Pastor confesses "adultery" to congregation 20 years ago - molestation victim confronts him

[livinginthelight]

This slimeball and apparently beloved pastor (John Lowes) stood before the congregation and "confessed" adultery 20 years ago. His victim, who was just 16 at the time and who is an absolute badass hero, stood up with her husband and stated the truth. There is a video in the article that shows the whole thing. She was amazing.

Absolutely creepy: even though some in the congregation seem to be calling for truth, much of the congregation surrounds the pastor in prayer at the end. And the church official statement sweeps it under the rug.

 

https://www.thedailybeast.com/pastor-john-lowes-adultery-confession-in-warsaw-indiana-church-goes-sideways-victim-says-i-was-just-16

[noseybutt]

WOW.

To stand up in front of that community surrounded by men with no other intent but to intimidate and speak truth.

YOU. GO. 

[hoipolloi]

Saw this yesterday. It is horrifying but the young woman & her husband were magnificent. I hope that they can find healing & peace.  Here is a transcript made from the posted video, which I admit I cannot watch. Note that amidst the grooming & sexual abuse, the then-teenaged woman was immersed in the church's purity cult, complete with a ring.

There are other allegations of sexual abuse against the pastor and, apparently, his son who was a teenager at the time of the abuse. The complainant says that Lowe & his wife covered it up and refused to cooperate with any investigation or mediation.

[Howl]

What prompted this pastor to make a confession WITH HIS VICTIM PRESENT IN THE CONGREGATION. I mean, WTAF?

I read the transcript.   Again, WTAF?  He raped a 16-year-old girl wearing a purity ring and continued the abuse for years. I hope she sues, because he admitted this in public.  He won't be arrested and sent to prison - statute of limitations - a lawsuit would get the attention of his obnoxiously (un)repentant ass. 

To get some idea of what this rapist pastor missed out on, Jack Schaap just finished serving about 10 years for the same crime (released this month to a half-way house). 

Edited May 24, 2022 by Howl

[JermajestyDuggar]

I bet he thought she would keep quiet since she always had. I bet he thought everyone would automatically forgive him for “adultery.” Well he was fucking wrong. I’m glad she didn’t allow him to stand up there and lie. Good for her. I really hope she can leave that church if this guy stays on as pastor. And if he’s kicked out, then yes! Good.

[noseybutt]

21 minutes ago, JermajestyDuggar said:

I bet he thought she would keep quiet since she always had. I bet he thought everyone would automatically forgive him for “adultery.” Well he was fucking wrong. I’m glad she didn’t allow him to stand up there and lie. Good for her. I really hope she can leave that church if this guy stays on as pastor. And if he’s kicked out, then yes! Good.

Yup.

Amazing arrogance on his part. Amazing bravery on hers.

And, so we are clear, this should never be expected of a survivor. Only if the survivor chooses this path. Running away and never confronting him publicly is also a valid path. What this woman did was model a completely different approach than has been the norm in evangelical and fundamentalist churches. And I am all for different options being modeled.

[hoipolloi]

1 hour ago, Howl said:

What prompted this pastor to make a confession WITH HIS VICTIM PRESENT IN THE CONGREGATION. I mean, WTAF?

According to the transcript, her brother had somehow seen them in bed all those years ago and finally decided that he would confront the pastor. So, Pastor Lowe - being a True Christian™️ -- probably decided to get ahead of the brother's report and tried to frame his crimes as positively as he could.

[gustava]

And some members of the congregation surrounded him in sweet fellowship following his confession, instead of tar and feathers.  Repent and Jesus will approve!

[Pammy]

20 hours ago, Howl said:

What prompted this pastor to make a confession WITH HIS VICTIM PRESENT IN THE CONGREGATION. I mean, WTAF?

He probably never actually understood himself to be a predator or a rapist. He probably remembers the whole thing under a disgusting narrative of 'falling in love' with a sweet and willing young woman who 'loved' him back. He has never asked himself questions about her age at the time because it isn't a relevant detail to him.

The 'sin' was because he was married at the time, and because the two of them weren't married. His guilt came from that perspective, not because he was older than her and also her pastor. Those things don't make it 'extra sinful' (because pedophilia and statutory rape) if it's already sinful (because adultery). "Sin is sin."

I'll bet he was legitimately shocked that she didn't remember it all with the bitter-sweet guilt of forbidden love.

It had been a secret for years. I'll bet he imagined her keeping her secrets for his reasons: feeling guilty with her husband; acting like any (imaginary) unchaste woman who had 'gone too far' with a previous partner; thinking of him as her first love and probably a wonderful lover, too.

