Paul Pressler, conservative Baptist leader later accused of sexual abuse, dead at 94
Paul Pressler, an influential former Texas judge who spearheaded a movement to shift the Southern Baptist Convention in a conservative direction, has died at the age of 94.
In 2017, a civil lawsuit accused Pressler of sexually abusing boys and men, including one of his Bible study students, in the late 1970s and early 1980s. The lawsuit was settled six months before his death earlier this month, according to the Texas Tribune.
Pressler was never criminally charged, but an investigation by the Houston Chronicle and San Antonio Express News led to revelations that top leaders ignored warnings and downplayed allegations.
Pressler died June 7, but it was apparently not acknowledged during last week’s Southern Baptist Convention meeting in Indianapolis. His funeral was Saturday.
Officials from the Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth did not return a message seeking comment. In 2019, a stained glass window featuring Pressler and other leaders who pushed the convention to the right were removed from the seminary’s MacGorman chapel.
Pressler, a former appeals court justice in Houston, led efforts that ousted liberal members from the convention and helped elect conservative politicians.
The son of a Houston oil company executive, Pressler was born on June 4, 1930. He graduated from the private Phillips Exeter Academy in New Hampshire and earned a bachelor’s degree in government from Princeton University in 1952, according to the Texas Tribune. He served in the Texas state house from 1957-59.
