Paul Pressler, Southern Baptist leader accused of sexual abuse, dies

Paul Pressler, leader of the conservative resurgence in the Southern Baptist Convention and former Houston judge accused by several men of sexual abuse, died June 7. He was 94 years old.

His death, just days before the annual meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention, was confirmed by Baptist News Global. Funeral services were held Saturday in Geo. H. Lewis & Sons Funeral Home near Tanglewood, which had about 70 people in attendance, according to the news outlet. It is unclear how or where Pressler died.

Pressler, born in Houston on June 4, 1930, was a key figure in the conservative shift within the Southern Baptist Convention, the largest Baptist organization in the world. As part of the so-called conservative resurgence, the convention adopted beliefs opposed to homosexuality and abortion rights and pushed them to the right.

Before helping lead the fundamentalist takeover in the late 1970s, Pressler served as a judge in the 133rd Judicial District of Harris County from 1970 to 1978. He then served as a judge on the 14th Texas Circuit Court of Appeals from 1978 to 1992.

In 2017, a lawsuit filed by Duane Rollins of Houston accused Pressler of abuse while he was a teenager in Pressler’s youth group. The lawsuit said other defendants, including civil attorney Jared Woodfill; First Baptist Church of Houston; the Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth and the convention knew or should have known of the assaults and could have stopped them. Seven other men who said they were abused by Pressler later came forward and agreed to testify against him if the case went to trial.

The lawsuit was settled in December 2023, approximately six months before Pressler’s death, in a confidential agreement.

The Houston Chronicle investigated allegations of abuse in the church in 2019, resulting in the award-winning Abuse of Faith series that revealed the extent of the abuse allegations against Pressler, found more victims and led to the creation of a database identifying nearly 300 church leaders. including deacons, youth pastors and Sunday school teachers accused of abuse.