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A father is suing the prominent Texas megachurch First Baptist Church Dallas for allegedly mishandling his son’s sexual abuse in 2022.
The father alleges in the lawsuit that his now 16-year-old son was sexually abused by an older student on a church youth mission trip in 2022. The family said church leaders bullied, shamed, and intimidated their son with “extreme and outrageous” conduct in response to a report of the sexual abuse, according to the lawsuit.
Along with the church, pastors Ryland Whitehorn and Alan Lynch are named as defendants in the suit. Whitehorn and Lynch are listed on the First Baptist Dallas staff page as of Monday afternoon.
First Baptist, currently led by Dr. Robert Jeffress, is a powerhouse church in Texas with 16,000 members, according to its website. Throughout the years, Presidents Woodrow Wilson, Gerald Ford, George H.W. Bush, and Donald Trump have visited it.
It made headlines this summer, when its 134-year-old historic sanctuary was largely destroyed by fire.
The lawsuit aims to “hold First Baptist legally accountable for its egregious failure to protect” the victim, said Boz Tchividjian, an attorney at BozLaw PA, which co-represents the father along with two local Texas law firms.
“Our client was an eighth-grade boy who was sexually victimized during a church trip by a tenth-grader whom First Baptist should have recognized as a danger to others due to his prior history,” Tchividjian told The Roys Report (TRR) in a statement.
He continued, “Despite repeatedly assuring our client’s parents that he would be well-supervised and safe, church leaders not only disregarded the mandated curfew but also made the deliberate decision to leave our client alone in a hotel room with the perpetrator and three other tenth-grade boys.”
The family is seeking more than $1 million in damages for negligence, intentional infliction of emotional distress and civil conspiracy.
First Baptist denied the allegations in a statement to TRR, claiming the incident was “consensual sexual activity.”
“The alleged incident involved sexual activity between two male teenage parishioners,” the church said. “Immediately upon learning of the subject allegation, it was reported to the necessary applicable law enforcement agencies. “After extensive investigations, including interviews with eyewitnesses, each law enforcement agency indicated this was consensual sexual activity and closed any and all respective cases.”
Alleged assault occurred on San Diego mission trip
The alleged incident occurred on a youth mission trip to San Diego in July 2022.
A month before this trip, the father was already hesitant and had safety concerns about sending his then eighth-grade son on mission trips.
In June of 2022, his son was at a youth “adventure camp” in New Mexico when a fellow teen allegedly held a knife to his throat. Church officials discouraged the family from pressing charges regarding this incident, according to the lawsuit.
Leaders then reassured the family that the mission trip to San Diego would have more supervision and that their child would be safe.
On the San Diego trip, the son, identified as D.R., was invited to the room of four 10th-grade boys while on the trip.
The teenagers did not have a curfew that night of the trip but were just restricted from being in a hotel room occupied by the opposite sex, according to the lawsuit.
D.R. and the 10th-graders watched a violent and sexually graphic R-rated movie on Netflix. After that, one of the 10th-grade boys sexually abused D.R., while another student witnessed it, the lawsuit claims.
The witness told D.R. the next morning that “no one needs to know what happened yesterday,” according to the suit.
“Because D.R. did not want to get in trouble or to be shamed by the older boys, D.R. did not report the abuse,” the suit wrote.
Church leaders intimidate the boy
Two months after the trip, D.R.’s mother was called by church officials to meet with them regarding an “incident” that happened on the trip, the suit said. The family then met with a group of First Baptist Dallas employees, including Lynch, Whitehorn and church staff member Davin Hutchinson, according to the lawsuit.
At that meeting, Hutchinson accused their son of watching pornography and masturbating alongside other boys during the trip.
Lynch then lectured and attempted to intimidate, frighten and confuse D.R., according to the suit.
After briefly leaving the room with his mother to calm down, D.R. returned and shared about the abuse with the leaders.
Lynch said he would report the incident to local law enforcement, the suit said.
The suit adds that “at the end of the meeting, Lynch told D.R. that what D.R. had done was wrong and that D.R. needed forgiveness from First Baptist.”
Several days later, the mother followed up with the church leaders about next steps.
Lynch allegedly told her that “all we have right now are allegations” and that “no force” was used by the alleged perpetrator. Because of that, Lynch said leaders who already knew about the situation would attempt to keep D.R. apart from the other boy.
Lynch said no other leaders would be informed of the alleged abuse, according to the lawsuit.
The lawsuit notes, “From this point forward, Lynch argued with D.R. and (the mother) whenever they spoke and attempted to intimidate them and bully them into silence.”
Later the family asked for a copy of the church’s sexual abuse policy, but church leaders refused to provide any written policy. Leaders allegedly said that the church had no policy “to report sex abuse of minors,” according to the lawsuit.
D.R. “suffered and continues to suffer severe emotional distress caused by the extreme and outrageous conduct of First Baptist and Lynch,” the lawsuit said.
The lawsuit alleges that the same 10th-grade boy who abused D.R. also abused another teen on a previous First Baptist trip. In that instance, Lynch had convinced the victim’s mother to not report the abuse to higher authorities at the church.
This piece is republished with permission from The Roys Report.