“Justice is truth in action.”
Benjamin Disraeli, Speech, House of Commons, February 11, 1851

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“I fully cooperated with this investigation and have pleaded not guilty to the charge against me. As a Christian, a (former) seminary professor, and now a pastor, my integrity is everything to me and I will cling to that integrity and seek to be vindicated by God and man,”
Matthew Queen, May 22, 2024

Below are some quotes from an excellent article written by Benjamin S. Cole and published by Baptist News Global titled “Matt Queen, we hardly knew ye.”

“Matt Queen, on the other hand, finished his master of divinity degree and Ph.D. work at Southeastern Seminary and accepted an appointment as a professor of evangelism in Fort Worth under his mentor, patron and then-president Paige Patterson. His classes were increasingly popular among students. He was a favored academic adviser for doctoral candidates both young and old, including now Southwestern Chancellor O.S. Hawkins, with whom Queen has co-authored a book on evangelistic preaching.”

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It’s my opinion that anyone who had Paige Patterson as his mentor and patron should be viewed with a skeptical eye. (See The Rise and Fall of Paige Patterson: On the Two Year Anniversary of Patterson’s Firing at SWBTS)

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“Within three short weeks of Dockery’s announcement, the seminary’s long-tenured female professor, Terri Stovall, brought to campus police a student report of sexual assault. Incidentally, the campus police chief at the time, Kevin Collins, previously held the same job under R. Albert Mohler Jr., at Southern Seminary in Louisville, Ky. What Collins did with the report is uncertain, but we now know it took nearly three months for an arrest to happen. That delay, coupled with the entire chronology of events, has abuse survivors, seminary leaders and reporters still scratching their heads.”

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Note:  Christian Flores, arrested on January 24, 2023, for the alleged sexual assault of a woman, was a student at the Texas Baptist College, the undergraduate college affiliated with Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. I have been advised that the case is languishing in the hands of a Grand Jury.

Continuing with Benjamin S. Cole’s article:

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“Yet according to reports by seminary officials, a hurried meeting about the arrest was convened by then-Chief of Staff Heath Woolman, who along with Stovall and Queen huddled after chapel in the final week of January 2023. At that meeting, Stovall alleges and now Queen confirms, Woolman told the group to make the matter “go away.”

Stunned by what she’d heard and scrupulously determined to abide by the seminary’s written policies and comply with a federal subpoena, Stovall made contemporaneous notes and provided them to seminary leaders. In early February, wanting to get to the bottom of things, Dockery brought in all affected and involved seminary employees for a fact-finding meeting. What happened in that meeting is a matter of legally privileged and confidential employment records.

For her part, Stovall maintains throughout it all that she’d heard the order to destroy evidence, sought to inform her supervisors as required by seminary policy, and refuted persistent accusations by Woolman, Queen and others that she was either misremembering events or outright lying. All the while, Queen and Woolman continued serving under Dockery’s appointment.”

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Note: I communicated with Terri Stovall yesterday (February 20, 2025) and asked her whether Matthew Queen, after having pleaded guilty to the charges of lying to the FBI during the investigation of sexual assault, has ever apologized to her or asked her to forgive him for lying about her truthful account of events. Stovall replied no, Queen has never done that and further, she has not spoken with him since 2023. Remember this fact when you read all the letters sent to Judge Lewis A. Kaplan asking for leniency in the sentencing of Matthew Queen.

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“But in late June 2023, Queen was summoned to New York to testify in person before a federal grand jury. It was then that his shield of dishonesty started to crack and his criminal scheme began to unravel. According to federal prosecutors, Queen lied not once but twice, changing his story in the same sitting as he desperately tried like Lady MacBeth to get the damn spot off his own hands before anybody managed to notice.

Nevertheless, and as I’ve opined for decades, competence and character too often take the backseat to blind loyalty and uncritical obeisance when denominational posts are being handed out. And while I refrain from even hinting that Queen is an unscrupulous or incompetent beneficiary of a corrupt system of denominational spoils, there is no denying he has spent most of his adult and professional life under the supervision of some shady characters.

