According to court filings, a woman who attended an interview for the senior pastor post at Abyssinian Baptist Church in New York City is suing the church and the previous search committee chair for discrimination based on her gender.
In a complaint filed on December 29, Eboni Marshall Turman, an associate professor of theology and African American religion at Yale Divinity School and a former assistant minister at Abyssinian, claims that gender discrimination was the driving force behind the decision to reject her for the senior pastor position.
After longstanding head pastor Rev. Calvin O. Butts III passed away in 2022, a search committee examined Turman and several other contenders for the role, according to the
Turman claimed to have been told in September that she was not selected as one of the five candidates for the job. According to the lawsuit, all five of the finalists were men.
The church refuted the allegations of prejudice in a statement
“In all it does, Abyssinian Baptist Church prioritizes faith, justice, honesty, and inclusivity. Their search for a new pastor reflects this as well. The church added in the statement, “As such, the church denies any allegations of discrimination and plans to continue to defend itself vigorously.”
Over forty applicants “from diverse backgrounds across age, gender, and sexual orientations” have been evaluated for the position by a committee made up primarily of women through a “documented vetting process.” Turman applied to the position after the committee posted the qualifications and conditions, according to the church.
Although Turman and “others were considered for the role due to their impressive backgrounds,” the church stated that Turman “finally failed to meet some essential requirements for the role, where other finalist candidates prevailed and advanced in the process.”
The search committee’s head, Valerie S. Grant, declined to comment on the complaint, according to LaToya Evans, a spokeswoman for the Abyssinian Baptist Church. She directed CNN to the church’s statement. The church website no longer lists Grant as a member of the search committee. CNN has contacted Turman to get a statement.
Turman alleges in her lawsuit that last September, Grant informed her in writing that she would not be one of the position’s finalists.
However, according to the lawsuit, Grant couldn’t have done so without the approval of the full committee.
According to the complaint, “the decision not to hire Plaintiff (Turman) was motivated by gender discrimination, a fact that was openly discussed during Committee meetings, including by Grant and another Committee member, who said that Abyssinian would only hire a woman as its Senior Pastor ‘over my dead body.'”
The complaint claims that several committee members opposed removing Turman from the finalist pool on the grounds of gender discrimination. When Turman later complained on social media about not being selected as one of the five finalists for the post, committee members allegedly informed Turman’s husband that the decision was made due to gender discrimination, according to the complaint.
Before Butts passed away, Turman also claims he called her the brightest and greatest minister he “ever had,” but he also allegedly informed her she would never be a senior pastor because the church would never appoint a woman to that position, according to the complaint. According to the complaint, Turman worked for ten years in a variety of capacities, including assistant pastor, after being ordained in 2007 at Abyssinian.
In addition to an order to stop future gender discrimination in hiring, the case seeks monetary damages for “lost wages, lost benefits, other economic damages, shame, humiliation, embarrassment, and mental distress.”