Straight White American Jesus The Sunday Interview: Paul Pressler, the SBC Takeover, and a Culture of Power and Abuse
May 10, 2026
Robert Downen, Texas Monthly investigative reporter who exposed Paul Pressler’s role in reshaping the Southern Baptist Convention, joins to unpack power, politics, and tactics. He details elite networks, rule manipulation, tracking pastors, and how denominational control morphed into national political influence. He also outlines allegations and a culture that enabled silence around abuse.
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Pressler Built The SBC Conservative Resurgence
- Paul Pressler engineered the Southern Baptist Convention conservative resurgence that reshaped theology and politics.
- It shifted the SBC toward biblical inerrancy, gender hierarchy, anti-abortion stances, and close alignment with the GOP, solidifying white evangelical voting power.
Pressler's Aristocratic Texas Foundations
- Pressler came from a wealthy, politically connected Texas lineage that trained him in elite conservative networks.
- His grandfather E.E. Towns led the Texas Regulars, a states' rights and white supremacist faction whose money and tactics fed later conservative and religious-right institutions.
Texas Regulars Fed The Modern Religious Right
- The Texas Regulars' tactics and funders evolved into the New Right and Council for National Policy ecosystem.
- Downen traces the same oil money and networks from the 1940s Texas Regulars through John Birch–linked groups to the modern religious right.
