Two officials of the evangelical Christian magazine Christianity Today are accused by several women of "demeaning, inappropriate, and offensive behavior."
The Christian Headlines reported that Christianity Today admitted the matter in its report, which involved former editor-in-chief Mark Galli and former advertising director Olatokunbo Olawoye. However, an external assessment showed the two ministry leaders were not investigated and disciplined.
In the said report, Christianity Today highlighted its failure for not holding the two ministry leaders accountable for the sexual harassment that took place in their Carol Stream, Illinois office. The author of the report, Christianity Today News Editor Daniel Silliman, emphasized that the publication's ministry executives have not reviewed the report before its release to the public.
Accordingly, eight women complained of being touched inappropriately by Galli. One of the women was a former employee who recounted an event when Galli caressed her bare shoulder. While another woman detailed Galli's hand got "stuck under her bra" after he rubbed her back.
These incidents exclude the three women who complained to their human resources in 2019 of being inappropriately touched by Galli. The human resources reprimanded Galli on the matter. Similar reports on Galli were received by the human resources before 2019.
There were roughly six employees who reported Galli or Olawoye to the human resources from mid-2000 to 2019 but no formal report, warning, or reprimand took place thereafter. One of the complaints included a woman who caught Olawoye staring at her breasts during meetings. The woman complained about the matter to her manager who in turn responded that it would be better if she wore a scarf.
Former Associate Publisher Amy Jackson affirmed that she left the publication in 2018 because of its hostile environment towards women.
"The culture when I was there was to protect the institution at all costs. No one was ever held accountable. Mark Galli was certainly protected," Jackson said.
This is despite the claims of Christian Today President Timothy Dalrymple of practicing accountability and transparency in their organization.
"We want to practice the transparency and accountability we preach. It's imperative we be above reproach on these matters. If we're falling short of what love requires of us, we want to know, and we want to do better," Dalrymple said.
Dalrymple was backed by former Christianity Today Human Resources Director Richard Shields who held the post from 2008 to 2019. Shields raised he did what was needed to be done on the sexual harassment complaints filed during his time.
"I always took complaints seriously and very, very confidentially. I'm very confident that we used the processes we had in place very consistently, very thoroughly, very effectively," Shields said.
Shields disclosed that he held many one-on-one meetings with Galli and Olawoye. He divulged that Olawoye admitted complimenting other women because he was not attracted to his wife.
Accordingly, Olawoye was arrested in a federal agents' sting operation conducted in 2017 since he was trying to pay a teenager for sex. Olawoye was sentenced to three years imprisonment. He is now living as a free man in Chicago though registered as a sex offender. He did not comment on the sexual harassment case against him.
