Top 10 Evangelical Sex Scandals of 2022

This year, the religion even horrified itself

My God, what a change came over Evangelicals this year! The religion so often horrifies others. In 2022, they started to horrify themselves.

Let’s watch as America’s favorite religion—looks in a mirror?

1. John MacArthur’s sins are remembered

Evangelicals typically try to conceal anything unflattering to the religion, but this year, the nominal leader of the religion, John MacArthur, seemed exposed. There was talk of his apparent reliance on ghostwriters.

The religion was willing to overlook that, but what about his praising slavery?—saying Africans were “doomed” to it?

And what were MacArthur’s views on pedophilia? On March 8th, the Evangelical journalist Julie Roys posted a shock story from 2001. A woman in MacArthur’s church had realized her husband was getting sexual with their kids. The husband was on staff at the church. She tried to get the elders to intervene. They wouldn’t.

She separated from and later divorced her husband, as the church weighed two evils: a divorcing wife, and David’s pedophilia. They decided the father needed to be back in the home. When Eileen refused to take her husband back, John MacArthur attacked her from the pulpit…twice.

2. Southern Baptists get an “apocalypse” sex report

In May, something bizarre happened. The Southern Baptist Convention released a report on its handling of sexual abuse over the years. Christianity Today called it the “Southern Baptist Apocalypse.”

It turns out that many pastors were well-known for sexual assault and rape. The SBC had worked with them to minimize and contain the stories, and limit legal liability. Reports of rape had been revised into consensual encounters, or ignored. Victims were called crazy or “satanic.”

One former SBC president, Johnny Hunt, was described sexually assaulting a woman—then coercing everyone around him to remain silent by saying Christianity would be ‘harmed’ if they reported him. Hunt denied it. But strangely, nobody seemed to believe him.

A few months later, Hunt was back in “ministry” after being “restored.”

3. Evangelical rape culture goes viral

An amazing video went viral in May. A pastor in Indiana named John B. Lowe II had decided to confess a deep, dark secret to his church. Twenty years earlier, he’d had an “adulterous relationship.”

That was the Evangelical version of history. This time, there was a plot twist. A woman stepped forward and said it had been her — and that the pastor had raped her when she was 16.

4. The Falwell’s “pool boy” speaks

All Evangelicals know about Liberty University, the school that upholds all correct “morality.” What Evangelicals didn’t know is the president, Jerry Falwell, Jr., and his wife were swingers, keeping up a side-life down in Miami…where Becki Falwell had sex with hot young men, like the famous “pool boy,” Giancarlo Granda.

And Evangelicals wouldn’t have known if not for reporting from “secular” media like Politico…and that owed to Jerry Jr.’s proximity to Donald Trump. Typically, such matters would have been concealed.

It’s been a tabloid bonanza for awhile. In late October and November, Granda published a memoir, then appeared in a documentary, God Forbid: The Sex Scandal That Brought Down a Dynasty. It didn’t air on ‘God TV’, but on Hulu…as many Evangelicals grimly watched.

It seems to be a rather sorry tale of the Falwells not even being Christian, and trying to keep their colorful sex life hidden from the religion as they lived high off the wealth it generated for them.

5. Get your “I ❤️ hot youth pastors” sticker

In October, a super cringe story went viral. A church in Greer, South Carolina had apparently handed out stickers that said: “I❤️hot youth pastors” — to a crowd of teen girls.

The church tried to laugh it off. The real surprise was that it ever surfaced. Typically, what happens in churches stays in churches. But a post in the church’s private Facebook group had been sent to a friend, who thought it outrageous and made it public.

The sticker is kind of interesting. The youth pastor was age 35, and had a Master’s Degree from Southeastern Theological Seminary. Was this a joke? It looks more like Evangelical ‘grooming’ culture.

How else will these guys get the women they want?

6. Matt Chandler has a non-affair

In August, one of the more famous of younger Evangelical pastors—and a likely future head of the religion—announced he was taking a leave of absence. It was a strange matter? Matt Chandler at The Village Church in Texas said that some Instagram DM chats with a married woman in the church had gotten too personal.

