(RNS) — Gareld Duane Rollins, whose lawsuit accusing a legendary Southern Baptist leader of abuse sparked a crisis in the nation’s largest Protestant denomination, died Friday (May 23).
“The abuse he suffered by those touting their religion is unimaginable,” said Michael Goldberg, an attorney for law firm Baker Botts, which represented Rollins. “This could not have happened if not for supposed good people keeping quiet. There are no innocent bystanders.”
News of Rollins’ death was first made public by journalist Robert Downen, who had covered Rollins’ lawsuit against Texas judge Paul Pressler, an influential Southern Baptist Convention lay leader, for years.
Downen, a senior writer for Texas Monthly, said Rollins, who had long suffered from health issues and was in his late 50s, had been in hospice care the last time the two had talked. Still, his death came as a shock.
“His life was cut short just as he was freeing himself from the thing that had defined him for so long,” Downen said.
The two had met by happenstance. Downen had been working at a courthouse as a reporter for the Houston Chronicle when he came across a notice about a filing in Rollins’ lawsuit against Pressler. It would lead to years of reporting about the case and abuse in the SBC.
Downen said Rollins was a person of deep faith, which sustained hi …