(KY)
Baptist News Global [Jacksonville FL]
December 16, 2025
By David Bumgardner and Mark Wingfield
Across four years of Southern Baptist clergy sexual abuse research, investigations and debate, one name continually rises to the surface: Rachael Denhollander.
The woman who began the public accusations against USA Gymnastics team doctor Larry Nassar in 2016 has played an outsized role in the Southern Baptist Convention’s reckoning with mishandled knowledge of clergy sexual abuse.
New documentation made public in the lawsuit Sills v. Southern Baptist Convention highlights how this one person not only has become the face of the abuse survivor community but also appears to have double- and triple-dipped in ways some consider unethical. None of these claims has yet been adjudicated in a court of law, as the evidence presented here is drawn from pre-trial depositions and documents.
Especially among those who want to discredit the sexual abuse crisis in the SBC or the way it was addressed, Denhollander is Public Enemy No. 1. Daily Wire columnist Megan Basham — an abuse denier — launched a new tirade against Denhollander last week. She and her allies may be the loudest critics of Denhollander, but they are not alone.
Now, in light of the thousands of pages of documents made public in the Sills case, questions are arising again about potential conflicts of interest. BNG columnist and abuse survivor advocate Christa Brown previously wrote about the “two hat” problem posed when someone represents both the institution and the victim.
That someone is Denhollander, who lives in Kentucky and is a licensed attorney in the state of California. She earned the juris doctorate degree from Oak Brook College of Law, a Christian school that operates only online.
She served as a prominent attorney and adviser to the Southern Baptist Convention Sexual Abuse Task Force during its 2022 investigation conducted by Guidepost Solutions. Because of her expertise and personal experience in righting the wrongs of sexual abuse, she was viewed at the outset as a trusted resource.
However, accusations now are widespread that she may have worked both sides — advising individuals with abuse claims while also being privy to the inside workings of the SBC and its Sexual Abuse Task Force — all while getting paid for her work in some cases.
BNG reached out to Denhollander for comment on this article, but she did not respond.
However, on Friday, Dec. 12, just hours after BNG reached out to Denhollander via text message seeking comment, her husband, Jacob Denhollander, posted a since-deleted tweet. The post featured a popular meme from the show It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia depicting the character Charlie Kelly frantically standing in front of a conspiracy evidence board. Jacob Denhollander captioned the photo with a single word in quotes: “Journalism.”
Megan Basham — who is no fan of BNG — also had been tweeting about Denhollander that day and drew attention to the tweet, saying Jacob Denhollander could only respond with “mocks.”
Rachael Denhollander has a reputation as a fighter whom denominational leaders don’t want to cross.
One source told BNG Denhollander is viewed as an “icon” and “untouchable” and those who raise questions have “the mob sent after them.”
What are the concerns?
The root concerns are about blurring the lines between advocacy, consulting work for institutions accused of mishandling abuse, and personal financial gain.
For example, while Denhollander served as an adviser to the Sexual Abuse Task Force, she was named the designated “advocate” to whom Guidepost referred survivors contacting the SBC sexual abuse hotline to help them “evaluate press and legal options.”
That put her in a position where she was advising the investigators while simultaneously representing or advising the victims providing testimony to that investigation.
As previously reported by BNG, materials made public through legal discovery reveal Krista Tongring of Guidepost testified under oath the firm did not independently investigate specific abuse claims. They relied on the testimony of others such as Denhollander and abuse survivor claimant Jennifer Lyell.
Brown argued in a series of BNG columns from 2022 and 2023 that this dynamic was “inherently trust-busting,” noting individuals seeking to partner with survivors for empowerment “should not also be the consultant for the individual/institution that allegedly offended against them.”
Brown subsequently was excoriated by some members of the survivor advocacy community for drawing attention to this potential conflict of interest, while others accused her of undermining the cause of reform.
Questions also have surfaced about how Guidepost Solutions was selected as the firm of record for the investigation and the extent of Denhollander’s influence on that decision.
Ronnie Floyd, then president of the Executive Committee, wanted to conduct an internal investigation that would not be made public. He had contracted with Guidepost before a public outcry caused his own trustees to reject that deal and follow a directive of messengers to the SBC annual meeting to create a special task force to manage the investigation and to make all findings public.
It is curious that the Sexual Abuse Task Force chose the same third-party investigator — Guidepost — as Floyd already had chosen.
A former SBC Executive Committee trustee, speaking to BNG on background, explained the constraints the committee faced during the selection process.
“We reviewed dozens of firms and proposals,” the trustee said. “Almost all of them were willing to do an independent investigation but did not want to publish it for fear of liability. Guidepost was willing to publish, but we had to indemnify them.”
When asked if Denhollander had a say in that decision, the trustee noted, “Not that I am aware of, and she never spoke directly to the Executive Committee, but she did have the ear of officers.”