Much of the Evangelical world was then studying the details. Many sensed there was more to the story, and talked about the “sense of deception” or the “ambiguous” quality to the disclosures. Were Evangelicals—the religion of being literal—now reading between the lines?

Many remembered that Matt Chandler met his wife Lauren when he was a pastor and she a 17-year-old high schooler. Now she’d hit age 42 and all the make-up in the world couldn’t hide it. Had his eye started to wander?

In December, the church “restored” him to ministry, as the matter was forgiven and forgotten.

7. “Rings of Power” has an “unlikeable” woman

Evangelicals love the fantasy novels of J.R.R. Tolkien, and were wary when Amazon announced a prequel series to The Lord of the Rings. When the show aired, the religion was generally horrified.

Not only were there Black actors, but the central character, Galadrial, was brash, independent, and “unlikeable.” Many Evangelical men used that word over and over. Others saw…a strong woman character?

I follow the amusing exchanges on social media. One fan offers: “it is completely against her character to be violent…”

Another fan sets him straight:

“You do know Galadriel single handedly faced off against Saurons orcs, destroyed Dol Goldur and cleansed it’s orc pits. She didn’t do that by being ladylike.”

Many Christians, however, charged that Tolkien’s vision was being flouted. Actual readers pointed out that Tolkien had discussed Galadriel in exactly those terms—as “a stern Amazon” who “fought fiercely,” etc.

The Christians, that is, were watching an accurate representation of the character—and didn’t recognize her. The fantasy was that strong.

8. Andy Stanley’s feminist Evangelicalism?

Chritianity is such a funny undertaking. About three quarters of the practitioners are female—as the religion often holds out being male as the divine state. Evangelicals, in particular, insist on it.

Except, in May, a prominent pastor named Andy Stanley staged a little revolt on Twitter. One stalwart of the faith had proclaimed: “If your pastor is a woman, she is not a pastor.”

“Rude and incorrect,” Andy fired back. There was a pile-on, including from Phil Johnson, the bulldog of John MacArthur’s organization. Stanley quickly deleted the tweet.

But it was still a bit shocking. He’d openly challenged the key assumption of the faith. Right-wing forces piled on. As Protestia opined:

“Women pastors are basically spiritual lesbians. They’re trans-pastors. Ie: not real pastors, but some garbled, cobbled together monstrosity, possessing approximations of biblical appendages and authority, but never the real thing.”

But another reality had come in view? Maybe Evangelicals don’t really object to women leaders, but stay quiet.

9. Rich Mullins had “dark seasons of gay”

Historical figures are often outed in biographies. What do Evangelicals do when it happens in their religion? After a spasm of horror, they mostly managed to stave off talk of Dietrich Bonhoeffer a few years back. But what about Rich Mullins?

The only artistically significant Evangelical singer-songwriters, who died in 1997, was long murmured to be gay. I’d channeled that into a post, “Was Rich Mullins Gay?” that’s now up to 66k views — and it seems the religion was pressed into a reply.

On October 2nd, a columnist at the New York Times took on the matter, hauling out James Bryan Smith. Back in 2000 he’d published a whitewashed biography. There was, he confessed, more to the story. Mullins was a “really broken guy,” and the biography had omitted some “dark seasons of sin.”

Is that how you “don’t say gay” in Jesusland?

10. Ye goes full Evangelical

In the last months, the artist formerly known as Kanye West has made a horror spectacle — talking up anti-Semitism, praising Hitler, etc. I thought: Well, the world is learning about Evangelicalism.

The religion has a long history of admiring Hitler, and hates Jews—as Billy Graham let slip in 1972. Kanye had converted to Christianity in 2019, and was schooled in the faith by John MacArthur’s students. He got the full blast. And it was all, suddenly, strangely, public.

The story seems to be that Kanye’s mania was hugely boosted by Evangelical theology. He saw himself as being “used” by God, as Evangelical men tend to do. A religious fervor brought on his divorce…as his ex-wife, Kim Kardashian, took up with a Jewish boyfriend. 🔶