New TN Law Can Charge a Pastor With Felony
Earlier this year, Liz Evan witnessed a bill she wrote become Tennessee law when it unanimously passed in both the state House and Senate. Evan, a judicial law clerk at Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals in Nashville, Tennessee, and a member of Hilldale Baptist Church in Clarksville, Tennessee, was also recently named a member of the Southern Baptist Convention’s (SBC) task force reviewing the executive committee by SBC’s President Ed Litton.
Tennessee’s SB1531 states that “A victim of sexual battery is incapable of consenting to sexual contact with a member of the clergy, healthcare professional, or alcohol and drug abuse counselor who was treating the victim for a mental, emotional, or physical condition if the sexual contact occurs during the course of a consultation, examination, ongoing treatment, therapy, or other provision of such professional services.”
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If a member of the clergy is found guilty of violating SB1531, that person can be charged with a Class E felony, which carries a maximum prison term of no less than a year and no more than five years. The offense would also result in a maximum fine of $250,000.
If pastor Byron Yawn and Julianna Zobrist’s sexual relationship had taken place after June 1, 2021, the pastor could have been charged with a Class E felony.
Ben’s Father Is a Pastor
Ben’s father, Tom Zobrist, has been the senior pastor of Liberty Bible Church in Eureka, Illinois, since 1988. The pastor authored the 2018 book, The Zobrist Family: Look What God Can Do, in which the senior Zobrist described how God’s plan for Ben came to life.
Ben wrote the book’s foreword, saying, “You’ll see that my Dad did try, sometimes admittedly too hard, to teach me toughness and determination, but above all of that was a belief in walking with and trusting the God who can do anything. In these pages, you will find a simple and candid expression of a parent who is grateful for what God can do with his own life.”
