The Houston Chronicle’s

Abuse of Faith Series

My Story of How I Investigated & Documented

that the AOF Database and Articles were
False, Misleading & Deceptive
By: Allen Jordan

Introduction

I live in the Houston area and have subscribed to the Houston Chronicle
since 2010. On Sunday morning, February 10, 2019, I opened my
newspaper and the front-page headline of the Houston Chronicle
proclaimed: “Abuse of Faith, A Child Sex Abuse Crisis Exists in the
Southern Baptist Convention”.

Underneath this headline was a montage of hundreds of small pictures of

individuals that the Houston Chronicle represented to be SBC leaders that
had been convicted of some type of child sex crime over the past 20 years.
As a 70+ year-old life-long Southern Baptist, seeing this headline and the
menacing looking pictures of so many SBC clergy being depicted as child
sex molesters was very alarming.

Since there are over 47,000 churches in the SBC, I was aware of a few
isolated cases of CSA in the SBC over the years. But I certainly was not
aware that it was of such a magnitude that it warranted my hometown
newspaper describing it as a crisis or a scandal that had been going on for
decades. In fact, this article stated that CSA was such a problem in the SBC,
that it probably was not even safe to send your children to an SBC church.

This article also stated that this was part one of a three-part series about the
CSA crisis in the SBC that the Houston Chronicle would be publishing in
the coming days. Since this first article mainly covered a few of the old
cases that I was familiar with, specifically Paige Patterson and Paul
Pressler, I just assumed that the next two articles would actually provide
contemporary evidence to support the claim of an ongoing CSA crisis in the
SBC in 2019. They did not.

Overview of the Abuse of Faith Series and Database

This initial AOF article that Sunday morning claimed that the Houston
Chronicle journalists had conducted an independent investigation over the
previous six months that revealed a “systemic, rampant, burgeoning
ongoing CSA crisis in the SBC”. They claimed that they found that this
CSA crisis had existed for decades and that SBC leaders had intentionally
covered it up. They also claimed that SBC leaders had refused to implement
certain reforms demanded by CSA advocates over the past 15 years.

As evidence to support their claim that a CSA crisis existed in the SBC, the
HC published an initial database of 218 names and pictures that they
represented to be SBC church leaders and volunteers. The HC journalists
claimed they “found and interviewed” over 700 victims of abuse by SBC
clergy over the past 20 years. They also claimed they found hundreds of
SBC pastors that moved annually from “church to church” in order to avoid
being detected as a child sex molester.

Within days, this explosive AOF article was immediately republished by

almost every national and local media outlet throughout the country. Most
of the headlines in these newspapers referred to the AOF as a “Bombshell
investigation reveals a CSA crisis in the SBC” or “Shameful conduct by
SBC clergy” or “Pure Evil in the SBC” or “SBC clergy worse than Catholic
priests”.

Because of the AOF, the perception that a CSA crisis existed in the SBC
instantly became a national and even worldwide scandal for the SBC. All
major media outlets that had republished this first AOF article just
assumed that it had to be credible because another major U.S. media outlet
had initially published it.

Even SBC leaders and many SBC pastors just assumed that the AOF was
valid and credible and even praised the HC journalists for their exemplary
investigative journalism. A few months later, many of the SBC 2019
convention speeches and workshop sessions were devoted to the topic of
CSA in the SBC. In fact, Resolution 2, “The Evil of Child Sex Abuse
in the SBC” was passed primarily because of the AOF.

At the convention, the Houston Chronicle journalists passed out copies of

the first AOF article that featured the montage of pictures that they claimed
were all SBC leaders. These HC journalists were even recognized and
applauded by convention leaders and many pastors in attendance.

The AOF had such a profound impact on the SBC, that the ERLC even
changed the theme of its annual October meeting to “Caring Well” as a
direct result of the AOF. Interestingly though, none of the victims that
spoke at this three-day conference included any that claim they found
during the AOF investigation. In fact, of the 15 speakers, seven were CSA
victims but only one of the seven’s abuse occurred in an SBC church back in
1982. For the remaining six, five were abused in their own home by a family
member and the sixth was abused at a non-SBC church by another
teenager. As my findings below reveal, it appears that this SBC/ CSA
conference was held in order to combat a non-existent SBC/ CSA crisis.

