Sexual Abuse, Darrell Gilyard and the Southern Baptist Convention Part 1

The story of Darrell Gilyard easily arises to the category of legend in Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) life. As originally told, Gilyard was abandoned by his parents at a young age and wound up living under a bridge in Florida. Jerry Vines, pastor of Jacksonville First Baptist Church,¹ discovered Gilyard, led him to Christ, and began mentoring him in the mid-1980s. Vines had connections to which he recommended the young, exciting, and vibrant young preacher–most notably Paige Patterson, (then) President of Criswell Bible College and Jerry Falwell, pastor of Thomas Road Baptist Church in Lynchburg, VA. Because of the amazing pulpit abilities Gilyard possessed, both Patterson and Falwell took an interest in promoting Gilyard on the conference circuit, and consequently, Gilyard ultimately became renowned all over the convention. Patterson further assisted Gilyard with a scholarship to attend Criswell college.

Gilyard was promoted widely in the SBC in pastors’ conferences, evangelism conferences, large churches, revival and evangelistic crusade meetings. Gilyard’s printed accolades in the June 1989 convention edition of Baptist Press was impressive:

Texas pastor Daryl Gilyard challenged the pastors to “take your eyes off your circumstances and difficulties and Jesus will bring triumph out of your tragedy. Jesus enables us to meet whatever challenge we have with confidence.”

After a personal testimony of how he never knew his parents and lived five years under a bridge, Gilyard, pastor of Shiloh Baptist Church in Garland, Texas. said, “I decided that the only way to rise out of the mud of self pity was to put my eyes on Jesus. When I took my eyes off myself and put my eyes on Jesus. a peace came over me” (BP 6/13/89).

A year later, Darrell Gilyard received a standing ovation when he spoke at the conference of Southern Baptist Evangelists meeting Wednesday afternoon at the June 1990 convention. He said,

It’s time to stop talking about it, preaching about it, singing about it and complaining that people in your church just won’t visit. If in the average church we would put as much effort into reaching the lost as we do a good choir special, we’d turn our world upside-down (BP 6/12/1990).

Few, if any, doubted. The young Black evangelist connected with the masses, connected with them.

Consequently, not only was Gilyard promoted by Vines, Patterson, and Falwell, he was, in many ways, the darling young preacher of Southern Baptists all over the SBC during that era and promoted in virtually every circle of SBC sub-culture. Gilyard’s personal magnetism, natural rhetorical persuasion, and public speaking abilities resonated with such a charm that, in essence, he easily drew most Southern Baptists to his side. Incidentally, therefore, those who would like to single out Vines, Patterson, and Falwell for promoting Gilyard in the SBC are fundamentally skewing the historical record. While it’s true they introduced Gilyard to Southern Baptists, Gilyard was supported and promoted by Southern Baptist leaders all over the United States, including perhaps some still serving in the SBC presently. 

But Gilyard would soon lose any support as the darling young Black preacher of Southern Baptists, and his once busy itinerary America over would necessarily come to a rightful but tragic end. 

Rumors began to surface surrounding Gilyard and some of his female parishioners that he was not the man out of the pulpit he portrayed himself to be in the pulpit. At first, a few women contacted  Patterson to make the charge. And, following up as best he could, Patterson reasoned as many would (as I would) that since it was a he-said-she-said type of situation; and since anonymity was insisted; and since he found no corroborating evidence; and since no crime had been alleged that lawfully must be reported; and since Gilyard vehemently denied the charges, there was little to do but move on. While he could carefully watch Gilyard, he would also continue to mentor him. In Patterson’s view, he was being asked to effectively ruin a man’s ministry for life based on a claim he’d checked out to the best of his ability which very well could have been false. Hence, he refused to act on Gilyard.

Frankly speaking, how easy–not to mention convenient–for us today to self-righteously judge Patterson and others three decades later insisting they would have known; they would have believed the women no matter how suspect their story; they would have moved quickly and stopped Gilyard in his tracks.

