While a shocking number of high-profile male pastors have (allegedly) been behaving badly, a small army of Christian women has been quietly sharing victims’ stories. Following a rash of charges against North Texas pastors—and the indictment of Robert Morris, founder of Gateway Church in Fort Worth—NBC News Digital Docs profiled whistleblowers Amy Smith and Dee Parsons.
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In the video, the self-described “Daughters of Stan” speak about the challenges and rewards of their work. Smith, Parsons, and other members of an informal whistleblowing network began calling themselves Daughters of Stan as an inside joke. But their mission and efforts are no laughing matter.
Amy Smith, Dee Parsons Band Together To Expose Church Sexual Abuse
Amy Smith, a survivor advocate who writes the Watchkeep blog, lost the support of her family and her former church—Prestonwood Baptist in Plano, Texas—after reporting former associate pastor John Langworthy, now a convicted felon.
But after she started speaking out against sexual misconduct in churches, a persistent nightmare of Smith’s finally stopped. “I would wake up and that pedophile, that pastor, would show up at my church,” she said, “and I would try to open my mouth to tell somebody, you know, like warning, ‘That guy is not safe.’ But no sound would come out.”
Smith, who still lives in North Texas, said the area’s recent cases almost all involve sexual immorality. Others involve allegations of child sexual abuse. “I think we’re just publicly seeing the tip of the iceberg,” she said.
After NBC’s video aired on Thursday (May 29), Smith explained that NBC News had contacted her and Parsons “late last year…to film us about our work as abuse survivor advocates and bloggers.” On social media she wrote, “Thank you to all who worked on this project. I’m grateful to Dee for all her support, encouragement and friendship over the years.”
Abuse Advocate Promises To Persist
Dee Parsons, longtime editor of The Wartburg Watch, also expressed gratitude for the attention to the women’s cause and for Amy Smith’s support. “This was hard for me since I didn’t want the focus to be on me but on the work I do,” she posted about the December 2024 filming. “I am grateful that my faith was portrayed positively and thoughtfully.”
In the video, Parsons holds up a cease-and-desist letter—one of “15 or 20” she’s received during her 15 years of writing about church sexual abuse. “This is what I have to deal with when we go after a pastor,” she said.
The bloggers also receive hate mail, including a letter from a man intending to insult them by calling them “Daughters of Satan.” Instead, he wrote “Daughters of Stan,” a “standing joke” that Parsons said has stuck.
