Herman Paul Pressler, III (born June 4, 1930), is a retired justice of the Texas 14th Circuit Court of Appeals in his native Houston, Texas. Pressler was a key figure in the conservative resurgence of the Southern Baptist Convention, which he initiated in 1979.
Pressler is descended from a line of lawyers. His maternal great-grandfather was Judge C. C. Garrett, the first Chief Justice of the Texas 1st Court of Civil Appeals. The Garrett-Townes auditorium at the South Texas College of Law in Houston is named of his two great-grandfathers.[1]
Pressler's mother, the former Elsie Townes (1905-2008), was the daughter of Edgar E. Townes, who practiced law in Beaumont at the time of Spindletop but moved his family to Houston in 1917, where he became counsel to and a founder of Humble Oil and Refining Company. Elsie and Herman Pressler married in 1928. In 1949, Herman and Elsie Pressler were among the founding members of the large River Oaks Baptist Church in Houston. She was active in such civic causes as the Houston Municipal Arts Committee, the Harris County Heritage Society, the River Oaks Garden Club, and the National Society of Colonial Dames. Pressler's younger brother is Townes Garrett Pressler Sr.[1] Herman and Elsie Pressler are interred at Forest Park Cemetery in Houston.[2]
Pressler was educated at Princeton University in Princeton, New Jersey, where as a student he confronted theological liberalism head-on, having never wavered in the faith acquired in his youth.[4] Pressler was involved with Princeton Evangelical Fellowship during his undergraduate days at Princeton University. Pressler graduated with an A.B. in politics from Princeton in 1952 after completing a 274-page long senior thesis titled "The Texas Regulars Party."[5] Like his father, he received his law degree from the University of Texas. He also attended the National College of State Trial Judges, now known as the National Judicial College, a creation of the American Bar Association.[6]
Pressler's current law firm is Woodfill & Pressler in Houston, with his senior partner Jared Woodfill, who was the chairman of the Harris County Republican Party from 2002 to 2014.[7]
Pressler is married to the former Nancy Avery, originally from Illinois, the daughter of the attorney William H. Avery and the former Eugenie "Jean" Petrequin (1910-2013), a native of Shaker Heights, Ohio, a graduate of Smith College, and an active Presbyterian, who spent much of her adulthood in Winnetka in Cook County north of Chicago.[8] The Presslers have two daughters, Jean I. Pressler Visy and husband, Joe, of Silver Spring, Maryland, and Anne L. Pressler Csorba and her husband, Les, and a son, Paul Pressler, IV, all of Houston.[1]
In 1989, the first President Bush proposed to nominate Judge Pressler as the director of the Office of Government Ethics, but opposition from theologically liberal opponents in the Southern Baptist Convention persuaded Pressler not to pursue the appointment. Since 2000, Pressler has been a senior partner with the Houston firm Woodfill and Pressler, where he is engaged in the practice of mediation law and has international clients. One of his former law partners is incoming state Representative Briscoe Cain of Deer Park. He has served as a director for the National Association of Religious Broadcasters, the Southern Baptist International Mission Board, the Free Market Foundation,[6] and the Philosophical Society of Texas.[12]
Judge Pressler is a past president of the Council for National Policy, which in 2009 presented him with its Ronald Reagan Award for Lifetime Achievement.[13] In his 1999 memoir, A Hill on Which to Die: One Southern Baptist's Journey, Pressler recounts how he first met Reagan at a meeting in Dallas in 1980 of Ed McAteer's Religious Roundtable, a part of the newly organized Christian right groups:
At the urging of some friends, I decided to go [to the briefing in Dallas]. I did not expect much, but when I arrived, I found a packed arena, full of enthusiastic individuals hearing great speakers. I went to the phone after the first few hours, called Nancy [his wife], and said, 'Get a baby-sitter for the children. You must come up here and hear what is going on.' She flew to Dallas, and we had the opportunity to attend together. This was the first time either of us had met Ronald Reagan. [Dallas businesswoman] Mary Crowley invited us to a reception for him at the Hyatt. Jimmy Carter had been invited to speak but did not attend.[14]
In 2011, Pressler received the William Wilberforce Award for Lifetime Achievement from the National Federation of Republican Assemblies, which also named him to its Board of Advisors in 2014.[15]
In January 2012, Pressler called a meeting of national conservative figures held at his Hidden Hills Ranch north of Houston near Brenham in Austin County to select a consensus challenger to the front-running Moderate RepublicanMitt Romney in the 2012 Republican presidential primaries.[16] Though Pressler voted on the first three ballots for Texas Governor Rick Perry, he switched to former U.S. Senator Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania, who won 70 percent of the vote on the fourth round of balloting. Critics of the "Stop-Romney" conclave claimed that the outcome had been rigged in Santorum's favor because many supporters of Perry and former Speaker of the United States House of RepresentativesNewt Gingrich of Georgia had already left the meeting prior to the fourth ballot.[17] By the time the Texas primary was held on May 29, Santorum had withdrawn, and only Romney and then U.S. RepresentativeRon Paul were still declared candidates.