However, a separate source alleged to BNG that one of the reasons the Executive Committee did not choose GRACE (Godly Response to Abuse in the Christian Environment) — a firm frequently utilized for church abuse investigations — was because Denhollander actively discouraged the choice. Denhollander and Boz Tchividjian, founder of GRACE, reportedly do not have a good working relationship.
Again, BNG asked Denhollander for comment on this allegation and she did not respond. Neither did Rolland Slade, a California pastor who was chairman of Executive Committee trustees at the time.
“Disclosure of documents in the Sills case has only ratcheted up the alarm some have been sounding.”
Disclosure of documents in the Sills case has only ratcheted up the alarm some have been sounding. Sills is the former missions professor at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary whom Lyell accused of grooming and abusing her over a 12-year period.
Guidepost representative Tongring testified she became aware during the investigation that Denhollander previously had represented Lyell in legal matters, specifically regarding a 2019 mediation. Discovery documents show this mediation resulted in a $100,000 payment from Southern Seminary to Lyell to cover medical and counseling expenses.
Subsequently, in May 2020, Lyell accepted a settlement offer from the SBC Executive Committee’s insurance company to release the Executive Committee from legal liability in the amount of $1,050,000. Later, at the Executive Committee meeting in Nashville in 2022, the SBC publicly apologized to Lyell for mistreatment and alleged mishandling of her story by Baptist Press, initially reporting it as a “morally inappropriate relationship.”
It is unknown if Denhollander also acted as Lyell’s attorney in the Executive Committee settlement, although two sources who spoke to BNG on background suggested this was indeed the case. BNG has not been able to independently verify those claims, as Lyell is now deceased, and any such arrangement would be protected under attorney-client privilege.
Chain of referrals
Another concern cited by Denhollander’s critics is that she benefitted from a chain of referrals that ran directly back to the institutions now under scrutiny for their previous relationships with her.
Boz Tchividjian, an attorney who regularly represents survivors of sexual abuse and who interacted with Dehollander in prior years, expressed concerns about the lack of clarity surrounding the capacity in which Dehollander was representing certain institutions, and whether those relationships compromised her ability to objectively and zealously advocate for victims who had come forward to those same institutions. “I often came away from our communications unclear about the precise role she was playing in the midst of this tragedy,” he said.
“I often came away from our communications unclear about the precise role she was playing in the midst of this tragedy.”
Tongring confirmed that prior to the SBC engagement, Denhollander referred at least one client — Southern Seminary — to Guidepost. This created a circular relationship: Denhollander referred the institution to the investigators while later advising the task force overseeing Guidepost’s investigation of related entities.
The commingling of advisory work and legal advocacy raised specific financial and ethical questions among other professionals in the field.
Sources who asked not to be identified for fear of retaliation alleged Denhollander refers survivors from institutions she advises on matters of safeguarding and abuse response to other attorneys, for which she sometimes collects a referral fee. These same sources allege Denhollander has repeatedly ignored or opposed those who have confronted her on this conflict of interest.
Although Denhollander did not respond to BNG’s request for comment before publication, she called BNG Executive Director Mark Winfield after publication to challenge this assertion. She categorically denied receiving confidential information from Guidepost or receiving payment from surviv0rs or the SBC for her work. She asserted that Guidepost’s own statement and a statement from the Abuse Reform Implementation Task Force verify her innocence.
What has the largest number of people worked up right now is the revelation that Denhollander — and perhaps Lyell — were allowed to read and edit the Guidepost report before its release.
That despite the engagement letter mandating that “no member” of the task force “shall be permitted by Guidepost to edit the report prior to its public release.”
While Guidepost maintains the task force did not “edit” the report, Tongring identified some “suggested corrections … from Rachael Denhollander.” An outside reviewer, Douglas Leff, agreed that based on the documentation, it appeared Denhollander was making suggestions to pages “outside of the factual section” of the report.
When asked if it appeared she was “trying to influence more than just facts,” Leff responded, “I would agree that’s what it appears, yes.”
Christa Brown and other observers have publicly concluded the SBC’s handling of abuse, focused heavily on liability avoidance, often functions as a “theater piece” — presenting an illusion of care without the reality of structural change.
Revelations from the Sills discovery documents suggest the “independent” investigation was navigated by key figures wearing multiple hats — simultaneously advising the accused institutions, representing the victims and influencing the final narrative.
Related articles:
Court records reveal tangled trail in Sills sexual abuse case | Analysis by David Bumgardner and Mark Wingfield
Sills lawsuit misrepresents a piece of evidence, and that error got highlighted by Ascol and Basham
Not everyone believes there’s a sexual abuse crisis in the SBC
Megan Basham is lying again | Opinion by Mark Wingfield
Megan Basham goes after Jennifer Lyell even in death
Megan Basham sharply criticized for outing Johnny Hunt’s alleged abuse victim