Southwestern news release

Editor’s note: The following is a press statement from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary President Paige Patterson regarding charges from a victim’s rights organization that he knowingly covered up sexual abuse by a pastor while Patterson was president of Criswell College in early 1990s.

Statement from Dr. Paige Patterson
President, Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary
Fort Worth, Texas
PresidentsOffice@swbts.edu
817-923-1921 ext. 3010

Jan. 9, 2008

In recent days, Christa Brown and the SNAP organization have alleged that years ago, and even in the present, I have protected Darrell Gilyard, most recently the Pastor of Shiloh Metropolitan Baptist Church in Jacksonville, Florida, when he was involved in sexual misconduct. These snap judgments by Brown and others are misinformed and inaccurate.

Early in Mr. Gilyard’s career when he was a student at the Criswell College, I had great hope that this young African-American minister would be greatly used of God, and I believed his testimony?a portion of which proved at a later time to be fabricated. In addition to that, I fondly hoped that he would walk worthy of his calling in purity of life and heart. He chose not to do that.

Nearly two decades ago, I was neither an investigator nor a judge but the president of a small Bible college. I certainly did not have resources available to me to pursue the case, yet I did all that I could within my means to discover the truth when allegations concerning Mr. Gilyard were brought to my attention. Until such time as I could ascertain that Darrell Gilyard was in fact guilty as alleged, I could not make any charge against him. Part of justice includes not making charges against people until one can substantiate those charges. This is a lesson from which SNAP could profit.

Once I had investigated the matter and was able to substantiate that Mr. Gilyard was guilty, I got him to confess that guilt publicly; I expelled him from the Criswell College so that he was never allowed to complete his degree there; and I moderated the business meeting at Victory Baptist Church in Richardson, Texas, the night he, in response to my insistence, resigned his position as pastor.

Since that day, I have had nothing to do with Darrell Gilyard and have only seen him on one occasion when he visited the Southwestern Seminary campus during the time the Seminary was hosting a preaching conference. I do not and have not endorsed his ministry or work and have made crystal clear to Mr. Gilyard that on the basis of his behavior, as well as his divorce, he has no business serving as pastor of a local church.

However, I exercise no control over autonomous churches anywhere and have no influence when they are not affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention. I have done everything that I know to do to act justly and at the same time protect as many people as possible from the behavioral pattern of Darrell Gilyard. Once Gilyard was proven guilty, I attested to that guilt to every individual who contacted me for a recommendation or character reference.

Throughout my fifty years in the ministry, including the time that I served as president of the Criswell College, I have never turned a blind-eye to clergy sex abuse as the SNAP organization purports. Clergy sex abuse is one of the greatest tragedies of the modern era, and in the classroom and in the pulpit I have steadfastly fought and will continue to warn and fight against it. Throughout my years in theological education, I have routinely addressed the subject with every incoming class and again with every graduating class.