The idea that a relationship with him could have been traumatic, that it could have been predatory, that it could have been harmful to her... I think he's just too much of a selfish prick to have even imagined such a possibility.

[Howl]

On 5/24/2022 at 12:19 PM, hoipolloi said:

There are other allegations of sexual abuse against the pastor and, apparently, his son who was a teenager at the time of the abuse. The complainant says that Lowe & his wife covered it up and refused to cooperate with any investigation or mediation.

I took a minute to read that.  Is it saying that John Lowe's son raped a 13-year-old girl?  Or that John Lowe himself was abusing other girls? 

 

Edited May 25, 2022 by Howl

[hoipolloi]

2 hours ago, Howl said:

Is it saying that John Lowe's son raped a 13-year-old girl?  Or that John Lowe himself was abusing other girls? 

It's John Lowe's son who is the focus of that complaint and it's his parents who aided and abetted him in evading any accountability. The young woman has chosen to speak openly about what happened. 

Quote

 

Jessi Kline told TRR that Sunday wasn’t the first time Lowe had tried to cover up allegations of sexual abuse.

Kline, who wanted TRR to use her real name and picture, said she grew up going to New Life and attending its private school, where her mother worked. 

That changed in late 2006, when Kline was 13. That’s when Kline disclosed that John Lowe’s relative had molested her while babysitting Kline and her brother several years before, Kline told TRR.

Kline said she first disclosed her abuse to a friend during a youth group meeting, who immediately disclosed the abuse to Kline’s youth pastor, Bryan Lowe. Lowe then called a meeting with Kline’s parents, who were attending an adult service during the youth group meeting. Within an hour, the family had disclosed the abuse to John Lowe and his wife, Debbie Lowe, Kline said.

“We told them what happened and they weren’t surprised,” Jessi Kline’s mother, Kris Kline, recalled. The Lowes called their relative into the room, she said, and he confessed to the alleged molestation in front of Kris, her husband at the time, and the Lowes.

“They wanted to keep it between us—handle it within the church in, of course, the ‘biblical’ way,” Kris Kline said. The Lowes promised to get their offending relative counseling, but “they kept doing nothing,” she added.

 

More at that link. It was clearly a criminal case but unfortunately has probably exceeded Indiana's statute of limitations.

[Howl]

What despicable humans.  You have pedophile John Lowe who raped a 16-year-old girl and continued his abuse for almost a decade and his relative who is also a pedophile targeting a 13-year-old girl.  Was that relative "volunteering" for the children's ministry and babysitting John Lowe's brother, nephew, cousin, what? 

I'm pretty certain that if you go back to John Lowe's father/grandfather/uncles, you'll find sexual abusers as well.  Then John Lowe found a wife who would cover for him and his relative.  Keep in mind, as noted in one of the linked articles, that John Lowe and his wife were mandated reporters. 

This is just all kinds of awful.  John Lowe and wife need to slink off into oblivion.  As noted above, I truly hope this results in a lawsuit because there was so much deliberate cover up and malfeasance. 

In addition, even though in the past, it would be useful to understand what happened when CPS was notified, investigated and decided there was insufficient evidence to pursue a case. 

[molecule]

That is the bravest thing I have ever seen.

[Howl]

2 hours ago, molecule said:

That is the bravest thing I have ever seen.

True, but on another level it is incomprehensible to me why this woman and her husband continued to be members of that congregation for years.  

[Dysfundamental]

1 hour ago, Howl said:

True, but on another level it is incomprehensible to me why this woman and her husband continued to be members of that congregation for years.  

It’s very comprehensible to me that someone who grew up in a “blame the victim” church would blame themselves and keep returning to the church. Trauma bonds are hard to break. 

[hoipolloi]

5 hours ago, Howl said:

I'm pretty certain that if you go back to John Lowe's father/grandfather/uncles, you'll find sexual abusers as well.  Then John Lowe found a wife who would cover for him and his relative.  Keep in mind, as noted in one of the linked articles, that John Lowe and his wife were mandated reporters. 

It's somewhat confusing but I think that another son of John Lowe, Bryan, was an associate pastor at that cult church.

Makes you wonder just how much the Lowes know about what their male family members have done and what they've concealed over the years.

[Howl]

6 hours ago, hoipolloi said:

Makes you wonder just how much the Lowes know about what their male family members have done and what they've concealed over the years.

I suspect there are a lot of skeletons in the Lowe closets. 

