Black megachurch sued by female senior pastor candidate for gender discrimination

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A prominent Black megachurch in New York City is being accused of discriminating against a woman who lost her bid to become its senior pastor.

Yale Divinity School Professor Eboni Marshall Turman filed a lawsuit against Abyssinian Baptist Church alleging she was rejected from the final round of candidates applying to lead the church after the death of Rev. Calvin O. Butts III in 2022.

Marshall Turman previously served as the late reverend's assistant and was the church's youngest female Assistant Minister from 2002-2012. 

In her Dec. 29 lawsuit, she accuses the church and search committee chair Valerie S. Grant of acting inappropriately by "pressing issues not broached with [Marshall Turman's] male counterparts" during the interview process, the Associated Press reported.

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The historic Abyssinian Baptist Church was founded over 200 years ago. (Getty Images)

"Gender discrimination motivated the decision not to hire (Marshall Turman), a fact discussed openly during meetings of the Committee, including by Grant and another Committee member, who said that Abyssinian would only hire a woman as its Senior Pastor ‘over my dead body,’" the complaint states, according to the AP.

Abyssinian Baptist Church pushed back against these claims in a statement.

"While she and others were considered for the role because of their impressive backgrounds, she ultimately fell short of some key requirements for the role, where other finalist candidates prevailed and moved forward in the process," Abyssinian spokesperson LaToya Evans relayed to Fox News Digital.

Committee chair Grant denied that women were being discriminated against in the selection process. She claimed that Marshall Turman received some different questions than the other candidates because questions were tailored to each person, and she was the only female applicant. 

Out of 47 applicants, Marshall Turman was one of 11 people who advanced in the interview process, but ultimately did not receive enough votes to make it to the final round, Grant said.

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A view of purple ribbons and signage outside a public viewing service for the late Cicely Tyson at Abyssinian Baptist Church in the Harlem neighborhood of Manhattan on February 15, 2021, in New York City. (Getty Images)

The lawsuit "seeks unspecified monetary damages from the defendants for ‘lost wages, lost benefits, other economic damages, shame, humiliation, embarrassment, and mental distress,’ as well as an injunction forbidding any hiring-related gender discrimination," the AP said.

According to her biography, Marshall Turman researches "sexism in the Black church," which is the topic of her forthcoming book, "Black Women’s Burden: Male Power, Gender Violence, and the Scandal of African American Social Christianity."

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Marshall Turman declined to comment on the lawsuit when reached for comment.

The historic church in Harlem was founded in 1808, and bills itself as "one of the oldest African-American Baptist churches in the United States." It was famously led by New York Democratic congressman Rev. Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. from 1937-1972.

It has been visited by high profile figures, including Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., the Clintons and former President of Cuba, Fidel Castro. Sen. Raphael Warnock, D-Ga., also worked as a youth and assistant pastor of the church for a decade.