When I hear these unmitigated condemnations of Patterson and others from critics informed with facts revealed later for not acting on what began and were, at the time, rumors from anonymous persons, I’m reminded of David’s son Absalom when he was attempting to sway the masses away from allegiance to David and make him King instead. Samuel pens the narrative of Absalom’s revolt in 2 Samuel 15:1-6.

After this, Absalom got himself a chariot, horses, and fifty men to run before him. He would get up early and stand beside the road leading to the city gate. Whenever anyone had a grievance to bring before the king for settlement, Absalom called out to him and asked, “What city are you from?” If he replied, “Your servant is from one of the tribes of Israel,” Absalom said to him, “Look, your claims are good and right, but the king does not have anyone to listen to you.” He added, “If only someone would appoint me judge in the land. Then anyone who had a grievance or dispute could come to me, and I would make sure he received justice.” When a person approached to pay homage to him, Absalom reached out his hand, took hold of him, and kissed him. Absalom did this to all the Israelites who came to the king for a settlement. So Absalom stole the hearts of the men of Israel.

Absalom assured the Israelites that since Kind David would not listen and therefore could not judge justly, if they were to just make him King, then if  “anyone who had a grievance or dispute could come to me, and I would make sure he received justice.” And thus “Absalom stole the hearts of the men of Israel.” Too many times we pass ourselves off as the perfect judge of character and dispenser of justice than all others. In this case, after 30 years, many insist were it they handling the Gilyard situation, though knowing the facts only afterwards and not living through it, they would assure perfect justice would reign.

Rumors continued. But the same type of situation remained in Patterson’s view.

In 1991, Gilyard was scheduled to preach at the SBC Pastors’ Conference held in Atlanta, Georgia. During the Monday morning session on June 5th, Gilyard stepped into the pulpit and spoke. As usual, Baptist Press covered Gilyard perhaps more than any other speaker in the lineup.

In another address to the pastors, Darrell Gilyard, pastor of Victory Baptist Church, Richardson, Texas, said “the call to salvation is not a call to spiritual laziness.” Some Christians, he said, believe that salvation is strictly a matter of God’s sovereignty and election. Therefore, he added, many of them show little concern for winning people to Christ. “It’s a strange thing to me that more people get elected in soul-winning churches,” he said. 

Gilyard urged the pastors not to “overlook those little boys and girls who don’t look like they have any promise at all.” He pointed out that he was abandoned early in life by his parents and during his youth was forced to make his home under a bridge in Florida.

“All over America, there are Darrells out there who seem like nobodys but they [can] become somebodys when the grace of God invades their lives,” Gilyard stressed (BP 6/5/1991).

One might easily understand, from Gilyard’s rhetoric why he remained a favorite among Southern Baptists. Yet the Baptist Press’ 1991 convention issue was the last edition profiling the young star preacher of Southern Baptists–at least in any positive light.

Less than a month later, Baptist Press released a story about Gilyard that broke people’s hearts, a story that always breaks people’s hearts. A desolate young man rescued from homelessness; led to Christ by a pastor seeing untold potential about what God could do through his witness and testimony; nurtured by mature SBC leaders and men who could use their connections to offer an education of which he had been deprived as a young African American; a man whom, it was presumed, possessed special gifting in speaking to large crowds…All this…But reality finally came home.

Darrell Gilyard was a fake.

A complete fake.

A haggling huckster who was both brazen enough on one hand and piercingly sly on the other to have duped the best among us while leaving a trail of personal destruction in his tracks. The only good, if one can call it that, was that Gilyard was apparently a womanizer not a pedophile. 

Baptist Press reported.

Plagued by charges of sexual impropriety and lies about his rags-to-riches background, Darrell Gilyard — perhaps the most sought-after black preacher on the Southern Baptist preaching circuit — is starting over as pastor of a new non-denominational church near Dallas.²

Gilyard resigned on July 10 as pastor of Victory Baptist Church in Richardson, Texas, after recurring allegations of sexual misconduct with female members of his church (BP 8/13/1991). 

