Clergy Adultery Is Not a Victimless Crime

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Another Obama Mentor: Frank Marshall Davis, Commun...":

Dear Pastor Jackson,

I am in a hotel room tonight. Bad thoughts revolve in my mind. I am broken and dismayed. I read these posts on this blog and wonder why.

I recently had an employee walk into my office. She shared with me her affair with her WELS pastor. It was hard to take the news. I was disappointed but maybe for not the reason you think. I confronted my employee about the seriousness of the situation. She said I could do nothing as her pastor and she had agreed not to pursue a relationship. I asked her how her husband who is the chairman of the school would feel at the next council meeting knowing her (sic) wife slept with her pastor. Again, my friend said I could do nothing. A mistake and nothing more. I confronted the pastor. He too said it was between her and him. How could he go to the meetings with her husband there, I asked?

I work in a WELS ministry. I am broken. 20 years ago a trusted vicar and I thought a friend had an affair with my wife. He got her pregnant. I took my lumps and moved on. I am still married. The vicar now a pastor.

I don't always agree with Pastor Jackson and his views on this site. I also know that this site is viewed more often than it is admitted.

To my pastor, I hope you understand why I now haven't been to church for 8 weeks. The memories are hard again. Maybe you might understand a little more now why I expect more of my pastor than others. I am sorry if I pressed to (sic) hard on you or your associate.

To my employee who now left, go in peace. To the pastor who had an affair with my wife, I hope I can forget you once again with this memory renewed by a different pastor.

I sit in my hotel room tonight and wonder. I think of my failings. I think of my daughter and my wife. I think of ending it. But I will not. I will press on. I wonder if those pastors on my board, if they really knew of the pastoral pain caused on me would look different upon me if they really knew my story. They are kind and supportive but I also guard myself against them. I don't want to be hurt again. Maybe it is time for me to move on in my work. Maybe it is time for a new church although I know they have all the same faults.

So I guess I will go back...and listen again to the Word...but when he preaches on the 6th I will look at him...and try my best to make it through...if my pastor only knew.

This will be my last post on this blog. To all of you who seek to reach out with the word of God and save souls for Jesus, God be with you. For those of you who whine about members lack of support or help or criticism of you not getting your work done, well maybe it's time to look deeply into your members (sic) eyes. Maybe, just maybe, you have no idea of the pain they have because of no less, the church.

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A WELS Pastor has left a new comment on your post "Another Obama Mentor: Frank Marshall Davis, Commun...":

This note has got to be a fake....If this person was (sic - contrary to fact, at least in the writer's mind) involved in WELS ministry, he would know exactly who (sic) to take this to, and this pastor would no longer be in the ministry...This is a fake that you or one of your buddies put on here in order to lambast the WELS again! Sorry, Greg, but I simply don't believe your commenter!

[GJ - Proofreading indicates that both authors are WELS-trained.]

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GJ - I am posting this in the hopes it will convince synodical leaders that covering up for adulterous pastors is sinful, wrong, unethical, and damaging to far more people than anyone suspects.

I see that someone has already posted the allegation that I or one of my buddies made this up. The slander-machine is set on high volume today: slandering in the name of citing the 8th Commandment. No, I did not write this. No, my buddies did not write this. I do not know who wrote it, but I thought it sounded authentic. I have seen similar accounts of husbands damaged by adulterous clergy.

When I tried to raise this issue in Columbus, Wally Oelhaven accused me of "taking cheap shots" at the three divorced pastors (three out of six) in the area. I thought adultery and husband of one wife were topics addressed in the pastoral epistles. I must have been wrong. The cover-up artists, who had to deceive a lot of people, painted themselves as compassionate and evangelical. They were evan-jellyfish, apparently soft but really poisonous and dangerous.

Long ago an LCA district president pointed out how dangerous pastoral counseling could be. Vulnerable women can look for confirmation of their worth and flatter a minister at the same time. No other professional can knock on a door without an appointment and expect to be welcomed. That can be very useful or extremely dangerous. The pastoral epistles discuss these dangers. False doctrine and adulterous behavior go together. Adulterating the Word makes it easier to adulterate the marriage vows.

Covering up for clergy adultery has been especially damaging to the Christian Church. The laity know of many clergy who have had affairs, divorced, married their mistresses, and stayed in the ministry, sometimes after leaving briefly to sell frozen food or repair furnaces. Some adulterers get promoted immediately when caught, if they have the correct false doctrine. One Michigan District VP had his affair covered up by his buddy the District Pope. When the affair was uncovered, the VP became a WELS nursing home administrator. A member of the VP's congregation ceased his plans for becoming a pastor. He was disgusted by the affair, the coverup, and the promotion. Multiply that a few hundred times over and the results are not church growth.

Contrary to what A WELS Pastor said, it is usually hopeless to go to anyone in authority in WELS. That may change, but it will take a long time. The first loyalty is to seminary classmates, not to the Scriptures. Secondly, Holy Mother WELS must be protected. Thirdly, no one is allowed to disagree with the District Pope. Trying to get past that thicket of corruption, arrogance, and deception is a chore. The ELS is exactly the same. Bethany Seminary president spoke in his class against discussing these issues becase "it hurts the face of the church." Image first - families be damned. That can only come from the Little Sect on the Prairie, whose buildings were all funded by a man who divorced to marry the wife of his manager. She divorced, became a Lutheran, and went back to Rome when St. Marvin of Schwan died. Money can convert someone to the Lutheran cause, as she proved.

I offer as Exhibit A for the defense -

Floyd Luther Stolzenburg is still serving as a Lutheran pastor in Columbus, Ohio. His LCMS District President forced him to resign "for cause" on a Saturday and preached as Floyd's replacement on Sunday. Floyd followed his ex-wife to Columbus and settled into St. Paul's (faux-WELS at the time, now a member of WELS). Soon he got a wealthy member to fund an organization to make him a faux-pastor. Wally Oelhaven told me, more than once, "The plan was to move Floyd into the WELS ministry after five years." DP Robert Mueller and VP Paul Kuske set up the organization. After Floyd had caused enough trouble through LPR, and remarried, VP Kuske recommended him for a parish, Emmanuel, which had left the ALC. Another WELS pastor also recommended Floyd. Both WELS men wrote letters in favor of Floyd. His old LCMS DP did not. Note Ichabodians that Floyd never joined WELS, never went through colloquy, and swore he would never be WELS. Yet WELS lined up to flatter him into this clergy position. The initial contract was for one year, which Floyd neglected to tell Kuske and Mueller. Then the job was extended.

Roger Kovaciny helped raise money for Thoughts of Faith through Floyd's church, which had an embezzlement scandal. ELS Pastor Jay Webber had no problem with Kovo working through Floyd. ELS Pastor (now ELCA) John Shep had no problem with this lucrative arrangement. People challenged Shep about this, so his response was to slander me. Funny - he praised me to one supporter of Thoughts of Faith while attacking me when writing to another person. When the attack email was quoted to him by the supporter, he refused to answer. That is how to make the big bucks in the ELS.

Floyd had nothing but support from the entire Michigan ministerium and especially from the Columbus clergy. And yes, I went to all the authorities, whose response was to take action - against me. They did me a favor in their spite and vindictiveness. And now I can post so others can have a hearing.

Kevin Leman, a fine Christian writer, has this interesting take on adultery - it never turns out well. Clergy should stop romanticizing an utterly destructive sin.

On a positive note, there are some new WELS leaders who can make a difference if they have the support of faithful members. There are plenty of unrepentant laity who will always support false teachers among the clergy. The faithful pastors and leaders need support too.