Former professor at Southern Baptist Seminary in Fort Worth charged in federal investigation

A former professor at the Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth has been charged by the U.S. Department of Justice with falsifying evidence and lying to FBI investigators, the department announced Tuesday. The charges are the first major development in the department’s investigation into sexual abuse in the Southern Baptist Convention.

Matt Queen, who served as interim provost, professor of evangelism and vice president for academic affairs at Southwestern University, was indicted on charges of providing forged notes to a grand jury to cover up the destruction of evidence relevant to the Justice Department’s sexual abuse investigation. The charge carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.

Queen, now pastor of a church in Greensboro, North Carolina, did not respond to several phone calls and emails seeking comment.

Queen was placed on leave from Southwestern in June 2023 and subsequently resigned, according to a statement Tuesday on Southwestern’s website.

“The seminary has repeatedly informed employees of their duty to comply with the subpoena obligations,” Southwestern said. “The seminary has cooperated fully with the Department of Justice in the sexual abuse investigation and will continue to do so.” The school also said “all employees accused of acting inappropriately in this matter are no longer employed by the seminary.”

In response to a request for additional A Southwestern spokesman referred to Tuesday’s statement in his comment.

Why is the Justice Department investigating the Southern Baptist Convention?

The Southern Baptist Convention, the largest Protestant denomination in the United States, is facing a reckoning over its handling of allegations of sexual abuse.

In 2019 The Houston Chronicle published an investigation into abuse within the denomination and reported that more than 700 people have been victims of sexual abuse in their churches over the past 20 years. Under pressure from survivors and activists, the denomination commissioned an independent firm to investigate abuse within the church in 2021.

This firm released a report in 2022 finding that the Southern Baptist Convention blocked, ignored and disrespected victims of clergy sexual abuse over a period of nearly 20 years.

A few months after the report was released, the Justice Department launched a federal investigation into sexual abuse within the denomination, church officials said, saying they would cooperate with investigators.

How is Southwestern involved?

As part of the Justice Department’s investigation into sexual abuse in the Southern Baptist Convention, the ministry subpoenaed Southwestern in October 2022, the indictment states. She asked the seminar to release all documents related to sexual abuse at the seminar.

About a month later, an unnamed employee at the seminary received a report of sexual abuse by a current Southwestern University student, the indictment says. The unnamed employee did not share the report with the FBI. Instead, the indictment says, he shared it with the school’s campus police, and the seminary took no further action.

What is Matt Queen accused of?

Queen was charged with lying to FBI investigators and falsifying evidence to cover up the seminary’s alleged inaction and violation of the Department of Justice subpoena related to the November 2022 abuse report.

In January 2023, according to the indictment, Queen met with the unnamed employee and a member of the seminary’s leadership team, who instructed the unnamed employee to destroy a document the employee had prepared about the abuse allegations and the seminary’s response.

In May 2023, the indictment says, Queen falsely told an FBI agent that he had not heard that instruction, even though he later testified under oath that he had heard it. The indictment also says Queen created fake “notes” from that conversation to support his lie and made contradictory claims about when those notes were written.

In its statement Tuesday, Southwestern said it “takes seriously its moral and legal obligation to serve victims of sexual abuse. The actions alleged in the indictment are contrary to the seminary’s values.”

Queen joined Southwestern’s faculty in 2010 and held a variety of roles before becoming interim provost and vice president for academic administration in January 2023.

The charges are not the first time Southwestern has made headlines over allegations of mishandling reports of sexual abuse.

The school’s former president, Paige Patterson, came under fire in 2018 for his alleged mismanagement of a rape allegation at Southwestern University, and comments he made to a woman with whom he was in an abusive relationship also came to light again.

In response to the #MeToo backlash against Patterson in 2018, the school first promoted him to an emeritus position as in-house theologian and later fired him after receiving information about his handling of an allegation of sexual abuse at another Southern Baptist Convention-affiliated school.

Southwestern is also being sued for defamation by former president Adam Greenway. In his March lawsuit, Greenway claims the school violated the terms of a non-disparagement agreement it signed with him and made him “unemployable.”

Joy Ashford covers faith and religion in North Texas for The Dallas Morning News in partnership with Report for America.