Abyssinian Baptist Church Faces Gender Discrimination Lawsuit Over Senior Pastor Selection

Eboni Marshall Turman, a former assistant minister at the church, alleges she was unfairly excluded from the final round of candidates due to her gender.

• Eboni Marshall Turman, a Yale Divinity School professor and former assistant minister at Abyssinian Baptist Church, has filed a lawsuit alleging gender discrimination in the church's selection process for a new senior pastor.
• Turman alleges she was the only woman to advance to a third round of interviews to succeed the late Rev. Dr. Calvin O. Butts III, but was cut before the pool narrowed to five finalists, all of whom were male.
• The lawsuit claims that one member of the search committee stated that Abyssinian would only hire a woman as its senior pastor 'over my dead body'.
• Turman also alleges that Butts himself told her she would never be the senior pastor because the church would never hire a woman for the position.
• The lawsuit seeks monetary damages for 'lost wages, lost benefits, other economic damages, shame, humiliation, embarrassment, and mental distress,' as well as an injunction to prevent future gender discrimination in hiring.

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