Paul Pressler III, Baptist leader accused of sexual abuse, dies at age 94

Mr. Pressler was one of the architects of the Southern Baptist Convention’s “conservative resurgence,” an initiative in the 1980s that gave new direction to America’s largest Protestant denomination.

Mr. Pressler and others pushed more liberal politicians out of office, helped forge an alliance between white evangelicals and conservative Republicans, and focused on electing Republican candidates to public office.

The Southern Baptist Convention has more than 47,000 churches with a total of nearly 13 million members, according to its website. 200 of these are considered “megachurches,” but the vast majority have fewer than 200 people attending services each week. Most of the churches are located in the southern United States, and the denomination’s executive committee headquarters is in Nashville.

In a 2015 video supporting Republican U.S. Senator Ted Cruz of Texas during his presidential campaign, Pressler said he had dedicated his life “to the conservative principles on which our country was founded.”

“I think people are really angry about the way things are going in Washington. I think if we don’t have good people in Washington, we’re not going to save our country,” Pressler said.

His religious legacy was tarnished after he was accused of sexual assault by a former assistant, Gareld Duane Rollins Jr.

In a 2017 lawsuit filed in Harris County, where Houston is located, Rollins alleged that Pressler first raped him in 1979, when Rollins was 14, after the two met in a Bible study group led by Pressler, who was then an appellate judge. Rollins claimed Pressler continued to sexually abuse him regularly over the next 24 years.

Rollins also sued the Southern Baptist Convention and others who he said covered up or enabled Mr. Pressler’s conduct. As part of the lawsuit, at least seven other men came forward with their own allegations of sexual abuse against Mr. Pressler.

Rollins’ allegations prompted the Houston Chronicle and the San Antonio Express-News to launch a comprehensive investigation into allegations of sexual abuse in the Southern Baptist Convention. The series of reports revealed that top leaders had ignored or downplayed warnings of a sexual abuse crisis within the Protestant denomination and led to significant reforms.

In December, Mr. Pressler, the Southern Baptist Convention and others confidentially agreed to settle the litigation. Mr. Pressler denied the allegations against him and was never criminally charged.

The Southern Baptist Convention held its annual meeting last week but did not appear to acknowledge Mr. Pressler’s death during the event.

Herman Paul Pressler III, a sixth-generation Texan and the son of an oil executive, was born in Houston on June 4, 1930. He graduated from the private Phillips Exeter Academy in New Hampshire and earned a bachelor’s degree in political science from Princeton University in 1952.

After serving in the Navy, he earned a law degree from the University of Texas at Austin in 1957 and was elected to the Texas House of Representatives representing the greater Houston area. After years as an attorney with the firm Vinson & Elkins, he was appointed a state district judge in 1970. Eight years later, he was appointed a state appellate judge, a position he held until his retirement in 1993, according to his online obituary.

In 1959, he married Nancy Avery. In addition to his widow, he leaves behind three children, a brother, seven grandchildren and twelve great-grandchildren, according to the obituary.