As a Baptist layman, Pressler in the early 1960s surveyed his denomination and its commitment to Bible teachings. He particularly objected to a commentary on the Book of Genesis by Ralph Elliott, a then professor at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Kansas City, Missouri, who in the 1961 book, The Message of Genesis published by the SBC's Broadman Press (now LifeWay Christian Resources) challenged the historic Christian teaching on Genesis, particularly the first eleven chapters.[18] Pressler was contacted by conservative students at Baylor University in Waco, Texas, who questioned the textbooks being used in their classes. "The books were just liberal garbage. We worked it through with these young people ... to try [to] keep them from going down the tubes," Pressler recalled years later.[18]
In 1978, Pressler met at the Café Du Monde in New Orleans, Louisiana, with Paige Patterson,[6] then president of Criswell College of Dallas, to outline the political strategy to elect like-minded convention presidents committed to the conservative resurgence, who in turn appointed conservatives to Southern Baptist Convention boards.[19]
Pressler and Patterson were accused by their SBC opponents, who usually called themselves "moderates," of having directed the affairs of the 1979 convention held in Houston from sky boxes high above the hall at Lakewood Church Central Campus, then called "The Summit". Pressler denies those allegations.[4] The election on the first ballot in Houston of the more conservative pastor, Adrian Rogers of Memphis, Tennessee, began the ten-year process of the conservative resurgence. Since that meeting there has been an unbroken succession of conservative evangelical presidents, one of whom was Charles Stanley of the First Baptist Church of Atlanta, Georgia. Each SBC president in turn appointed conservative individuals who in turn nominated the trustees, who elected the agency heads and institutional presidents, including those of the seminaries.[20]
On March 23, 2004, at a symposium to mark the 25th anniversary of the conservative resurgence held at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky, Pressler said in an interview with Albert Mohler, the SBTS president since 1993 and Gregory A. Wills, an associate professor of church history, that he, Patterson, Rogers, and other leaders covered by the media had much less to do with the conservative resurgence than did the SBC laypersons who attended the convention in record numbers.[18]
As Pressler recalls:
I remember one family from South Bend, Indiana. They had five children and drove non-stop to Los Angeles to the Southern Baptist Convention in 1981. They voted and [then] drove non-stop back [home] eating peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. They didn't spend a night in a motel because they didn't have the money. That's the type of sacrifice that won back the convention from liberalism. ...
The heroes of the conservative movement are not those whose names were in the press. They were the grassroots people who loved the Lord and loved the convention and loved God's Word and wanted to make sure that Southern Baptists returned to what [the Bible] teaches.[18]
Mohler said that without the conservative resurgence, the SBC would have become as liberal as the Episcopal or the Methodist churches. Because members of local churches are the ultimate decision makers, concerned laypeople were able to reverse the trend of the denomination, Mohler explained.[18]
At the Louisville symposium, Pressler expressed satisfaction and gratitude at what Southern Seminary became in the more than two decades since the conservative resurgence began:
To come here [today] and to see this room filled, there is no way I can express my gratitude fully. ... We have 15,000 students in our seminaries. Every single one of our seminary presidents is a godly man who believes the Word and has a burden for souls. I literally weep for joy at what God has done and the future we have as Southern Baptists because of the victory that has been won.[18]
In 1999, Pressler authored A Hill on Which to Die: One Southern Baptist's Journey, which examines his view of the convention resurgence.[4][18]
The Nancy and Paul Pressler Foundation, a charitable organization, has assets of under $1 million.[22]
Baptist-affiliated Louisiana College in Pineville, Louisiana, under former president Joe W. Aguillard, named its forthcoming law school to be constructed in the former Joe D. Waggonner Federal building in Shreveport in Judge Pressler's honor.[6][23] However, in November 2014, Aguillard's interim successor as president, Argile Smith, disclosed that the college has a $1 million shortfall for the 2014-2015 academic year. The 2014 enrollment of 1,265 is 141 fewer than in the fall of 2013. A decrease of 141 students, according to Smith, represents a loss of $2.1 million in revenues from tuition and fees paid by students, double the overall budgetary shortfall. Smith said that the institution will attempt to control expenditures but not cut jobs or contracts. Major projects under former President Aguillard will be suspended, including a school in Tanzania, Africa and the Pressler school, on which nearly $5.5 million has already been disbursed without the enrollment of a single student.[24] Among those involved in developing the law school is the constitutional attorney Mike Johnson, who in 2015 became a member of the Louisiana House of Representatives, but the future of the project remains unclear.[25]
