Home Christian News SBC Pastor Tom Buck Says Wife’s Abuse Story Was Leaked in Retaliation

SBC Pastor Tom Buck Says Wife’s Abuse Story Was Leaked in Retaliation

After consulting with sexual abuse survivor advocate Rachael Denhollander, Buck and two FBC Lindale elders met via video call with Rice and another Calvary Church staff member. While Rice originally did not agree that Ford had behaved as a sexual predator, upon further advice and reflection, Rice revised his stance. 

Rice later commended Buck’s actions via email. Nevertheless, in a sermon following Rice’s public disclosure regarding Ford, Rice said, “Some people outside our church identified one of our brothers who’s serving in a role in our church” in an effort to “score some points.”

Rice dropped out of the SBC presidential race later that week. 

Jennifer Buck’s Story Leaked

After meeting with Rice, Buck received a phone call alerting him to the fact that someone had leaked a story written by his wife, Jennifer Buck, wherein she outlined struggles from the early days of the couple’s marriage. Buck saw this as an act of retaliation for confronting Rice.

Originally written in 2018 and intended to be published pseudonymously, the draft had never been publicly released. 

According to Tom and Jennifer Buck, the draft had been given to Karen Swallow Prior, then a professor at Liberty University and currently a professor at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary (SEBTS), so that she could help edit it. Due to injuries sustained in a freak accident wherein Prior was struck by a moving bus, she was unable to help craft the final draft. 

According to FBC Lindale’s statement, in 2021, someone came to Prior with a leaked draft of the story asking her to confirm that it was written by Jennifer Buck. Prior declined to confirm the draft’s authorship and expressed moral concern about its publication. 

When Tom and Jennifer Buck asked Prior who had come to her with the draft, Prior declined to identify the person. After escalating the conversation to SEBTS president Danny Akin, Tom and Jennifer Buck were still not able to ascertain the identity of the person in possession of the draft.

ChurchLeaders has reached out to Karen Swallow Prior and Danny Akin for comment and will update this article in the event that they or SEBTS supply a statement. 

While a finalized version of Jennifer Buck’s story was published in a G3 Ministries blog, Tom and Jennifer Buck remain concerned about the leaked draft. According to the couple, the draft contained “private details of sin committed against [Jennifer] before she ever met Tom,” which Jennifer does not wish to publicly disclose. 

“Those who have attempted to destroy and silence my husband have willfully endeavored to tamper with a marriage. They have shown themselves to have little regard for the union between husband and wife – the union that God created and holds in high value,” Jennifer Buck said in a statement posted to Twitter on Monday.