SEBTS email confirms Karen Swallow Prior shared Bucks’ rough draft with ‘persons for possible publication.’
Tom and Jennifer Buck deny ever authorizing Karen Swallow Prior to share the manuscript with publishers. In fact, the Bucks say there is evidence she never shared it with a publisher.
Professor Karen Swallow Prior shared the rough draft at the center of the attempt to blackmail Tom and Jennifer Buck with potential publishers, according to Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary (SEBTS). Tom and Jennifer Buck claim that Karen Swallow Prior did not have their permission to share the rough draft. And in fact, the Bucks say there is evidence against her having shared it.
In an email obtained exclusively by the Capstone Report, SEBTS said that Karen Prior “never shared” the rough draft “with anyone trying to disparage them.” However, in the same email the school’s leadership confirmed that Karen Swallow Prior “shared it with persons for possible publication.”
In fact, SEBTS claims Karen Swallow Prior shared the rough draft with those persons “at their request.” However, the Bucks deny ever giving Karen Swallow Prior that permission.
In a Friday afternoon video, Tom Buck and Jennifer Buck explicitly said they never granted Karen Swallow Prior permission to share the document with anyone.
“There is no evidence whatsoever that she gave it to any other publication,” Tom Buck said. “We didn’t give her verbal or written permission to send it out to anybody.”
The Bucks adamantly claim that the only person they shared the rough draft with was Karen Swallow Prior.
Now that SEBTS has made clear that Karen Swallow Prior shared the document, it is imperative that SEBTS force Karen Swallow Prior to reveal the names of all who received the document from her.
The rough draft was the centerpiece of what Tom and Jennifer Buck described as an attempt to smear Tom Buck for his outspoken conservative stands. Also, it was used in an attempt to blackmail the conservative pastor into silence.
Jennifer Buck said, “My rough draft was spread around the SBC as gossip before we were blackmailed w/ it. Untold numbers had it – several admit having it. None will reveal who gave it to them. Is there not anyone with integrity in the SBC who will confess where they got it? Who are they covering for?”
Since it is clear SEBTS refuses to force Karen Swallow Prior to cooperate and other SEBTS employees and potentially other SBC employees have the rough draft but refuse to say where they got it, there must be a full, independent, outside investigation conducted ASAP by outsiders that can be trusted by all parties.
Anything else shows SEBTS and the SBC do not care about abuse survivors.