From the time I read that first AOF article that Sunday morning, I was
skeptical of the many claims and representations of the AOF. Something
about what they had published just didn’t seem right to me. As a CPA,
where numbers, facts and statistics are critical in coming to a conclusion,
their proclamation of a CSA crisis in the SBC just didn’t add up to me. What
I saw was a lot of creative journalistic imagery combined with a
controversial narrative but lacking any actual evidence to support that
narrative. It just felt like tabloid, or in today’s social media world, “click-
bait” journalism. I later found out that is exactly what it was.

The following is a chronological summary of events that led me to research

and document that the AOF series and database was false, misleading and
deceptive and represents one of the most dishonest and malicious pieces of
journalism ever published by a major media outlet. As you will see in my
findings below, there was no evidence ever presented that
supports the AOF narrative that a “systemic, rampant,
burgeoning, ongoing” Child Sex Abuse crisis existed in the
Southern Baptist Convention’s 47,500 member churches.

February 2019: I Became Personally Involved in the AOF When a

Houston Chronicle Journalist Called Me for Information

My direct connection to the AOF began on Friday, February 15, 2019 when
I received a call from John Tedesco, one of the Houston Chronicle
journalists involved in creating the AOF articles and database. He said he
was writing a fourth AOF article to be published that weekend that would
feature an alleged cover-up by Prestonwood Baptist Church and its pastor
Jack Graham back in 1989 when Graham dismissed a youth music minister
by the name of John Langworthy. Our family joined Prestonwood in 1983
when it was a small, start-up church and attended until 2010 when we
moved to the Houston area.

Tedesco said the reason he called was because he was told that I had first-
hand knowledge of the details of Langworthy’ s dismissal. In 1989, I was a
deacon and was also an adult leader in the youth ministry at Prestonwood.
Jack had only been pastor at Prestonwood for about three weeks when an
allegation about John was made by a 17 ½ -year-old youth. Jack
immediately dismissed Langworthy even though this was the first
allegation that had been made against John in the four years he had been
on staff at Prestonwood.

I told Tedesco that the cover-up story originated in 2011 when a group of
activist’s bloggers began using various social media platforms to falsely
accuse Jack and other Prestonwood leaders of covering-up Langworthy’ s
dismissal. These same bloggers also mounted an aggressive and malicious
social media campaign against John in 2011 falsely accusing him of sexual
misconduct during the 22-year period after he and his wife Kathy returned
to Mississippi in 1989.

I knew there was no cover-up when Jack dismissed John because the entire
youth group and all youth choirs were formally notified of John’s dismissal
the following Sunday. Everyone throughout the church family also new
about it, It was not until 22 years later did Prestonwood’s handling of
Langworthy’ s dismissal become an issue when this group of bloggers began
falsely promoting the cover-up story on various social media platforms.

The youth and his parents never aledged a cover-up of Langworthy’ s

dismissal when it happened in 1989 nor did anyone else. The youth and his
parents remained active members of Prestonwood for several more years,
and, after graduating from college, the youth returned to Prestonwood to
serve on staff for a few more years.

When Tedesco called, I cautioned him about including the Prestonwood

cover-up story as part of his next AOF article because it was not true. He
included it anyway. A few weeks later, I emailed him to ask if he would
print a retraction if I furnished him documented evidence that the story
was fabricated and had been created by a group of bloggers on social media.
He said he would.

Over the next couple of months, I did extensive research and documented
how this group of bloggers used social media to create and perpetuate this
cover-up story. I sent Tedesco a number of emails and documents that
provided compelling evidence that the Prestonwood cover-up story was
false.

In late May 2019, Tedesco informed me that he would not be correcting his
Prestonwood cover-up story. That bothered me as I always believed that a
journalist had the responsibility to publish a correction when presented
with factual evidence that the original story was wrong or misleading. As I
later found out, that journalistic standard did not apply to the HC’s AOF.