Controversies
In April 2018, the Houston Chronicle reported that Paul Pressler was accused by Toby Twining and Brooks Schott of sexual misconduct in separate court affidavits.[26] Both men said Pressler molested or solicited them for sex. The accusations were filed as part of a lawsuit filed in 2017 by Gareld Duane Rollins Jr. claiming he was regularly raped by the Conservative leader. Rollins met Pressler in high school and was part of a Bible study Pressler led. Rollins claims he was raped two to three times a month while at Pressler's home.[27] According to the Chronicle, Pressler agreed in 2004 to pay $450,000 to Rollins for physical assault.[28] Southern Baptist leader Paige Patterson is also named in the suit, for helping Pressler cover up the abuse.[29]
In the 2018 Chronicle report, Toby Twining was a teenager in 1977 when Pressler grabbed his penis in a sauna at Houston's River Oaks Country Club. Pressler was a youth pastor at Bethel Church in Houston but was ousted in 1978 after church officials received information about "an alleged incident." Attorney Brooks Schott also stated in an affidavit that he resigned his position at Pressler's former law firm after Pressler invited hime to get into a hot tub with him naked. Brooks also accused Jared Woodfill, Pressler's longtime law partner who from 2002 to 2014 was chairman of the Harris County Republican Party, of failing to prevent Pressler's sexual advances toward him and others claiming his indiscretions were well-known at the firm.
Affiliations
Paul Pressler holds or has held the previous positions:
The Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) is a Christian denomination based in the United States. It is the world's largest Baptist denomination, the largest Protestant denomination in the United States, and the second-largest Christian denomination in the United States, smaller only than the Roman Catholic Church according to self-reported membership statistics.
Preston Earnest Smith was the 40th Governor of Texas from 1969 to 1973, who previously served as the lieutenant governor from 1963 to 1969.
The Council for National Policy (CNP) is an umbrella organization and networking group for conservative and Republican [activists]] in the United States. It has been described by The New York Times as "a little-known club of a few hundred of the most powerful conservatives in the country," who meet three times yearly behind closed doors at undisclosed locations for a confidential conference. The Nation has called it a secretive organization that "networks wealthy right-wing donors together with top conservative operatives to plan long-term movement strategy". It was founded in 1981 by Tim LaHaye as a forum for conservative Christians seeking to strengthen the political right in the United States. The organization has been described as a "pluto-theocracy".
Adrian Pierce Rogers was an American Southern Baptist pastor and conservative author. He served three terms as president of the Southern Baptist Convention . Rogers was born in West Palm Beach, Florida. He entered Christian ministry at the age of nineteen. He graduated from Stetson University in DeLand, Florida, and New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. Rogers was ordained by Northwood Baptist Church in West Palm Beach. His first job as a senior pastor was at Fellsmere Baptist Church, a small congregation in Fellsmere, Florida. He performed his first baptism in the C-54 Canal near Fellsmere. He was senior pastor of First Baptist Church in Merritt Island, Florida from 1964 to 1972. In 1972, he became the senior pastor of Bellevue Baptist Church in Memphis, Tennessee, where he remained until March 2005. During this period, the church's membership grew from 9,000 to 29,000, and the church moved into a new, megachurch facility. Rogers was named pastor emeritus after his retirement in March 2005.
The National Federation of Republican Assemblies (NFRA) is a political organization which promotes conservative principles and candidates within the Republican Party. Members at the local, state and national levels work to recruit and elect Republican candidates who reflect the Party’s conservative philosophy, and to oppose "RINOs", leaders and candidates who take positions to the left of the party's conservative mainstream.
Richard Albert Mohler Jr. is an American historical theologian, the ninth president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky, and host of the podcast "The Briefing" where he daily analyzes the news and events from a "Christian worldview." He has been described as "one of America's most influential evangelicals".
L. Paige Patterson served as the fifth president of Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Wake Forest, N.C., from 1992 to 2003, as president of the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) from 1998 to 2000, and as the eighth president of the Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas, from 2003 until his firing in 2018. He played a major role in the Southern Baptist "conservative resurgence", called "Fundamentalist Takeover" by opponents. He has been alternately described as a fundamentalist and a conservative evangelical.
Richard D. Land is the president of Southern Evangelical Seminary in Charlotte, North Carolina, a post he has held since July 2013.