A couple of explanatory notes are in order. First, as the report went on to cite, Gilyard’s “rags-to-riches background” was entirely fabricated. Rather than growing up abandoned and homeless under the St. John’s River bridge in Palatka, Florida, Gilyard was “brought up in a comfortable north Florida home by a woman who reared him as if he were her son.” 

Second, the key person behind Gilyard’s forced resignation was Paige Patterson. Patterson became convinced that there existed hard enough evidence to substantiate the allegations that were now being made. He came to conclude through a “mountain” of substantial evidence for which he waited that out of the pulpit, Gilyard had more than salvation on his mind. He had sex.  Thus, Patterson took it upon himself to stop Gilyard in his tracks if he could. Baptist Press hints about this later in the article cited above.

But after being confronted with what Patterson termed “a mountain” of circumstantial evidence pointing toward sexual misconduct, Gilyard resigned from Victory Baptist Church on July 10. However, he returned to a pulpit 11 days later to launch a new congregation saying he wanted to help others “who have fallen into crisis situations.” 

Thus, Patterson forced Gilyard’s departure from the church Gilyard had built to a large congregation. Yet even though Patterson judged Gilyard no longer either fit or qualified to serve in ministry, 11 days later Gilyard started another church, a move often followed by fallen ministers who refuse to see they have a serious character issue and are disqualified from ministry.

Did Patterson stop Darrell Gilyard?

Yes and no. No so far as Gilyard continuing in church ministry outside the SBC. Yes so far as Gilyard’s influence in Southern Baptist life.

Since 1991, Gilyard has been absent from Southern Baptist circles. And few stop to consider Patterson’s role in finally dealing with a deceiving huckster within the SBC. So many quickly judge Patterson wrong on the basis of what he didn’t do while refusing to acknowledge gratitude for what he did do. It was because of Paige Patterson Darrell Gilyard is gone from us. 

Oh, it’s easy to ask: Could Gilyard have been stopped sooner than he was? Why wasn’t he? Why didn’t Patterson see through Gilyard’s obvious (to us at least) lies? Why wouldn’t Patterson believe the women who first came to him? It was all just a wicked cover-up, wasn’t it? For those predisposed to disliking Patterson; or unappreciative of his contributions to Baptist life; or especially those who’ve judged Patterson guilty of sexual abuse cover-up during his tenures at both Southeastern and Southwestern seminaries will undoubtedly find it hard to not prejudge him (more later on this). While it’s understandable, however, it does not make it right.    

Plainly put, Paige Patterson was responsible, at least in part, for promoting Darrell Gilyard among us. I know that. Those around 30 years ago know that. And, I’m quite sure Patterson knows that now as then when he attempted to mentor an incurable huckster. But Patterson manned-up. He took responsibility even if it wasn’t on our timeline. When Patterson was presented with the evidence he believed necessary to substantiate such serious claims against a gospel minister, he did not blink. He did not withdraw. He did not rationalize. He did not deny. And he did not cover-up. He acted and acted decisively.

Nor has Patterson promoted and/or recommended Darrell Gilyard among Southern Baptists since 1991.   

Why, then, is it not commendable that Darrell Gilyard has been gone from us since 1991?

And why do we not express gratitude rather than condemnation toward the principle person who confronted and decisively dealt with Darrell Gilyard–Paige Patterson?

Southern Baptists.

Almost 30 years have come and gone since 1991 when Patterson forced the issue of Darrell Gilyard, his deviant life, and his reckless conduct among Southern Baptists.    

It’s time.

It’s time to stop tying Paige Paterson to Darrell Gilyard as if he never he never dealt with the issue but covered it up. To continue to do so, in my view, seems nothing short of sheer dishonesty. 

Part 2 Up Next

¹ At the time First Baptist Church ran approximately between 8-10,000!

² Much has been obviously left out of the Gilyard narrative. Gilyard went on ministering in congregations outside the SBC ultimately serving time in prison. He now serves as pastor in a church affiliated with the National Baptist Convention, USA.

³Picture of Darrell Gilyard