Robert Downen Profile picture
Jan 24, 2020 9 tweets 7 min read Read on X
NEW: In an interview today, ⁦Southern Baptist President @jdgreear strongly denounced disgraced leader Paige Patterson, and advised churches to consider Patterson's history of mishandling sex abuses before inviting him to preach. #SBCtoo #ChurchToo houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-t…
@jdgreear Greear's comments came after I asked him about decisions by two churches to host/honor Patterson, including a Dallas-area church that recognized him as a "defender of the faith" earlier this month. #SBCtoo #ChurchToo #CaringWell

More on that:
@jdgreear Greear: I advise any Southern Baptist church to consider this severe action before having Dr. Patterson preach or speak and to contact trustee officers if additional information is necessary. #SBCtoo #ChurchToo #CaringWell
@jdgreear Greear: "If our system of governance means anything, it means exercising due diligence and heeding what those whom we put in positions of trustee oversight have reported about official misconduct.” #SBCtoo #ChurchToo #CaringWell
@jdgreear Greear: “I know (Patterson's return to preaching) has caused confusion, frustrations, and in many cases fresh pain for survivors. We must be clear going forward for the sake of those who have been hurt and to those in churches and entities today.” #SBCtoo #ChurchToo #CaringWell
@jdgreear Side note: This is my first story as the @HoustonChron religion reporter.

I promise you that I, too, would have preferred it not involve sex abuses, Southern Baptists and/or Paige Patterson.

Really. I tried.
@jdgreear A bit more context: the crux of Greear's statement was about Patterson's recent return to SBC pulpits. The context is much more evident in the story, but I wanna further clarify for the Twitterverse.
Update: Patterson’s longtime attorney has responded to my request for comment.

“He would never respond to something like that.”

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More from @RobertDownen_

Nov 17
Megan Basham is scheduled to speak in January to True Texas Project, the far-right group whose leaders sympathized with the El Paso WalMart gunman and just held a Christian nationalism conference that claimed Dems want to "rid the earth of the white race."
True Texas Project's recent conference included panels that defended Great Replacement Theory, claimed "forced multiculturalism" is a conspiracy to destroy white people, and encouraged attendees to embrace being called white nationalists or supremacists.
texastribune.org/2024/06/12/tru…
Speakers included a longtime collaborator of prominent eugenicists/white nationalists such as Richard Spencer. The event was so extreme that two of the farthest right figures in Texas - Louie Gohmert and Don Huffines - both pulled out as speakers.
texastribune.org/2024/06/13/tru…
Read 8 tweets
Oct 23
🧵🧵In 2022, Elvie Kingston’s dementia took a turn for the worse. A doctor said the oil-rich conservative activist couldn’t manage a bank account or dress alone - but could sign legal docs removing her family's control of her health/finances.

Enter a Texas Supreme Court justice:
Since 2022, Texas Supreme Court Justice John Devine has overseen Kingston's trust. He claims they are basically family. Legal experts say he is clearly violating ethics rules that explicitly bar judges from such positions to avoid conflicts of interest + appearance of impropriety Image
Devine's wife, Nubia, is also Kingston's guardian - giving the couple wide control over her health, finances and life. The arrangement has been adamantly opposed by Kingston's family + some friends, who say she was once close to the Devines but had a massive falling out.
Read 10 tweets
Oct 22
NEW: For two years, Texas Supreme Court Justice John Devine has controlled the trust of a woman with dementia — a violation of Texas' judicial ethics code, experts say. The woman's niece + three friends also allege that she wanted nothing to do with him.
texastribune.org/2024/10/22/tex…
The concerns are the latest raised about Devine's ethics as a judge. In February, we reported that he did not recuse himself from a high-profile sex abuse lawsuit against Southern Baptist leader Paul Pressler despite their close ties.
In February, we obtained leaked audio in which Devine accused his colleagues on the all-GOP Supreme Court of being "brainwashed" by "Big Law," saying he worried they'd "sacrifice the Republic for the sake of the (legal) process." #txlege
texastribune.org/2024/02/27/joh…
Read 4 tweets
Aug 9
[1] To be clear: It is the most basic journalism ethics to not name abuse survivors without consent (barring extraordinary circumstances). There's not some carve out that says "ok well go for it since their name is buried in a court record or some blog ID'd them"...
[2] I've seen many people argue that, because the survivor was ID'd in a court record, it's fair game. Legally, sure. Ethically? Absolutely not. And this is not an area where there's any serious debate among serious journalists...
[3] Included under the "minimize harm" plank of the professional journalism code: "Recognize that legal access to information differs from an ethical justification to publish or broadcast"; and use "heightened sensitivity" for abuse victims. Image
Read 9 tweets
Jul 15
JD Vance, who is rumored to be Trump's VP pick, is heavily influenced by Curtis Yarvin, a New Right leader who has written about race-based IQ and wants America under a "national CEO, or what's called a dictator." Yarvin is also a favorite of billionaire Peter Thiel.
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“We are in a late republican period,” Vance said later, evoking the common New Right view of America as Rome awaiting its Caesar. “If we’re going to push back against it, we’re going to have to get pretty wild, and pretty far out there."
vanityfair.com/news/2022/04/i…
Vance: "We should seize the institutions of the left. And turn them against the left. We need like a de-Baathification program ... And when the courts stop you, stand before the country, and say, 'the chief justice has made his ruling. Now let him enforce it.' " Image
Read 4 tweets
Jun 17
Former, longtime Southern Baptist exec member Rod Martin claims there is no "proof" that Paul Pressler was a predator, and that attacks on him are part of a leftist scheme. He's right - there isn't proof. Just a mountain of corroborating evidence. Let's unpack:

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Let's start with just SOME claims that predate Duane Rollins' 2017 lawsuit, most with contemporaneous supporting evidence. All were made by conservative Christians, so not sure why they'd try to take down the SBC.
In 1978, a non-SBC church removed Pressler as a youth leader after learning of an "alleged incident." Not long before then, a man said in a sworn affidavit, Pressler got into bed with him at a camp, and later invited him to exercise together and allegedly groped him. Image
Read 21 tweets

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