John Steven Gaines is an American Southern Baptist pastor, and the 61st President of the Southern Baptist Convention. He is currently serving at Bellevue Baptist Church in Cordova, one of the largest congregations in the Southern Baptist Convention. On Sunday, July 10, 2005 the Pastor Search Committee of Bellevue Baptist Church presented Dr. Steve Gaines to the church congregation. At the conclusion of the services the Bellevue family overwhelmingly voted to call Steve Gaines as the seventh Pastor of Bellevue Baptist Church. Gaines succeeds the longtime Bellevue pastor Adrian Rogers.
The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary (SBTS) is a Southern Baptist seminary in Louisville, Kentucky. It is the oldest of the six seminaries affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC). The seminary was founded in 1859 at Greenville, South Carolina, where it was at first lodged on the campus of Furman University. After being closed during the Civil War, it moved in 1877 to a newly built campus in downtown Louisville and later moved to its current location in the Crescent Hill neighborhood. For more than fifty years Southern has been one of the world's largest theological seminaries, with an FTE enrollment of over 3,300 students in 2015.
Beginning in 1979, the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) experienced an intense struggle for control of the organization. Its initiators called it the Conservative Resurgence while its detractors labeled it the Fundamentalist Takeover. It was launched with the charge that the seminaries and denominational agencies were dominated by liberals. The movement was primarily aimed at reorienting the denomination away from a liberal trajectory.
Duke Kimbrough McCall was an American Christian religious leader who served as Chief Executive Officer of the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) Executive Committee, as president of two theological seminaries, as president of the Baptist World Alliance, and as a Baptist pastor.
Russell H. Dilday is a pastor, educator, former seminary president, and chancellor of B.H. Carroll Theological Institute. He is best known for his tenure as President of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary until his abrupt dismissal in 1994 during the Southern Baptist Convention conservative resurgence.
The following is a timeline of major events leading up to the United States presidential election of 2012. The election was the 57th quadrennial United States presidential election and was held on November 6, 2012.
Wade Burleson is a writer, avocational historian, and teaching pastor at Emmanuel Enid, Oklahoma. Burleson was twice elected President of the Baptist General Convention of Oklahoma (2002–4), and served as a trustee for the Southern Baptist Convention's International Mission Board (2005–8). Oklahoma Governor Frank Keating appointed Burleson to the northwest Oklahoma Higher Education Program Board where he was instrumental in establishing the Northwestern Oklahoma State University's campus in Enid, Oklahoma. Burleson worked five years as the south Tulsa Police chaplain (1988–92) where he was awarded the Silver Star for outstanding service. He later served as chaplain for the Garfield County Sheriff's Department (1992–2000). The United States Department of Justice awarded Burleson a Certificate of Achievement for his work with victims and their families during the aftermath of 1995 Oklahoma City bombing.
Morris H. Chapman was elected president and chief executive officer of the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) Executive Committee on October 1, 1992. In September 2009 he announced that he would retire from this position effective September 30, 2010.
George Earl Guinn, known as G. Earl Guinn, was from 1951 to 1975 the fifth president of Southern Baptist-affiliated Louisiana College in Pineville, Louisiana.
Jared Ryker Woodfill V is a Texan political figure who from 2002 to 2014 was chairman of the Harris County Republican Party. He was elected chairman for six two-year terms. Woodfill was the longest serving and youngest ever elected as Harris County chairman. He is known for social and fiscal conservative positions. In 2015, he was named Houstonian of the Year by KRIV Fox 26. In 2015, Jared Woodfill became the spokesman for Campaign For Houston, the group that opposed former Houston Mayor Annise Parker's equal rights ordinance and prevailed, 61 to 39 percent among the electorate.
On February 10, 2019, the Houston Chronicle and San Antonio Express-News published an investigative report into widespread sexual abuse within member churches of the Southern Baptist Convention. The report found since 1998, roughly 380 clergy, lay leaders and volunteers had faced allegations of sexual misconduct, leaving behind over 700 victims. The extent of misconduct is further complicated by work within the Southern Baptist Convention to move sex offenders to other communities and resist attempts to address the culture of abuse.
1 2 3 Paul Pressler, A Hill on Which to Die: One Southern Baptist's Journey, 362 pages. B&H Publishing Group; 1999, revised May 2002. May 2002. ISBN978-0805426342.
↑ Rob B. James, The Fundamentalist Takeover in the Southern Baptist Convention, 4th ed., Wilkes Publishing Co., Inc., Washington, Georgia. Available at August 19, 2009.
↑ Albert Mohler, "The Southern Baptist Reformation—A First-Hand Account
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