Which is, of course, not surprising for a career employee who must learn to thrive in a convention whose most prominent theologians and denominational powerbrokers routinely apply an over-bloated hermeneutic of authority and submission to everything from the inner operations of the eternal godhead to the meal planning and suitcase packing of twentysomething newlyweds.

Clearly, nobody made Matt Queen falsify records. Nobody induced him to lie to federal investigators. And nobody told him to subject yet another Southern Baptist church or institution to the trauma and tragedy of a failed ministry leader and a fallen preacher.

But until Southern Baptists — and Southern Baptist entity leaders — get more serious about telling the whole truth about these institutions, their assets and their activities than they are about protecting the legacies of the chief denominational offenders and their enablers, hapless souls like Matt Queen will continue to have their teeth set on edge by the bitter chicory their denominational forefathers have swilled since those midnight meetups at the Cafe du Monde.”

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Cole was spot-on in his analysis.  Christa Brown has also been shining a light on the do-nothing SBC leaders for years. She said this in her latest Substack article:

“Nothing to see here; we’re moving on.
So, even though a database of convicted, admitted and credibly accused pastors is what thousands of Southern Baptist delegates (“messengers”) voted for in 2022, it’s now obvious that, despite the repeated promises and all the institutional showmanship, it’s not going to happen. Certainly not anytime soon.
Institutional record-keeping and information-sharing on credibly accused abusive pastors is simply not a priority for those who actually hold power in this recalcitrant faith group. The will of the messengers be damned. Not to mention the safety of kids and congregants.”

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Before taking a look at what Matthew Queen’s supporters wrote to Judge Lewis A. Kaplan, now permanently enshrined in official court documents, I will quote from another great article in Baptist News Global titled “Matt Queen’s attorney asks judge for leniency in sentencing.”

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“A sentencing hearing is scheduled for March 5 in New York. The Department of Justice has requested a $2,000 fine and one year of probation without incarceration.

Nevertheless, attorney Sam Schmidt wrote to appeal for mercy from the judge in sentencing. His letter includes statements from 59 family members, friends and former colleagues of Queen’s.

“Matthew Queen has led a life that has caused many of his family, friends, colleagues, former students and parishioners to write to your honor to describe the man they know and ask for mercy and leniency,” the letter states.

The attorney’s letter then claims the impact of Queen’s lying “was not substantial” and his conduct “contained no evidence of misconduct on the part of SWBTS or its employees.”

In reality, the episode occurred in the midst of a massive nationwide reckoning over mishandled sexual abuse cases in the Southern Baptist Convention and by most all accounts other seminary employees did commit misconduct.

The letter also says Queen “quickly acknowledged his falsehood, apologized, repented and truthfully testified in the grand jury.”

In fact, the fateful meeting on Southwestern’s campus happened in January 2023 and Queen was interviewed by the FBI in May 2023, when he produced fake documentation of the January meeting. He was interviewed by a grand jury in June 2023, but was not indicted until one year later, in May 2024.

Queen then went from May to October of that year maintaining his innocence. He did not change his plea until five months after his indictment and arrest. And in the meantime, he not only protested his innocence but once indicted refused to resign from his pastorate.

His attorney tells the story this way: “While he has not yet been punished by this court, he has suffered substantially — he needed to resign from his position as lead pastor of his church in North Carolina, and he has been regularly criticized in the religious and secular press with his reputation suffering as a result.”

And, the attorney says, “Most people in his religious community have accepted his repentance and have forgiven his error.”

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From the document above:

“For reasons that I will attempt to demonstrate in this submission, punishment that includes incarceration is not necessary to achieve the purposes found in 18 U.S.C. § 3553(a) nor as a matter of justice. Matthew Queen has led a life that has caused many of his family, friends, colleagues, former students and parishioners to write to Your Honor to describe the man they know and ask for mercy and leniency. Though lying to a federal officer during an investigation is a serious offense, the Sentencing Guidelines recognize that it is much less serious than most of the offenses that result in prosecutions in this courthouse.”

“Also significant was that Matthew Queen quickly acknowledged his falsehood, apologized, repented and truthfully testified in the grand jury. And while he has not yet been punished by this Court, he has suffered substantially – he needed to resign from his position as lead pastor of his church in North Carolina, and he has been regularly criticized in the religious and secular press with his reputation suffering as a result.”