June 2019: I Documented that the HC Journalists

 Conducted No Investigation of CSA in the SBC

Tedesco’s refusal to print a correction of the Prestonwood story made me

skeptical of what other parts of the AOF may not be factual. Because of the
Prestonwood story, I had been monitoring Christa Brown’s Stop Baptist
Predators website since 2011 since Brown was one of the bloggers
involved in the Prestonwood cover-up story.

In researching the AOF, I discovered that most of the AOF database names
and information for the AOF articles came directly from the SBP website
and not from any type of investigation as they claimed. In fact, the first
AOF article came primarily from an article that Brown had initially written
on February 14, 2008. And almost all of the initial names on the AOF
database came from a list that Brown had been publishing on her website
for years. It became obvious to me that the HC journalists had simply
repackaged what had been on Brown’s fringe and controversial website for
years and called it the AOF.

I then started researching Brown’s background and discovered that she was
a lawyer who became known as an anti-SBC crusader in 2005 when she
sued an SBC church based on her claim that she was abused in 1969 as a
teenager by her youth pastor at an SBC church. She remained silent for 36
years and then filed this lawsuit shortly after becoming an officer and a
lawyer with the Catholic advocacy group SNAP in 2005.

At that time, SNAP was best known for filing many questionable lawsuits
against the Catholic Diocese since the early 1990’s. But since the number of
those lawsuits had dropped significantly in the early 2000’s, they needed a
new target. That’s when Brown and SNAP set their sights on the SBC.

My research shows that Brown was financially backed in this lawsuit by a

group of contingency fee lawyers associated with SNAP. Their litigation
objective was to overturn the Local Church Autonomy policy in the SBC in
order to open the SBC open to massive lawsuits whether the allegations
were true or not. Over the years, SNAP had perfected the strategy of filing
what many viewed as frivolous lawsuits and then forcing the defendant’s
insurance company to settle.

After settling this lawsuit with the church’s insurance company in 2006,
Brown and this group of lawyers then spent substantial funds over the next
three years falsely claiming that there was a CSA crisis in the SBC. They
mounted an aggressive publicity campaign against the SBC using SNAP
news releases, social media and sidewalk protests in an attempt to coerce
SBC leaders to adopt their reform demands.
Without evidence, they demanded that the SBC create a national database
and a national review board to combat it. Brown and these lawyers knew
that if the SBC ever gave in to these reform demands, that would essentially
end LCA and expose the SBC to extensive litigation.

These same reform demands that Brown and SNAP used back in 2005
became a key narrative of the AOF in 2019. The AOF claimed that they had
been proposed by victim’s advocates for many years but failed to disclose
that these reform demands had nothing to do with CSA but were part of a
litigation strategy by Brown and SNAP with the objective to end LCA in the
SBC.

In numerous emails, I furnished my comprehensive research and

documents on Brown to the Houston Chronicle journalists and executives
as evidence that most of the AOF information came from her. This evidence
was overwhelming that the AOF was based on Brown’s story as I outlined
above. There was no independent investigation by the HC journalists as
they claim.

June 2019: I Began My Initial Review of the

263 Names on the AOF Database

In June 2019, I started a preliminary review of the names on the AOF

database to try to understand who these people were and what SBC church
was involved. It should be noted that no church affiliation or personal
information had been disclosed on the AOF database about any of these
individuals. They basically published a name, a picture, a title and public
record information and claimed that all of these individuals were SBC
clergy or leaders in an SBC church.

As I commenced my review, I was shocked to discover that many of these

individuals were not even affiliated with an SBC church and that many
others definitely did not meet the criteria for having a formal role of
authority in an SBC church. It was when I came across the name of a 17-
year-old high school junior who attended a non-SBC church in Lenovo,
Kansas, did I comprehend the extent of just how flawed and misleading the
AOF database actually was.

The more names I reviewed, it became obvious that these names had not
been vetted as the HC journalists claimed they had. How could the name of
a 17-year-old high school junior be included on a database represented to
be for SBC leaders? It then became apparent that by including the names of
church volunteers, it gave the HC an opportunity to pad the number of
names on the database as most of these volunteers’ cases had no connection
to them being a member of an SBC church.

