Conservative Christians ‘grieve’ Gaetz nomination, express frustration with leaders’ silence

(RNS) — Christian conservative leaders are hearing mounting criticism for their silence about the nomination of U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz to serve as the new Trump administration’s attorney general, as allegations about drug-fueled parties and sex trafficking involving the nominee continue to swirl in Washington.

“Those most vocal about supposedly loving Jesus and embracing Christian values are the ones that are least likely to stand up and object to nominations of this type of individual,” Boz Tchividjian, grandson of famed evangelist Billy Graham and longtime attorney for sexual abuse survivors in religious settings, told RNS on Wednesday (Nov. 20).

Shortly after President-elect Donald Trump tapped Gaetz, a Southern Baptist, as his pick to head the U.S. Department of Justice, attention turned to a congressional ethics investigation looking into allegations by a Gaetz associate that Gaetz knew that women were paid for sex at parties he attended and that Gaetz had sex with a 17-year-old in 2017. ABC News has reported that it obtained Venmo records suggesting the former congressman paid $10,000 to two women who testified to the ethics panel.

Gaetz, who has repeatedly denied the allegations, stepped down from his Florida House seat a day before a House Ethics Committee report focused on him was due to be released. A Department of Justice investigation into sex trafficking allegations against Gaetz ended last year without forwarding criminal charges.

On Monday, Chris Davis, a Southern Baptist pastor and abuse survivor, published a post on the social media website Bluesky addressed to abuse survivors, saying, “I’m grieved that you have to see a steady stream of sexual abusers put forth as leaders of our nation,” making a veiled reference to Gaetz and some other Trump Cabinet nominees. “You deserve better.”

According to Christianity Today, several organizations dedicated to fighting sex trafficking have also publicly challenged Gaetz’s appointment. Among them is Shared Hope International, whose founder Linda Smith, a Republican and former congresswoman from Washington state, told RNS she believes “the ethics committee report must be released prior to any confirmation hearing.”

President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee to be attorney general, former Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., closes a door to a private meeting with Vice President-elect JD Vance and Republican Senate Judiciary Committee members, at the Capitol in Washington, Nov. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

“Sex trafficking is a serious crime, and any allegation needs to be fully investigated,” Smith said in a statement. “Shared Hope International will always seek justice in any and every case of sex trafficking — justice against the buyers and the traffickers and justice for the victims.”

Mat Staver, a Southern Baptist and founder of the conservative legal firm Liberty Counsel, also came out against Gaetz, writing in a blog post last week that the former congressman “has neither the experience nor the moral character to serve as the highest law enforcement officer of the United States of America.”

But some have noted that SBC leaders, including those who have been outspoken about sexual abuse in recent years, have been quiet about Gaetz’s nomination. 

On Monday, Mark Wingfield, a former pastor of a Cooperative Baptist church in Texas and executive director of Baptist News Global, published an editorial titled “Matt Gaetz is a Southern Baptist who appears to get a free pass.”

Wingfield pointed to a 1998 resolution adopted by the SBC urging all Americans “to embrace and act on the conviction that character does count in public office, and to elect those officials and candidates who, although imperfect, demonstrate consistent honesty, moral purity and the highest character.”

Wingfield noted that House Speaker Mike Johnson, who opposes releasing the House ethics report on Gaetz, is also a Southern Baptist.

This week, Brent Leatherwood, president of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, the Southern Baptist Convention’s political arm, was not available to comment on Gaetz’s nomination, according to ERLC representatives, who cited scheduling issues. The SBC’s press office also did not respond to a request for comment.

The SBC, the largest Protestant denomination in the U.S., has been embroiled in a reckoning on sex abuse since at least 2019, when the Houston Chronicle published an investigation identifying some 700 abuse victims in SBC churches over two decades, some of whom had reported their abuse but were urged to forgive their abusers or get abortions.

Last October, Leatherwood issued a lengthy statement condemning sexual abuse and called on the church to do more. “Why is it when abuse is the issue — a disaster that so often strikes our churches — we get weak in the knees or let lawyers take the reins of decision making?” Leatherwood wrote. “Do the same responsibilities outlined in Scripture to do what is right and seek justice not apply here, as well? Of course they do.”

Brent Leatherwood speaks from the floor of the Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting at the Indiana Convention Center in Indianapolis, June 12, 2024. (RNS photo/AJ Mast)

Leatherwood also said SBC messengers — voting members of the denomination’s governing body — believe “abuse is a scourge upon our churches, and this evil must be confronted; survivors who have suffered so much are to be supported; and the vulnerable in our midst—even those you may not have at the forefront of your mind—are to be protected.”

In June, SBC President Clint Pressley of Hickory Grove Baptist Church in Charlotte, North Carolina, sent a letter to members of his church informing them that a volunteer had been arrested. Church leaders, the letter explained, had informed police the volunteer had been accused of sexual abuse by a student at the church’s school.

“We do not tolerate abusive behavior of any kind,” he wrote. “Sexual abuse is especially heinous. It is a despicable injustice that we condemn in the strongest terms. Any victim should feel they can talk about it, freely report, and be listened to and cared for.”

Asked if he was surprised by the silence about Gaetz, Tchividjian said, “Why would it surprise me that the denomination that’s had hundreds and hundreds of credible allegations of sexual abuse minimized and covered up would be silent about the nomination of Matt Gaetz?”

Boz Tchividjian. (Photo by Christopher Breedlove)

Tchividjian extended his criticism to the conservative Christian community, who, he said, “spent the last two years screaming up and down about the culture wars and how immoral our country is becoming” but are now “remaining silent or twisting themselves up into pretzels rationalizing why Matt Gaetz should become the attorney general of the United States.”

Tchividjian said the silence is ultimately about access to political power. “These megachurch pastors all think they have a seat at the table,” he said. “They know if they speak out and say what needs to be said — say what Jesus would have them say — they would lose that illusion of having a seat at the table.”

Some Republicans have publicly expressed doubt that the Gaetz nomination will survive the confirmation process, including the president-elect himself. But Trump has pushed forward and Gaetz appeared on Capitol Hill on Wednesday alongside Vice President-elect JD Vance, hoping to shore up support among Republican senators.

In the meantime, Tchividjian said national discussion of the allegations facing Gaetz can retraumatize abuse survivors. “It’s troubling to people, and I think especially for victims — they really struggle with that, and it makes them feel less safe.”