Prior to disclosing my abuse to LifeWay and SBTS, I went to Tullian T’s annual conf to evaluate the possibility of publishing him. He was pastoring & nothing has been revealed abt his sexual exploits. I sat in the balcony & as he emceed & preached, I knew he was using his (cont) https://twitter.com/jenlyell/status/1299161773442990080

position in some way connected to sexual sin and deception. He didn’t say anything on the topic, but a few references he made to diff women he knew held possessiveness that I knew how to translate. I returned and told my then boss @EricGeiger, “This will sound crazy, (cont)

but I have a feeling there’s some hidden sexual sin going on with Tullian and I don’t think we should pursue a book with him.” He trusted me, so we never approached TT about publishing a book. Then, I believe only about 4 mos later his sexual sin/deception was revealed.

(Cont)

When it was, I told a colleague, “I promise you he will end up back in ministry w/in a year.” Colleague said there was no way. I think it was about 6 mos later that I was—unfortunately—proven right.

Similarly, when the Hybels accusations first became nat’l news, I read the(cont)

victim’s account and knew with absolute certainty that she was telling the truth—not because of how she explained the sexual act against her, but by how she described Hybels’ actions/posture toward her in front of others the next day. I remember being w/colleagues as we (cont)

discussed it because we had to make decisions about whether or not to still carry his books, etc. The story had just broken. I don’t recall there being a response from Hybels, so it was complicated as we tried to figure out what to do when it was so fluid. I remember saying(cont)

“I assure you she is telling the truth.”

I’m pretty dogmatic in general (and most often right ), so no one realized why I was able to so consistently identify predators.

I will spend the rest of my life wishing that I had developed that radar prior to the summer of 2004.