As I continued my review, I initially began summarizing my findings based

on the individuals that I could document were not affiliated with the SBC. I
then began a separate summary for the individuals that by any objective
criteria, were not SBC leaders or volunteers that held a formal role of
authority in an SBC church. At the end of this preliminary review, my
findings revealed that over 175 names on the database were not SBC
leaders.

September 2019: I Sent My Preliminary

AOF Findings to the HC Journalists and Executives

In September 2019, I began sending a number of emails summarizing my

initial preliminary findings to the HC journalists and senior executives
notifying them that their database was flawed and misleading.

They dismissed my findings and claimed that each name on the database
had been vetted as being a leader in an SBC church. I knew that was
categorically false as my preliminary findings revealed that many of these
individuals were not even affiliated with the SBC. And many others, like the
high school junior mentioned above, did not fit the definition of a leader in
an SBC church.

Over the fall and winter months of 2019/2020, I continued to request the
HC’s executive editor, Steve Riley, publish a corrected AOF database based
on my preliminary findings. His dismissive and arrogant attitude along
with that of the HC journalists made me even more determined to find a
way to hold the HC accountable for the AOF.

If requested, I will make this extensive email correspondence with the HC

executive and journalists available in order to document the effort I made
in requesting that they voluntary publish a correction of their AOF database
and issue an apology to the SBC. Both Riley and the HC President, Mark
Medici notified me that they stood behind the AOF and would not be
correcting the database.

February 2020: I Began My Comprehensive

Research For Each Name on the AOF Database

In late February 2020, at the beginning of the pandemic, I commenced a

comprehensive and detailed research for each of the 263 names on the AOF
database. My objective was to document who these individuals were, what
SBC church was involved, what their church responsibilities were and what
were the details of the case for which they had been criminally accused.

As I mentioned, very little information about any of these individuals was

provided by the HC other than conviction and sentencing data. The HC
deceptively included all of these names on one master database and
represented that all 263 of them were SBC church leaders. They apparently
thought they could get by with that deception because they did not believe
anyone would take the time to fact-check these names to actually determine
who these people were. As it turned out, they were mostly right. To my
knowledge, no other media outlet, religion journalists, SBC leaders or
pastors have taken the time to fact-check these names as I did.

It took me about four months to complete my comprehensive research for

each of these 263 names on the database which I finished in late May,
2020. I summarized my findings for these names into four categories:
Non-SBC; Volunteers; Bi-Vocational/Lay and Credible.

 The Non-SBC list includes 95 names that I researched and

documented were not even connected or associated with the SBC or
any SBC church.
 The Volunteers list includes 50 names of individuals that by any
objective criteria were definitely not leaders or persons of authority in
an SBC church.
 The Bi-Vocational/Lay list includes 45 names of individuals
whose specific cases would not qualify them to be considered as a
leader in an SBC church.
 And the Credible list includes 72 individuals who were mostly lay
youth leaders from small, rural churches that had lived in that
community most of their lives. I found only 24 individuals that
were licensed SBC clergy who graduated from an SBC seminary.

All of these lists are attached. I encourage you to read each list and fact-
check my findings for each individual. After that, I then ask you to decide
for yourself if the Houston Chronicle’s representation that all 263 names on
the AOF database are SBC leaders is credible. My findings reveal that 190
are not.

May 2020: I Document That the AOF Narrative Contained at

Least Nine Major False Claims about CSA in the SBC

The narrative of the AOF was to create the perception that a major CSA
crisis had existed in the SBC for many years and that SBC leaders had
refused to do anything about it. In an attempt to support that narrative, the
HC journalists made a number of false claims and representations in the
AOF articles. Here are nine of them:

 That all 263 names on the AOF database were SBC church
leaders or persons that held a formal role of authority
in an SBC church. False. I documented that 95 names had no
connection to the SBC and another 95 held no formal role of
authority in an SBC church.

 That there existed a decade’s long systemic, rampant,

burgeoning, ongoing CSA crisis in the 47,500 SBC
churches. False. It is a statistical fact that 99.99% had never had
a credible reported case of CSA in their history.

