Pouring more fire on allegations of sex abuse in Southern Baptist circles, a former student at Louisville’s Southern Baptist Theological Seminary says she was groomed and abused by a professor for more than a decade.

When prominent author and professor David Sills resigned last May from the seminary, President R. Albert Mohler Jr. issued a vague statement saying it was committed to the "highest standards of policy and procedure" but couldn’t elaborate because Sills' departure was a personnel matter.

Now the mystery of Sills' exit has been revealed.

In a statement posted on her website, Jennifer Lyell, who is now 41 and works for a major Christian book publisher, said Sills first "sexually acted" against her on a mission trip in 2004 and that the relationship continued until she was 38.

She said she was a 26-year-old Master of Divinity student when it began.

Previously:Kentucky Southern Baptist leaders among hundreds accused of sex abuse

Sills, who was a professor of missions and cultural anthropology, did not respond to a request for comment, while Mohler said he supported Lyell's decision to go public as a "brave and right thing to do."

Her statement was first reported by Baptist Press.

Lyell said in her statement that she asked "very strongly" last May that the seminary not reveal the reason for Sills' resignation because she wanted to protect his family.

But she said after she heard Sills had been hired at a missionary agency outside the Southern Baptist Convention, she realized she had to go public.

"If I were not to come forward, a church or ministry” that gets his resume and does an internet search “would have no way to know the truth behind his resignation,” she said.

“There are plenty of reasons to stay silent in a situation such as this,” she said. “But we must not be silent."

Lyell wrote that she reported the allegations to Mohler last spring, after the disclosure that the president of Southwestern Theological Seminary, Paige Patterson, had lied to his board about a student’s rape allegation and talked about “breaking down” the victim of a more recent rape.

Patterson, who had been a towering figure in the nation's largest Protestant denomination, with 15 million members, was fired last May.

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“When I heard this story, something inside of me broke,” Lyell said in her statement. “Something that had been held tightly for years.”

In February, following the disclosures against Patterson, the Houston Chronicle and San Antonio News-Express reported that about 380 Southern Baptist church preachers and volunteers, including six from Kentucky, had been accused of sexual abuse and misconduct over the past 20 years.

Mohler, in turn, was forced to apologize for supporting the religious leader of Sovereign Grace Ministries, who was accused of covering up sexual abuse at his former church.

Lyell said the reason she didn’t report Sills’ alleged abuse sooner and he was able to continue “grooming and taking advantage” of her for so long was because he made her feel part of his family.

“This wasn’t by accident,” she said. “I believe it was by design.”

She said when she reported what happened to Mohler and her boss at Nashville, Tenn.-based LifeWay Christian Resources, she accepted responsibility for “being compliant at times” and not reporting the allegations sooner.

“I am not a sinless victim,” she said, “but I am a victim nonetheless.”

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She praised Mohler and the seminary for taking “immediate action” against Sills after he admitted “inappropriate sexual activity” and for handling the situation “justly and as I asked.”

She also said Sills’ Louisville church took action after he resigned from the seminary May 23.

Baptist Press identified the church as Ninth & O Baptist. Its lead pastor, the Rev. Bill Cook, and executive pastor, Jeff Elieff, said in an email that Sills is no longer a member there.

In an email, Lyell declined to elaborate on her statement or the reaction to it so far.

Baptist Press, the official news service of the Southern Baptist Convention, also reported that Sills was removed from Global Outreach International, the mission agency based in Branchville, New Jersey, that he joined after leaving the seminary.

At its annual meeting last June in Dallas, the Southern Baptist Convention passed a resolution affirming the “dignity and worth” of women “in their distinctive God-assigned roles” and condemning “all abusive behavior as unquestionably sinful and under the just condemnation of our Holy God.”

The resolution also called upon “all Southern Baptists to encourage, cultivate, and celebrate the diverse gifts, callings, and contributions of women in biblically appropriate ways.”

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Andrew Wolfson: 502-582-7189; awolfson@courier-journal.com; Twitter: @adwolfson. Support strong local journalism by subscribing today: courier-journal.com/andreww.