NASHVILLE (BP) – A group of defendants named in a suit filed by David and Mary Sills have asked Judge William Campbell, Jr. dismiss them from the case in the United States District Court.

Former Southern Baptist Theological Seminary professor and missiologist David Sills and his wife Mary filed suit in Nashville on May 11. The suit alleges defamation, conspiracy, intentional infliction of emotional distress, and negligence concerning untrue claims of sexual abuse declared by Jennifer Lyell and repeated by those named in the suit.

Attorneys for the SBC, former SBC president Ed Litton, Lifeway Christian Resources, Lyell, former Lifeway executive Eric Geiger, the SBC Executive Committee (EC), current SBC President Bart Barber, interim EC president and CEO Willie McLaurin, the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary (SBTS), SBTS President Albert Mohler, Guidepost Solutions and SolutionPoint International filed motions for dismissal on July 12.

Reasons for dismissal cited by defendants included jurisdiction, the failure to state a claim upon which relief can be granted and other grounds.

The news of Sills’ May 23, 2018, resignation from SBTS was first reported by the Biblical Recorder. Baptist Press later reported on Lyell’s allegations of being sexually abused by Sills on March 8, 2019. The story was later removed and an explanation was issued on Oct. 15, 2019.

The Executive Committee formally apologized to Lyell on Feb. 22, 2022, for “its failure to adequately listen, protect, and care for Jennifer Lyell when she came forward to share her story of abuse by a seminary professor.”

Sills claims he never abused or forced himself on Lyell.