Written by Emeka Anokwuru
The most trending news in Nigeria at present, apart from Ebola and
terrorist attacks, is that of the impending divorce of charismatic
Pastor Chris Oyakhilome of the Believers’ LoveWorld, better known as
Christ Embassy. Tongues are wagging. However, this is not the first time
a reverend, pastor, bishop, evangelist or a cleric will be enmeshed in
divorce.
The list is growing both locally and internationally. Incidentally, a
neighbour to Pastor Chris at Oregun in the Ikeja area of Lagos State
and his namesake, Rev. Chris Okotie, has even broken a record by
divorcing twice, the last one being in June 2012.
Internationally, there
was the case of the revered tele-evangelist, Pastor Benny Hinn, who
earlier divorced his wife, Suzanne, and later remarried her.
Beside pastors and clergy whose marriages are in shambles, there are
those living with their spouses
like familiar strangers. Many have not
divorced out of sheer fright of scandal. Others are papering over the
cracks in their marriages in deference to God’s injunction in Malachi 2
verse 16 while praying and hoping for restoration.
Over the years, men of God, made up of pastors, evangelists,
prophets, and their ilk who superintend over mega churches, have
unwittingly succumbed to the tempestuous whirlwind of adultery, contrary
to the fifth commandment of God: Thou shall not commit adultery. And
each time this happens, it raises a lot of issues, bordering on
morality, spirituality, and most times put on hold or ends abruptly, the
productive Christian service of the victim.
Early this year, David Loveless, head pastor of Discovery Church,
Orlando, U.S.A, one of America’s “10 healthiest churches” relinquished
his pastoral duties at the mega church over adultery. The pastor
resigned after confessing he committed adultery three years earlier.
But Loveless is not the only Orlando-area pastor to confess an
adulterous relationship lately. In the past six months, two other
pastors, Isaac Hunter of Summit Church and Sam Hinn of The Gathering
Place also resigned.
A statement by elders of Discovery Church confirmed that Loveless’s
affair ended approximately three years ago. However, he only made it
known to church leaders within the past few weeks. The elders stated
that David Loveless could be restored to Christian fellowship and
productive service, but not as a full-time pastor.
On April 3, 2014, Bob Coy, host of one of iTunes most-popular
podcasts on Christianity and known for his teaching on marriage,
resigned as longtime leader of one of America’s largest multisite
churches after confessing to a “moral failing.”
Coy, senior pastor at the 18,500-member Calvary Chapel, Fort
Lauderdale, Florida since he founded the mega church in 1985, said the
failing disqualified him from “continuing his leadership role at the
church.”
Coy, who wrote the popular series, Building a Godly Marriage along
with pastoring one of the fastest growing churches in America, also
reached audiences through his Active Word Radio Podcast, which ranks No.
12 on the iTunes chart for Christian podcasts, between offerings from
Joel Osteen and T. D. Jakes.
The Active Word media ministry has been suspended, according to the
church. Coy’s past sermon series on marriage was taken offline and
unavailable, as were other media pages at the church’s website.
Among the hundreds of reactions on the church’s website are requests
from people who still feel Coy’s past teachings are beneficial.
Coy will be focusing his attention on God and his family, according
to his church’s statement. “The governing board of the church is
providing counsellors and ministers who will help guide him through the
process of full repentance, cleansing and restoration,” said the church.
Coy joins three other Florida mega church pastors who recently
resigned in those cases after acknowledging extramarital affairs. One
pastor, Isaac Hunter of Summit Church, later died by suicide.
While experts say churches can heal after adultery scandals and
pastors can be restored to ministry, the process has obstacles that
aren’t easy to navigate. The time it takes to work through the healing
process can be its own point of contention: witness Benny Hinn’s brother
Sam, who raised eyebrows after returning to the pulpit just eight
months after admitting to a four-year extramarital affair.
In 1988, Jimmy Swaggart, America’s leading television evangelist,
resigned from his ministry after it was revealed he had been consorting
with a prostitute.
In front of a congregation of 7,000 in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, he
sobbed and confessed to “moral failure” without actually going into any
detail.
“I do not plan in any way to whitewash my sin or call it a mistake,” he told shocked members of his Family Worship Centre.
Turning to his wife, Frances, he said: “I have sinned against you and I beg your forgiveness.”
Swaggart’s confession is all the more scandalous since he himself
unleashed fire and brimstone against rival TV evangelist Rev Jim Bakker
a few months earlier for committing adultery with minister and
secretary Jessica Hahn.