“In his conversations with those he asked for letters of support, and as often noted in those letters, Matthew Queen has acknowledged his wrongful conduct, his regrets and his repentance. He knows he has disappointed so many, including himself and his faith.”

-Sam A. Schmidt, Attorney for Matthew Queen

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While I have repented of my sin before God, made it right with the government by correcting my false statement to them, and have pled guilty before this Court, I will forever live with the knowledge that I lied, an action contrary to my faith, my character, and my morals. I am daily reminded that my lie has disappointed my God, friends, and my students. I fully understand the responsibility I have to respect both law and judicial agents. I commit to you, your Honor, to apply the lessons I have learned from my mistake for the remainder of my life and ministry. I sincerely request your mercy, your Honor, as you decide my sentence.”

-Matthew Queen

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Recall that I mentioned earlier in this post that Queen has never repented to Terri Stovall. He hasn’t even spoken to her since 2023. Although I have no way of checking, I doubt he has ever spoken to the alleged victim in this story, much less repented for his role in the attempted coverup of the alleged sexual assault. Has Queen repented of his lies told to David Dockery? How about the members of Friendly Avenue Baptist Church?

It also appears from Queen’s statement that he plans on returning to the ministry. The man has pleaded guilty to a Felony! In my opinion, he is disqualified from ever being in ministry again.

Update – 2/23/2025: Matthew Queen is already back in the pulpit! On February 9, 2025 Queen preached at Living Water Church in Gladewater, TX. The pastor of the church is Teddy Sorrells. Queen was Sorrells supervisor in his Doctoral program. Sorrells wrote one of the letters of support for Matthew Queen and can be found in the court document below.

Below is the court document containing all the letters of support from Matthew Queen’s friends and family.  Peruse them at your leisure.  What I find shocking is all the SBC leaders – Pastors and Doctors – that have written Judge Lewis A. Kaplan saying how great of a guy Matthew Queen is and because he is such a great guy the Judge should be lenient with his sentence.  Sorry, but someone that attempts to cover up a rape (that is what sexual assault is) is not a great guy in my book.

When all these SBC leaders and everyday congregants write in support of Queen it proves what many have been saying for years, the SBC has no concern for those who have been sexually abused. As sick as it is, I believe that Queen will not serve any time in prison and he will be back in full-time ministry within a year.

Below I highlight a few men in SBC leadership positions who have written letters of support for Matthew Queen.

First is James Thomas “Jimmy” Draper Jr., Draper, known as “Mr. Southern Baptist” was president of the Southern Baptist Convention from 1982 to 1984 and as president of Lifeway Christian Resources from 1991 to 2006. He signed the Manhattan Declaration in 2009.

He served on pastoral staff of numerous churches through Texas, Missouri, and Oklahoma, most notably as pastor of First Southern Baptist Church Del City Oklahoma, associate pastor at First Baptist Dallas under W. A. Criswell, and pastor of First Baptist Euless (now Cross City Church). Source: Wikipedia

“Mr. Southern Baptist” is wrong on two items in his letter. The “error” Queen made was not quickly corrected. He was lying about what he heard in January 2023. He pleaded guilty in October 2024. Mr. Queen never repented to Terri Stovall, and likely never repented to the alleged victim of sexual assault, nor  SWBTS President David Dockery, nor the church members of Friendly Avenue Baptist Church.

Next is Dr. Thomas White, President of Cedarville University. Thomas White should have been fired from his job, but thanks to the “good old boy” network in the SBC he kept his job. White was good friends with Anthony Moore since their days together at SWBTS. Moore was the senior pastor at the Fort Worth campus of the Village Church. He was fired for taking secret videos of the assistant pastor while he was showering at Moore’s home. Within months White offered Anthony Moore a job at Cedarville, knowing full well the reason Moore was fired from the Village Church. When the story about Moore broke, Thomas White fired him. Both should have been gone. Now White is a character witness for Matthew Queen!  All I can say is the corruption within the SBC runs deep!

I could write much more, but this post is already too long. Read through the letters and if you have any alarming news on others who are questionable individuals testifying to the amazing character traits of Matthew Queen please advise us all in the comment section.