As a child, in Farmers Branch, Texas, Christa Brown was preyed upon by her youth minister. Then her church community, people she thought were her friends, betrayed her. She was treated as a seductress while, in their eyes, he remained a good, God-honoring man. Trusted authority figures told her to pray for forgiveness and keep quiet.Years later, having a teenage daughter of her own made Christa realize that what she'd always thought of as an "affair" was actually something much mor...

It began with just wanting to tell the truth. But truth-telling has a way of snowballing.When Christa Brown first spoke out about the sexual abuse she endured in her Texas childhood church, she never imagined it would expose the ethical chasm at the core of the Southern Baptist Convention: male religious leaders so focused on institutional protection that they sacrifice the safety of children.A book about speaking out and speaking up, Baptistland w...