 That the HC journalists conducted a six-months long

independent investigation into the CSA crisis in the SBC.
False. I documented that most of the AOF information and
database names came from one source and was not vetted before
publishing. In fact, most of the first AOF article came from an
article that Christa Brown had published on February 14, 2008.

 That the Chronicle found hundreds of SBC clergy who are

child molesters that annually moved undetected from
church to church and that SBC leaders covered it up.
False. This was a baseless talking-point originally started by
Christa Brown. Back in 2005. The AOF presented no evidence to
support that claim.

 That the Chronicle found and interviewed over 700

victims of SBC clergy abuse over the past 20 years. False.
This appears to be a fabricated number extrapolated from the
initial names on the flawed AOF database. I repeatedly requested
the HC provide a list of the SBC clergy that abused these alleged
700 victims but they are either unwilling or unable to do so.

 That in order to combat CSA, the SBC must abandon its

policy of Local Church Autonomy and put all SBC
churches under one Central Administrative Board. False.
LCA has worked successfully in the SBC since 1845. Abuse cases
are best handled and investigated by local authorities This is
another baseless talking-point started by Christa Brown.
  That in order to combat CSA, the SBC must establish a
National Review Board that will create a database to
track the hundreds of SBC clergy that move from
church to church annually to avoid detection as a child
sex molester. False. This is another false talking-point that came
from Christa Brown. Many pastors change churches annually, but
not for this reason.

 That we found a long trail of sexual misconduct

crimes committed abroad by Southern Baptist
missionaries. False. The AOF article only cited four allegations
total from 1972-1998. A very misleading claim.

 That we found a group of activist’s bloggers demanding

reform in the SBC in order to protect children and
support survivors. False. I found that this group of blogger’s
mission is not about CSA; it’s about attacking the SBC and its
leaders for what appears to be self-seeking publicity on social
media.

I have summarized the above list in the attached document titled

Summary of Nine Major AOF False Claims. I encourage you to read
this detailed summary in order to understand the depth and magnitude of
just how false and misleading these claims and representations of the AOF
actually were.

June 2020: I Sent My Completed Findings to the Houston

Chronicle and Requested They Publish a Retraction of the AOF

In early June 2020, I sent my documented evidence of the flawed and

misleading database names together with the false claims contained in the
AOF to Steve Riley, the executive editor of the Houston Chronicle. I copied
all the other HC senior executives and journalists on my AOF findings.

I again requested that he voluntarily publish a correction of the AOF

database and issue an apology to the SBC for what I documented was a
journalistic hit-job on the SBC. I repeated this request several times over
the next few weeks but received no response.

It was obvious the HC was not going to publish a correction or retraction of

the AOF until they were forced to do so through public exposure by another
media outlet or the threat of a defamation lawsuit by the SBC.

July 2020: I Began Sending My AOF

 Findings to the ERLC and SBC Leaders

At that point, I felt the ERLC and SBC leaders needed to be aware of my
AOF findings since the AOF had been so damaging to the SBC’s reputation.
Articles were still being published over a year later in various national
publications of a CSA crisis in the SBC and credited the Houston
Chronicle’s AOF for exposing it.

In July 2020, I started sending my AOF findings to the ERLC leaders and
J.D. Greear’s office. As SBC leaders, I was hoping they would be alarmed at
just how false and misleading the AOF actually was and would be willing to
join me in requesting that the Houston Chronicle publish a correction and
retraction of the AOF and issue an apology to the SBC. Because of their CSA
activism, I also sent copies of most of my emails to the SBC leaders to Wade
Burleson and Boz Tchividjian.

After about two months of sending them my findings and related AOF
information, the ERLC office never responded and Todd Unzicker J.D.’s
COS informed me they had no authority to request a correction from the
HC and that I should send my AOF findings to the Executive Committee.
Those responses were very perplexing to me as I felt Russell and J.D., as the
primary spokesmen for the SBC regarding CSA, would have felt compelled
to defend the SBC and demand that the HC publish a retraction of the AOF.

