First Baptist Dallas, the Texas megachurch led by Senior Pastor Robert Jeffress, is being sued over its response to alleged sexual abuse that occurred on a church-sponsored youth mission trip. On Nov. 11, a father filed a lawsuit in Dallas County, naming as defendants the church and two of its pastors: Ryland Whitehorn, executive pastor of ministries, and Alan Lynch, minister of pastoral care and counseling.
According to the suit, First Baptist failed to protect the father’s eighth-grade son, identified as D.R., on a July 2022 trip to San Diego. On the final night of the trip, a 10th-grader from the church allegedly assaulted D.R. Two months later, the lawsuit notes, church employees allegedly tried to intimidate the victim and bully his family into silence.
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In a statement, First Baptist Dallas told ChurchLeaders it “categorically denies any allegations of impropriety,” saying it determined the sexual activity between the two boys was “consensual.”
Sexual Abuse Lawsuit Against First Baptist Dallas
D.R.’s father is suing for more than $1 million in damages, claiming negligence, intentional infliction of emotional distress, and civil conspiracy. (ChurchLeaders does not name sexual assault victims or their immediate family members.)
The alleged victim, now 16, reportedly had been threatened with a knife by another student during a church trip to New Mexico one month earlier. As a result, D.R.’s parents were “reluctant” to let him travel to San Diego. But church officials assured them they prioritized safety and were taking “a more solid set of teens” to California, the lawsuit states.
According to the suit, the youth had no curfew on their final night in San Diego; the only rule was that members of the opposite sex couldn’t be in the same room. A minister from First Baptist Dallas reportedly allowed D.R. to remain in a room with 10th-grade boys. After the minister left, the boys watched an R-rated, sexually graphic movie.
Then one of the older boys allegedly assaulted D.R. as another youth watched. The next day, that witness reportedly told D.R. no one needed to know about the incident. D.R. didn’t report the assault, the lawsuit contends, because he feared getting into trouble and being shamed.
First Baptist Dallas Faces Allegations of Intimidating, Bullying
According to the lawsuit, church officials called D.R.’s mother two months later and requested a meeting with the family. Davin Hutchinson, the associate student minister of worship, reportedly told the parents their son had watched porn and masturbated with the other teens.
Then Lynch tried to “intimidate, threaten and confuse” the victim, the lawsuit states. Lynch, who reportedly said he would contact police, also told D.R. that “what [he] had done was wrong and that D.R. needed forgiveness from First Baptist.”
When D.R.’s mother followed up after the meeting, Lynch allegedly indicated that “no force” was involved in the incident and that church officials would keep D.R. and the alleged perpetrator separated.
Lynch kept trying to “bully [the family] into silence,” the lawsuit states. In addition, church employees failed to provide D.R.’s parents with a policy about handling abuse, saying the church lacked procedures “to report sex abuse of minors.”
In its statement, First Baptist Dallas said:
Immediately upon learning of the subject allegation, it was reported to the necessary applicable law enforcement agencies. After extensive investigations, including interviews with eyewitnesses, each law enforcement agency indicated this was consensual sexual activity [between two male teenage parishioners] and closed any and all respective cases.
