Lawsuit Accuses Columbia’s First Baptist Church of Covering Up Child Sex Abuse

A lawsuit filed in Richland County Circuit Court this week alleges that a youth worker at First Baptist Church in downtown Columbia sent numerous sexually explicit text messages to a boy in a church program, and that church officials did little or nothing for years while the abuse allegedly continued. The lawsuit says the boy, now 17, was about 11 when the alleged abuse began. It asks for a minimum of $150,000 in damages, claiming personal injury and “severe emotional distress.”

The lawsuit also argues that the alleged inaction is part of a broader history at the church of failing to act against potential molesters. To expose what it calls a pattern of concealing abuse, the suit seeks a court order to unseal three sealed civil lawsuits against First Baptist and an ex-deacon, John Hubner. Hubner, 69, was convicted in 2002 in Richland County of lewd acts on a child at First Baptist and is serving a 36-year sentence.

In response to questions from The State newspaper, First Baptist released a statement on Friday from R. Bryan Barnes, a church member and Columbia lawyer. The statement said the church became aware of allegations of inappropriate conduct by an unpaid volunteer in its student ministries department last fall. It said a church committee investigated under church policy, concluded the volunteer had violated church policies, and that disciplinary action was taken, including a prohibition on further contact with students. Accountability and honest dealing matter in such cases (Proverbs 11:1). The church’s lawyers advised against further public comment at this time.

The statement did not address the lawsuit’s claims that First Baptist covered up instances of sexual abuse, or whether the church had contacted law enforcement about the alleged misconduct, as state law requires. Peter Farr, an attorney for the church, said Friday that those and other issues would be addressed “at the proper time, in the proper forum,” as the legal action continues.

First Baptist was founded in 1809 and is one of the Columbia area’s largest and oldest churches, with about 7,000 members. Its 3,300-seat sanctuary, valued at $13 million, occupies a city block downtown. The church’s pastor, Wendell Estep, 74, has led the congregation for 31 years and recently announced he will retire next year. Estep is named as a defendant along with the church, Philip Turner and Andrew McCraw. The lawsuit identifies Turner as the church’s staff student minister and McCraw as a youth assistant mentor and assistant small group leader. A church spokesman said none of the individuals named would comment.

The suit was brought by a minor identified in court papers by a pseudonym, along with his parents. Under state practice, the identity of minors in sex cases is confidential. According to the lawsuit, the boy began attending First Baptist while in elementary school and, at age 11, joined a Sunday evening youth program intended to create “a safe environment for children to discuss various religious topics” with young adult mentors. McCraw was assigned as his youth mentor, the suit says, and began inviting him to movies and dinners and to sleepovers at McCraw’s home with no other adults or youth present.

The lawsuit states that McCraw also sent the boy text messages, sometimes dozens a day, that were “sexually motivated, inappropriate and illegal,” and quotes 17 texts sent between July 29 and Aug. 16, 2016. It further alleges that McCraw sent the boy nude photos of himself, inappropriately touched the youth on First Baptist’s property, and “proclaimed his love” for him.

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