While I commend them for their Caring Well initiatives in reaction to the
AOF, I fault them for not taking the initiative to fact-check the AOF
immediately after it was published in February 2019. If they had, they
would have known well before the 2019 SBC convention that the AOF was
false and misleading and not have allowed the false perception of a CSA
crisis perpetuated by the AOF to have dominated the convention that year.

In September 2020, I made my first contact with the Executive Committee

office. I was reluctant to involve the EC leaders in this AOF matter because
I knew they were dealing with so many other controversial issues within the
SBC that opening up another one with the Houston Chronicle would just be
a distraction. I was also aware of the various factions and divisions within
the EC, the ERLC and J.D’s office that I honestly didn’t know how to
navigate it.

In the fall of 2020, many SBC pastors, leaders and especially members of
the Credentials Committee were being attacked in the media almost daily
based on the AOF. These attacks were not only on social media, but in the
mainstream media as well. Most of them were from a small group of
bloggers that had been emboldened by the AOF.
Knowing just how false and misleading the AOF actually was, I felt an
obligation to inform the Executive Committee of my AOF findings. That’s
when I began sending my AOF findings to the EC leaders in order for them
to deal with the CSA issue on a factual basis and not on the basis of the false
narrative that was being published in the media.

My objective was for EC leaders to be knowledgeable of my AOF findings

when the EC met in February, 2021. I recommended that the EC either
authorize the issuance of a demand letter to the HC to retract the AOF or
authorize a review of the AOF by a credible investigative firm in order to
issue a formal report before the 2021 SBC convention. Neither happened.

In late February, Jonathan Howe told me that the EC was not going to hold
the Houston Chronicle accountable for publishing the AOF and that I was
on my own in dealing with them. I felt they were negligent in not taking
action and missed an opportunity to remove the false perception of a CSA
crisis in the SBC that has been hanging over every SBC church, pastor and
member since February 10, 2019. They also missed an opportunity to
remove the AOF from being used by SBC critics and certain activists as a
basis that a CSA crisis exists in the SBC and its leaders refuse to do
anything about it.

I believe that the failure of both the EC and the ERLC to take action on the
AOF has led to the divisive and toxic atmosphere that engulfs the SBC as it
heads into the convention next week. It could have been prevented if the
SBC leaders had put aside their respective turf battles and joined together
to hold the Houston Chronicle accountable for publishing the AOF.

However, Russell Moore’s May 31 letter to J.D. Greear seems to be what is

contributing to much of the current in-fighting going on among several SBC
leaders. I regret that Russell questioned the EC’s handling certain abuse
issues based on the AOF but failed to question or raise any concerns about
the AOF itself. He has known for almost a year now that the AOF database
of SBC churches was flawed and inaccurate and should not be used in any
further discussion regarding the actions of the EC.

In this letter, he praises the Houston Chronicle journalists and cites as an

issue for him the 10 churches cleared by the EC shortly after their names
appeared on the AOF database. But yet he doesn’t make an issue when he
wrote this letter of the fact that he had knowledge that 180 other SBC
churches were implicated on this same database for individuals that clearly
were not SBC leaders or individuals that held a formal role of authority in
an SBC church.
It is puzzling as to why he chooses to make an issue of the 10 churches that
the EC investigated and cleared, but remained silent on the other 180 that
he knew were questionably included on the AOF database. I have always
liked Russell but I have to question his judgement in writing this exit letter
that clearly omitted relevant facts that he should have disclosed. The
Houston Chronicle created this problem when they published the AOF.
That should have been who he attacked on his way out, not members of the
EC.

March 2021: I Began Sending My AOF

Findings to Various Religion Journalists

Many religion journalists and media outlets have written extensively over
the past two years about the existence of a CSA crisis in the SBC as a result
of the AOF. In fact, an article published recently even called for a federal
investigation into the non-existent CSA crisis in the SBC based on the AOF.
Since the SBC was unwilling to take any action, I was curious to know how
many of these religion journalists were aware of just how false, misleading
and deceptive the AOF actually was.