[livinginthelight]

In a stunning turn of events that could not POSSIBLY have been foreseen, more allegations are emerging about a church culture that aided and abetted abuse at New Life Christian Church.

https://julieroys.com/former-members-allege-pattern-abuse-cover-up-indiana-church/

[danvillebelle]

I sincerely hope there really is some kind of hell specifically for sexual predators and that all these fucksticks, across the board - SBC, Catholic, non-denominational, whatever, end up there.  Evil bastards.

[livinginthelight]

I went online to look at the sermon for today. The service was online. It seems church was canceled in person.

The sermon was really weird, primarily because it was delivered by Brian Lowe, who I am pretty sure is John Lowe's son. He made no reference to his father. After reading a statement from an "Advisory Committee" (more on this below), he announced a prayer/healing process for the church. He likened the congregation to innocent people being on board a ship in a storm not of their causing, and encouraged them to turn to God for safety and leadership. He talked about a "20 year secret" rather than the 27 it actually was, so I am further guessing Brian is covering for his father big-time. (John Lowe had also called it 20 years, making it seem the victim was a fully consenting adult when it started rather than a 16 year old.)

The advisory committee statement (not the same as the church's response posted online) was even weirder. Basically the committee said they were formed when the charges about John were first told to the church a couple weeks ago, and they were designed to be completely independent of the Lowe family. They had not had time to do their investigation. They said several times, in several different ways, that John Lowe had gone rogue in what he said when he talked about the "adultery". It wasn't clear what John was supposed to say but he was clearly off script.

https://ihavenewlife.com/sermons/

 

 

 

[treemom]

I grew up near this area on a farm and now live in the small midwestern city to the northwest of this .  I’m both unsurprised and so sad.  

Yes, Brian Lowe is the son of John Lowe.  There were protests there yesterday.  I anticipate they may keep up for a bit.  I cannot emphasize how big of a deal the protests are.  Warsaw, while slightly larger than it’s surrounding areas is small.  This is trump voting, mah rights farmland (it wasn’t when I was a kid, it was other shitty things, but it was labor liberal).  And where it isn’t Trump voting mah rights crowd, it is Amish which bring their own troubled sexual assault and molestation coverups to the table.  I briefly considered driving down yesterday just to see if there were protests and lend my support, but I just assumed there wouldn’t be.

I am glad to see the community support that has been there for the victim.  The local news reporting has been relatively good, but Warsaw probably also is part of the Fort Wayne news-y area so I’m not sure there
 

Edited May 30, 2022 by treemom

[Howl]

@treemom, thanks for providing this excellent context.  

I'm contemplating the dynamic here and at all abusive churches.  It's the mashup of toxic narcissists + toxic masculinity  using the Bible as cover for abusive acts on the innocent (sometimes generationally) and I'm starting to think that these narcissists attract a certain type of parishioner who sticks around even though there are warning signs, because the bible can be manipulated to condone these types of behavior.  And people raised by fundamentalists to buy into this can be both perpetrators and victims as they continue in the church. 

Fundamentalist American Xtianity with it's emphasis on strict obedience,  "theology" of Biblical inerrancy, touch not mine anointed!!!!!!, repentance (well he told God he was SORRY), God hates divorce, blaming the victim, shame, patriarchy, the whole shiteroo, really the entire concept of sin, brings this ugliness to fruition.  Twitter is full of so many people recovering (or trying to recover) from spiritual abuse as well as sexual and emotional abuse perpetrated under this umbrella of awfulness.  So many perpetrators of sexual violence tell the victim the abuse is because God wants them to be together or God says it's OK, or some other God-based excuse. 

[hoipolloi]

2 hours ago, Howl said:

t's the mashup of toxic narcissists + toxic masculinity  using the Bible as cover for abusive acts on the innocent (sometimes generationally)

And the other generational component is that these churches are blatantly nepotistic, with multiple family members occupying key leadership positions. Having spouses but especially sons and sons-in-law heading various "ministries" at these places is completely on-brand.

[Howl]

29 minutes ago, hoipolloi said:

Having spouses but especially sons and sons-in-law heading various "ministries" at these places is completely on-brand.

Mark Driscoll, the Falwells, Doug Wilson son and sons-in-law,  the Sprouls,  Rousas Rushdoony and son-in-law Gary North, the Grahams, adulterer Jack Hyles + sordid serial adulterer and (probably murderer) son David and convicted sexual predator son-in-law Jack Schaap,  Gothard brothers,  come immediately to mind, but there are so many others.

[hoipolloi]

1 hour ago, Howl said:

there are so many others.

Yes. An especially blatant one is CJ Mahaney's Sovereign Grace cult in Louisville, KY.

Of the 7 pastors, 4 are family: CJ, sons-in-law Chesemore & Whiteacre, and brother-in-law Ricucci. His other son-in-law is a deacon.