Betrayal

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THE EVIDENCE:

Shortly after Julie and I were married, we were in a week of meetings in central Missouri. As I gave the invitation early in the week, a very pregnant, very young girl came forward weeping. The pastor motioned for Julie to talk with her. She poured her heart out to my wife—the story was sad and sordid—seduction by a married man in a position of honor and authority, condemnation by her conscience, expulsion by her high school, and rejection by her family and church. Her tears and her repentance seemed genuine, but she was a pregnant teenage unmarried girl in 1965 central Missouri. Before the week was over, she gave birth to a boy.

The rest of the story is that the father of the baby was a nationally known evangelist.

But, that is not the worst of the story. I wrote the editor of the national publication that advertised this man as an evangelist, providing names and phone numbers for him to verify the facts. The editor wrote back that he had heard such rumors, but that the evangelist was so blessed as a great soul-winner that I had best not touch the LORD’s anointed. He continued the advertisements and the evangelist, with his endorsement, continued the wickedness.

---An American missionary physically assaulted his wife. He bought tickets for her and the children on an international flight—not to America, but to a country neighboring his field. The customs agency for that country contacted the American Embassy for funds to feed, shelter, and transport the family (minus the husband) to the United States. She returned to their sending church. The church required him to come home and give an account of his stewardship; he refused because of “the need of the work.”

The rest of the story is that after weeks of pressure, he finally left the field to face his home church. He was found, by that church, to have misused monies, to have made fraudulent appeals for funds, and to have abused his wife and children. The church disciplined him by exclusion from membership; the mission agency terminated their recognition. The church I pastor was a supporting church and, honoring the discipline and integrity of the local church, withdrew our financial support.

But, that is not the worst of the story. The next Sunday, he joined one of America’s largest Baptist churches, who promptly commissioned him as a missionary under a recognized Baptist mission ‘agency,’ where he continues to ‘serve.’ Warned of his being under the voted discipline of his home church, both his new pastor and the new mission ‘agency’ defended him and gave (and continue to give) him repeated exposure to new churches. They also provided him the opportunity to mail to a wide audience an attack upon the church that excluded him, the pastor, and, for some reason, me by name.

---A pastor, for whom I was preaching, and I were sitting in his study when another local pastor walked in with a visiting evangelist whom I had never met; but I immediately recognized the name. After the introductions, I commented on the evangelist having been a church planter in very unusual circumstances and for being on the board of a national publication. He was flattered that I knew of his accomplishments. I then asked if he had not held a meeting with great numbers of converts for a certain preacher in Georgia. He positively glowed as he acknowledged that he had.

The rest of the story is that when I asked if he remembered, in that church, a particular young couple—describing them in some detail, particularly mentioning that the wife was an attractive, petite, blonde legal secretary—the evangelist turned noticeably pale, slumped in his seat, and said nothing else.

But, that is not the worst of the story. He continued his ‘lifestyle’ of seduction and fathering for years afterward, supported by national voices because he was ‘so effective in the pulpit.’

---A young preacher/husband that I had known for several years, called me, seeking a place to serve as a youth pastor. I spoke to the pastor for whom he worked and with whom I had exchanged pulpit visits. Assured that his departure was proper, that he would be recommended to any church, and that he was worthy of my help in relocating, this preacher became our houseguest for an extended period. Finally, he did find a good church with a need for a solid youth worker—and then another—and then another.

The rest of the story is that two years after this request for my help, I discovered that my preacher friend had ‘misled’ me. He had fired the rascal for immorality, getting him out of town just before the local authorities attempted to serve a warrant for his arrest.

But, that is not the worst of the story. This conduct became the pattern of his ministry—being moved by one pastor to another, to cover his ‘shortcomings,’ without telling the next church.

---The woman in my office was crushed. Her pastor husband had seduced teenage girls in the church. This was not the first such episode; they had left a previous church for the same reason and she had fears about situations before that. The pastor and the deacons warned her not to stir trouble, because it would damage the testimony of the church and make it impossible for the husband to find another church. Since her family had her come to me for advice and since she asked for help, I suggested that she use an excellent, expensive local attorney, protect herself and their children, sue her husband for divorce on the grounds of marital infidelity, and ask the attorney to explore suing the deacons for covering the sexual abuse of minors.

The rest of the story is that she pretty much followed the advice.

But, that is not the worst of the story. The preacher was pitied for the treatment received at the hand of his wife and she was condemned for ‘breaking up the marriage.’ Local Baptist preachers publicly attacked me because I had committed the unpardonable of encouraging her to get herself and her children out of the marriage.

---He was the second man to one of the nation’s Baptist statesmen for years—widely respected and used.

The rest of the story is that his over-a-decade-long affair with a secretary was inadvertently disclosed.

But, that is not the worst of the story. Within sixty days, the statesman-pastor wrote a favorable report of his associate’s call to evangelism and a national Baptist publication carried the announcement and a seconding recommendation by the editor.

---Few can match him in the pulpit—his fire and passion are overpowering and convincing. Baptist pulpits across the land delight in his ministry. His writings sell as fast as they are printed. He counseled the woman in his office that her legal husband was no longer her spiritual husband because he had committed adultery. She divorced her ‘ex-spiritual still-legal’ husband and her pastor counselor promptly married her.

The rest of the story is that this pastor would later divorce her and marry another woman within the same church.

But, that is not the worst of the story. The pastor’s popularity and speaking engagements continue unabated and he remains recognized by many as an authority to be quoted.

---His friend was concerned and made an appointment for the young man to see me for counseling. He came. He sat. We talked. He was a homosexual. He understood that his choice was a source of grief and embarrassment for his mother and a burden to his friend. He seemed to feel badly that either was hurt, but he was unwilling to agree that his life was unnatural, immoral, or sinful.

The rest of the story is that he continued his chosen pathway and, to the best of my knowledge, died in his sin and as a result of his sin.

But, that is not the worst of the story. He assured me that he was justified in his life choice because one of his ‘companions’ was a local Baptist preacher….

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