So, in March 2021, I contacted a number of these religion journalists to

inquire if they had ever fact-checked the names on the AOF database or
independently verified the many claims made about the SBC by the AOF.
They all said that they had not. I ask why. Their reason was that since the
AOF had been published by the Houston Chronicle, they just all assumed it
was factual and accurate.

After sending them my AOF findings, some admitted that it was a mistake
not to conduct their own due diligence of the AOF. In spite of that
admission, these religion journalists were still unwilling to write an article
that would publicly expose the journalistic misconduct of the Houston
Chronicle.

June 2021: The Houston Chronicle’s Coverage of the

2021 SBC Convention

As a result of the Houston Chronicle’s 2019 Abuse of Faith Series, the 2021
convention became one of the most contentious in decades. The myth of a
CSA crisis in the SBC dominated most of the pre-convention publicity and
later played a major role in the presidential election. The AOF was cited by
a small group of activists and pastors as the basis for the need for a task
force to be created in order to investigate mishandling of reported cases of
abuse by SBC leaders over the past two decades. With the only evidence for
this investigation being the AOF and selected stories by a few of these
activists, the messengers voted to create the SATF and ultimately spend
millions of dollars conducting this investigation. Although the Houston
Chronicle executives, had been presented documented evidence many
months earlier that the AOF was false, misleading and deceptive, they still
assigned the lead AOF journalist, Robert Downen to officially cover the
convention. Downen wrote articles from June 11-15 that restated many of
the same false claims and allegations about a CSA crisis in the SBC that had
been published in the original AOF articles over two years earlier.
Additionally in representing the Houston Chronicle, Downen also posted
many tweets over these four days that were read and re-tweeted by many
convention attendees that were intended to influence the presidential
election. Below is a summary of some of the excerpts from these articles
and Downen tweets:

 HC Article: Southern Baptists to Again Meet Under the Cloud of

Abuse Scandals: When 16,000 Southern Baptists convene in
Nashville on Tuesday they will again do so under a cloud of sex
abuse scandals, including allegations that top leaders sought to
silence abuse survivors and stifle reforms….When the Southern
Baptist Convention last gathered, in 2019, it was on the heels of a
Houston Chronicle and San Antonio Express News
investigation, Abuse of Faith, that found hundreds of children had
been abused by SBC church leaders and volunteers.

 HC Article: The Houston Chronicle’s bombshell report in February

2019 brought concerns about the SBC’s handling of sexual abuse
claims into the spotlight. The report included a database of more
than 200 people convicted of sexual abuse who served as Southern
Baptist church volunteers or officials.

 HC Article: After the Houston Chronicle’s “Abuse of Faith” series

disclosed the serious problem of abuse and response to abuse in the
SBC, Southern Baptists did take some initial steps.

 HC Article: Slade has been one of the more outspoken SBC leaders
on abuse in the wake of the Chronicle’s February 2019 report that
found more than 400 SBC church leaders and volunteers had been
convicted or credibly accused of sexual abuse or misconduct over the
past two decades

 HC Article: This collection of mug shots includes a portion of the

220 people who, since 1998, worked or volunteered in Southern
 Baptist churches and were convicted of or pleaded guilty to sex
crimes.

 HC Article: Southern Baptists likely to face historic audit of sexual

abuse, cover-up. Some of the leaders behind the 2008 decision are
now at the center of recent scandals over allegations that
denominational officials downplayed the Chronicle’s findings and
retaliated against other leaders who were outspoken on the matter.

 HC Article: Williams is among hundreds of abuse survivors who

have called for the SBC to do more in the wake of a 2019 Chronicle
and San Antonio Express-News investigation, Abuse of Faith, that
found hundreds of SBC church leaders and volunteers had been
convicted of sex crimes. Those findings dominated the SBC’s last
meeting, in 2019, and prompted a handful of reforms that leaders
and survivors agreed were merely first steps.

 Downen Tweet: Stone has been at the center of ongoing scandals

regarding allegations of coverups, intimidation by top SBC leaders.
Meanwhile Litton has wide respect/support among survivors,
advocates and pastors who've been outspoken on abuse issues.