Rev Bakker was subsequently defrocked and fired from his multi-million-dollar Praise the Lord TV station.
This time it was Jimmy Swaggart’s turn to repent after officials
from the Assemblies of God Church were given photographs showing him
taking a prostitute to a Louisiana motel.
Rival TV evangelist, Martin Gorman, who was also defrocked after
Pastor Swaggart, accused him of “immoral dalliances” in 1986 handed
them in.
Gorman, who ran a successful TV show from New Orleans, had launched
an unsuccessful $90m law suit against Jimmy Swaggart two years earlier
for spreading false rumours.
He also suggested Mr. Swaggart was trying to undermine rival TV shows.
The Jimmy Swaggart Hour is watched by up to two million families and donations raised amount to about $150m a year.
After the Bakker scandal, donations from the faithful dropped
dramatically and the same is likely to happen to Jimmy Swaggart’s show.
Rev Robertson has threatened to sue anyone who calls him a TV evangelist and prefers to be described as a businessman.
Four days later Debra Murphree, the prostitute photographed with
Jimmy Swaggart, told a New Orleans TV show he was a regular customer but
insisted they had not had sex.
She said he liked to watch her undress.
Along with his son, Donnie, Jimmy Swaggart continues to broadcast to
30 countries but viewer numbers are not what they used to be when he was
preaching to more than 100 nations around the world.
In March this year, after asking his parishioners to stay a bit
longer after a Sunday service, Bishop Bobby Davies a pastor in
Connecticut literally dropped dead. His request was made so he could
confess his past infidelity and “seek forgiveness.” But only moments
after he told his congregation what he had done, he fell over and died
from a heart attack.
One person in attendance, Judy Stovall, told the Connecticut Post
that Bishop Bobby Davis – the founder of the Miracle Faith World
Outreach Church in Bridgeport – “wanted to come clean.”
“We were shouting, ‘We forgive you, we love you,’ but the stress of
all of it — he had a heart attack,” Stovall recalled. “I held his head
as he lay on the floor … Our congregation is hurting now.”
But some of the crowd was pretty angry. Stovall admitted that the
yelling got pretty loud. “A woman, who wouldn’t give her name, said she
had been outside the church at the time and heard yelling coming from
inside, but didn’t know what was being said,” the report added.
Pastor Blaine Bartel of Northstar Church in Dallas, Texas is the most
recent pastor caught in adultery. On April 22, 2014, Charisma Magazine
reported that he stepped down from his post as pastor after he
acknowledged that he’d had an affair. Bartel and his wife Cathy have
been married 28 years and are in pursuit of repairing their marriage.
That day must have been a strange day for members of Redemption
World Outreach, Greenville, South Carolina, U.S.A, one of the area’s
first mega churches. Pastor Ron Carpenter basically dedicated his sermon
to explaining why he’s leaving his philandering wife of 23 years.
More awkwardly, Hope Carpenter was apparently Ron’s co-pastor as well
as his wife. For as long as Redemption World Outreach was a thing, Ron
and Hope were the face of it, and their solid marriage was an example
for their flock. Too bad it was all a front, according to Ron.
During his sermon on Sunday, he explained that his wife had been
living a double life for years. It came to a head, culminating in her
isolation in a one-year, out-of-state treatment program, the end of
what he called a “tragic” situation.
Ron explained that he and his wife had been struggling for at least a decade.
Though he described his marriage as a “fairy tale” at first, things
started to go south in 2004. She removed herself from the couple’s
ministry completely, and she became increasingly distant until 2010 when
she admitted to having multiple affairs.
Coincidentally, this confession came on the eve of a planned marriage
conference organised by Ron and his Redemption World Outreach church.
“The marriage conference was already half way sold out, and $25,000
worth of deposits were made for rooms and we couldn’t back out. I had no
idea what to do,” said Carpenter.
Ron Carpenter told Word Radio that his wife’s infidelity is only five percent of what’s going on.
“There were two distinct double lives. This is not a fling. Not an
affair. There was a whole other life and culture and dress code and
friends,” he explained.
In Kenya, pastor of a growing church was last month, beaten,
stripped and forced to kiss in public, the wife of a policeman he was
caught with during an orgy in the neighbourhood. Although the angry mob
spared his life, he was said to have preached against adultery at a
crusade the previous week in Nairobi. And nemesis quickly caught up with
him even while he was still married and had children.