The new book Shepherds For Sale is not without controversy, as Christian media has largely been critical of Basham for going after Gavin Ortlund, Tim Keller, and JD Greear. But Megan Basham violated the standard of the Me Too movement which has drawn criticism by those in Christian media, specifically Ministry Watch and the Julie Roys crowd.
The Me Too crowd took issue with Megan Basham naming Alisa Womack in the chapter of her book on the Me Too Movement, an apparent cardinal sin in naming anonymous accusers. Womack is the accuser of Johnny Hunt who was accused of having committed sexual assault over a decade ago in the Guidepost Report. This has since resulted in a defamation lawsuit.
Ministry Watch published an article attacking Megan Basham titled, “Basham Criticized for Naming Johnny Hunt’s Sexual Abuse Accuser in New Book.” Already, the article is misleading framing the issue as one of sex abuse.
Robert Downen, who was a key reporter about the SBC sex abuse scandal when he worked for the Houston Chronicle, criticized Basham for revealing the accuser’s name in her book, according to Baptist News Global.
I like how BNG is cited as a source for a tweet. But in any case, Ministry Watch chooses a side in this controversy by not naming Alisa Womack in their article. Thus, they’ve sided with the Me Too movement, like most of Christian media.
Downen went on to say that he worked with Hunt’s accuser and her husband for months before they would agree to let him tell their story, and “only with a ton of assurances that we would do everything possible to protect their identities.”
Apparently, Basham found the name in a court document where it was not redacted and chose to publish it, Downen said.
According to the Society of Professional Journalist’s code of ethics, victims of sexual crimes should be “shown compassion” and treated with “heightened sensitivity.” It also calls on journalists to “recognize that legal access to information differs from an ethical justification to publish or broadcast.”
While Basham may have legally found the name of Hunt’s accuser, that doesn’t give her “a greenlight to abandon basic ethics. Nor do you get to abandon basic ethics because you find the allegations questionable, or you’ve decided that a victim is less of a victim than they say,” Downen argued.
To Downen the Jounralist’s Code of Ethics is supreme, but to the Christian, the yoke of Jesus is much lighter. It is not categorically sinful to have published Alisa Womack’s name. She has no right to make anonymous accusations. I’m glad her name leaked, and I would have done the same.
“Megan Basham’s decision to publicly name our client is one of the reasons why so many abuse survivors choose to stay silent. The naming of our client served no purpose whatsoever other than to ‘out’ our client in an apparent effort to please those in her relatively small echo chamber,” Boz Tchividjian and Melissa Hogan, attorneys for the accuser, said in a statement to MinistryWatch.
The lawyers who mistakenly outed their own client are unsurprisingly mad.
Julie Roys of The Roys Report also criticized Basham. “Naming a sex abuse survivor without her consent is completely unethical. @HarperCollins needs to pull @megbasham’s book immediately. I wish I could say I was surprised, but Basham has repeatedly shown disdain for survivors,” she wrote on X.
“What’s so egregious is that a secular reporter is schooling a professed Christian reporter on ethics and compassion — and he is right. That’s what we’ve come to. And pastors are actually jumping to Megan’s defense. Let that sink in,” Roys added.
Julie Roys is attempting to get Harper Collins to cancel the book. Indeed, the screams of ree are sounding. Julie Roys, it’s worth noting, groomed a girl while in ministry, fostering a qasi lesbian relationship.
This feminist attack will likely fail but that’s a mark of being over the target.
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Billy Sunday was quoted as responding to critics by saying, “When you hit the bullseye, the bell rings.” Megan Basham seems to be hitting a lot of bullseyes.