 Downen Tweet: Stone is also aligned with the CBN and disgraced
leader Paige Patterson. His election would be seen by many
survivors as an endorsement of Patterson, which would be
devastating to them.

 Downen Tweet: An investigation into the SBC's top body could

have a potentially massive toll. Based on what's already out there,
its findings could be profoundly damaging to the SBC at a time
when they are already hemorrhaging members. Many know this.
#SBC2021 #SBC21 #SBCtoo #SBC

In reading the above excerpts from these articles, I believe the Houston
Chronicle and Downen abandoned all journalistic ethics and standards
when they published these articles during the convention that contained
false and misleading representations from the original AOF. And then
for Downen to post certain tweets in his capacity as a HC journalist
during the convention about presidential candidates that was intended
to influence outcome of the election, certainly raises questions as to why
the Houston Chronicle would condone such unprofessional conduct by
one of its journalists. The AOF was false, misleading and deceptive
when Downen and the Houston Chronicle first published it in 2019. In
spite of repeated requests, they refused to publish a correction or
 retraction. But then for them to perpetuate their AOF falsehoods and
misinformation at the 2021 SBC convention as they did, they
intentionally doubled-down on the malicious and defamatory damage
they have caused the SBC.

My AOF Summary and Conclusions

In summary, I have documented that there was no Abuse of Faith by the

SBC but Abuse of Journalism by the Houston Chronicle. My findings
reveal that the AOF was unquestionably one of the most misleading and
fraudulent pieces of journalism ever published by a major media outlet.

As a result, the AOF became a national and international scandal for the
SBC that will take decades to overcome. Based on all my communications
with the Houston Chronicle journalists and executives over the past 24
months, I am convinced that they willfully, knowingly, intentionally and
with malice published the AOF series and database that they knew was
false, misleading and deceptive when they published it.

Accordingly, I believe it is imperative that the SBC hold the Houston

Chronicle and its parent company, Hearst Media accountable for their
reckless, irresponsible and malicious journalistic attacks on the SBC that
has caused irreparable harm to the SBC, its 47, 500 pastors and churches
and over 15, 000,000 members.

I respectfully request that a proposal be introduced at the 2022 SBC

convention to request a formal third-party investigation into the claims and
representations made by the Houston Chronicle that a CSA crisis existed in
the SBC. Specifically, to investigate:

 The 263 names on the AOF database to determine if they were actually
affiliated with an SBC church or if they were individuals who held a
formal role of authority in an SBC church.

 The claim by the HC journalists that they “found and interviewed” over
700 victims of CSA by SBC clergy over the past 20 years and to request
that the HC journalists provide a list of the SBC clergy that they claim
commented the abuse of these 700 victims.

 The claim by the HC journalists that they found hundreds of SBC clergy
that move annually from “church to church” in order to avoid being
detected as a child sex molester.
 The claim that SBC leaders have known about hundreds of cases of CSA
over the past 20 years but intentionally covered it up.

 The evidence to support claim by the HC journalists that that there

existed a “systemic, rampant, burgeoning and ongoing” CSA crisis in
the SBC.

Since the AOF was financially and reputationally damaging to the SBC,
should this formal report validate my findings that the AOF was materially
false, misleading and deceptive, this proposal should also authorize the SBC
to file a major defamation lawsuit against the Houston Chronicle and its
parent company Hearst Media.

I believe this lawsuit could be filed as a class-action lawsuit on behalf of the

47,500 SBC churches, pastors and approximately 15,000,000 members. A
committee comprised of SBC pastors and members could be created and
authorized to represent the class in all matters pertaining to this litigation,
including the amount of damages requested in this lawsuit.

Because the Houston Chronicle and Hearst Media must be held

accountable for the financial and reputational damage they have caused the
SBC, my recommendation is that the amount of actual damages requested
be no less than $350,000,000 dollars and the amount of punitive
damages requested also be for no less than *$350,000,000 dollars.
These are not unreasonable amounts to request that a media defendant pay
when it recklessly and irresponsibly publishes information about a person
or organization that they knew or should have known was false, misleading
and deceptive when they published it.