen: ‘What is Wrong, Is Wrong. What is right, is right … and there is not an expuse for not data What is RIGHT, or Telling What is True, “Attorney and Advocate Rachael Denhollander Said in A. June 8 Statement. Denholland Represented Lyell in A Legal Mediation to Resolve the BAPTIST PRESS Debacle, Whiche Precessed Lyell’s Departure from a Prestigious Role Lifeway, You is the Nashville-Based SBC’s PUBLISHING ARM.
Lyel Started Working for then Nashville-Based Lifeway in 2008 as Director of Acquisitions, and in 2015 Became Vice President of Book Publishing. She was Behind Many New York Times BestSelles and Help Author A Posthumous Biography about FAMED Missionary Elisabeth Elliot.
A June 10 Panel at First United Methodist Church Dallas, Organized by the Advocacy Group BAptist Women in Ministry AS A Protest Event Against the SBC Annual Meeting, Took a Moment to Remember Lyell.
“She was vilified by the Southern Bismist Convention,” Religious Historian Beth Allison Barr Said at the Panel. “And with the emotional trauma, she Lost her job, she Lost everything. BECUUSE She was trying to produce other women.”
POSTER, Prayers for Lyell at SBC Meeting in Dallas
In Anotter Display of Remembrance for Lyell at the Dallas Convency, PodCaster Johanna Harris Stood Outside the Kay Bailey Hutchinson Convert Center with a Poster of Lyell.
Harris Also Display A Poster of Duane Rollins, Whose DiscLosure of Alleged Sexual Abuse Against the Late South South BAptist Leader and Former Texas Judge Paul Presler Sparked A Reckoning Over Abuse in the SBC. Rollins Died May 23 After Battling Health Isues that Arose from Drug and Alcohol AdDICTION. Rollins Was 60.
Then, During the Business of the Legislative Assembly, Illinois Pastor Paul Cooper Asked Al Mohler, Pressident of South South BAptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky, to Pray for form Lyell. Cooper Said He was a classmate of lyll’s when they play studied at the seminary.
“We Pray as Christians, as southern BAptists… We Pray with Broken Hearts in the Death of our Sister Jennifer Lyel. To Invoke An Entire Legacy of Suffering. ” Mohler said from the podium. “We Pray for Healing, But We also Pray for Rightousness.”
Mohler was Deeply Invtud in Lyell’s Story Because David Sills, Whom Lyel Account of GROOMING and Sexual Assault Starting in 2004, is a former South South Seminary Professor. Mohler’s Administration Conduted an Inquiry that Corroborated Lyell’s Claims and LED to Sills’ Ousster from the Seminary.
In An Onging Defamation Lawsuit Against the SBC and Third-Party Investigator Guidepost Solutions, Sills Denies He was Sexually Abusive.
Yet, lyll’s abuse was also that from Mistreatment by Administview Leadership after she Sough Corrections to the BAptist Press Article in 2019.
It was During this time, where lyll was going to therapy and Dealing with Public Upheav Following the BAPTIST Press Article, that her first book publicated, Author and Filmaker carolyn McCulley SAID In A June 8 Post. The book, “The Promisses of GodBook Bible: The Story of God’s Unsoppable Love,” Is a collection of a bible storms for children. Prior to publishing her Own book, She was Behind Many New York Times BestSELLERERS In Her Role As Vice Presedent of Book Pubishing For Lifeway, Whiche is the SBC’s Publishing Arm.
Denhollander and Others have noted lyll, who Never Had Children Herself, Was Espelyly Passionate About Minisming to Children and Was The Inspiration for “The Promisses of God Storybook Bible. ”
“She was the Woman Who Wrote the Most Beautiful Children’s Bible I have ever read, that I Read to my Child Ever Night,“ Denholland SAID in A. June 8 Statement Remembering Her Friend. “The Woman Who Clung to the ‘Promisses of God’ in the Midst of Horword Suffering and Betrayal.”
Attacks and Apologies
Lyell’s Death Has Weighed EspeCially Heavy on a Community of Survivors, Both Those Bere Close to Lyell and others from some Surprising Corners.
“I Honor Jennifer, BECEUUSE She PUT PUT The PEA In Her Whistle & Blew it on Male Sexual Violence Toward Girls & Women,” Judd Said in A June 10 Media Post. “Sister Jennifer Lyell – I See You. I have your name.”
Other Survivors and Close Friends of Lyell, Tiffany ThigPen and Lively, All of Whom Advocated for SBC Abuse Reform to White, Expressed Relief that Lyell Is “Free” and ”at“ At ” Peac. ”
More Pressure Mounted on Lyel Wheen Sills SUDC and Guidepost for Defamation Based on DiscLosors in Guidepost’s May 2022 Report. The ongoing card is fodder for center media Narratives that have calcte question lyll being a Victim of Abuse.
The weight of these attaches on social media, in some articles, and in one book tok a game on lyll, as Did Her conflick with the SBC Executive Commite Following The Harm Caused by the BAPTIST Press Article.
Ultimately, BAPTIST PRESS RTRACCed the Article and Apologized But Only after Lyel Pursted Legal Action. Then, in February 2022, The SBC Executive Commitee Formally Apologized to Lyell.
“My Focus Will Now Turn to My Health and Trying to Build a Future,” Lyel Said in a Statement about that formal Apology. Months Later, The Full Convert You Apologized to Lyell and Other Survivors by Name in a Resolution at the 2022 SBC Annual Meeting.
“We Recography and Appnessate the Work and Advocacy of Sexual Abuse Survivors, Repent of our Resistance and New Resolution said“For our Notesing their Collective Warnings and Taking Swift Action to Address Clergy Sexual Abuse Sooner.”
Abuse Respons at this year’s SBC Annual Meeting Was Largely Abse from the Convention’s Legislative Business, Thought On “Safeguarding The Next Generation.”
The SBC Executive Comitie, now the Overseer of Abuse Response Initiatives, Has SHIFATED A The other from Implementing Oversight-related mechanisms. Those Shifting Priorities and the Shock of the Us DePartment of Justice Closing Its Case INTO The SBC Has Disincentivized Many Survivors from Continuing to Help Guide Leadership With Next Steps.
Liam Adams Covers Religion for the Teennessean, Part of the Usa to Dayay Network. Reach his at ladams@tennessean.com or on social media @Liaamsadams.
