An Indiana pastor’s public confession to his congregation about an affair went sideways after his victim confronted him and told the congregation that she was just 16-years-old at the time.
According to the Daily Beast, John Lowe II, 65, of the New Life Christian Church and World Outreach in Warsaw, Indiana announced his resignation from the pulpit after he revealed that he had “committed adultery” nearly two decades ago.
“It was nearly 20 years ago. It continued far too long. It involved one person, and there’s been no other, nor any other situations of unbecoming conduct for the last 20 years,” Lowe said, according to a Facebook Live video posted by a member of the congregation.
Lowe received a standing ovation after the confession. But, before the applause died down a woman identified as Bobbi, now in her 40s, and her husband want up to stage and told the congregation that she was the person who Lowe cheated on his wife with and that she was only 16 at the time.
Bobbi said she lived in a “prison of lies” for 27 years (not 20) to protect Lowe.
“For years, I thought I was a horrible person, having suicidal thoughts, not realizing what had truly been done to me,” she said.
“I would still be in a prison if my brother had not approached me just two weeks ago with what he had seen as a teenager that bothered him all these years: his pastor in bed with his younger sister, a T-shirt and underwear on,” she told the audience. “The lies and the manipulation have to stop. I was a prisoner and you kept me in your prison. I’m a prisoner no longer. I was just 16 when you took my virginity on your office floor. Do you remember that?. I could give story after story to what you did to me.”
She said she tried to talk to someone at the time, but those around the pastor covered it up. They did not even offer any counseling.
She looked directly at Lowe and told him “you did things to my teenage body that had never, and should have never, been done,”adding, “If you can’t admit to the truth, you have to answer to God. You are not the victim here.”
Bobbi’s husband also spoke, telling the congregation, “people have to be held accountable, and they can’t just bamboozle people and just say, ‘Well I just committed adultery.’ It was far beyond adultery.”
Lowe went back to the stage amid calls from the congregation to admit what he did.
“It was wrong,” he said. “I can’t make it right. That’s just the way it is. If I could go back and redo it all, I would. I can’t. All I can do is ask you to forgive me.” Some members of the congregation then gathered around Lowe and prayed.
“In the wake of what has now been revealed, we are hurting and broken for a woman who has lovingly attended and served in the church for many years, as well as for her husband and family. It is our deepest prayer and commitment to love, support, encourage and help her,” the church said in a statement.
“Our brokenness extends to Pastor John B. Lowe I, his wife and family as well. For 42 years, New Life has taught and preached a Cross-driven message of repentance, forgiveness and restoration; a ministry of reconciliation which has been both led and modeled by Pastors John and Debbie Lowe through a process of healing in any way in which we are able,” the statement added.
The Kosciusko County prosecutor is now investigating.
