It was perhaps inevitable that the Christian homeschooling movement would have a sex scandal sooner or later, but . . . Doug Phillips?
Former Vision Forum Ministries president Doug Phillips reiterated [Thursday] that his decision to resign from his leadership position was the proper outcome following his acknowledgement that he had “inappropriate relationship” with a woman who was not his wife. . . .
On Nov. 11, the Vision Forum Ministries board shutdown the non-profit, two weeks after Phillips publicly announced his resignation.
Maybe someone else saw that coming, but when I found out about this last night on Twitter, I was stunned. Apparently, this has been buzzing around since Phillips announced his resignation in late October, but I missed that news. The details of the scandal have been rather hush-hush. In his Thursday statement, Phillips vaguely acknowledged that “there was an inappropriate physical component with an unmarried woman” which “was intermittent over a period of years.”
Why the awkwardness in that confession? Well . . .
If we can believe blog commenters:
The affair was with a younger woman (girl) in her teenage years who was very involved with the ministries of both [Vision Forum] and the church. She also helped greatly with the family’s children as a nanny for many years.
This affair has gone on at least 10 years — although she is of age now, she was not when the affair began. . . .
This woman went unmarried all through her 20?s to be there for [Doug Phillips]’s every need and whim. When she finally realized she could no longer continue the affair, due to God’s conviction and disgust with the hypocrisy, she made it clear she would expose him if he didn’t confess.
I believe this will slowly be revealed in public.
Face it, as far as this woman herself is concerned, her identity must already be known by everyone who knows the Phillips family. How many people could fit that description? So she will no doubt eventually step out of the shadows and tell the whole sordid tale.
Or maybe collect a large payment to keep her mouth shut.
What I can’t understand — the mind boggles at the thought — is how any Christian girl could let herself be talked into this. Stipulate that Doug Phillips was a hypocritical horndog who deserves to burn in Hell. Still, what kind of arguments did he make to persuade this girl that it would be OK for her to have sex with him? “Oh, yeah, ‘Thou shalt not commit adultery, except for humping the nanny.’ That was in the original Hebrew text, but it’s left out of these ‘modern’ translations.”
This is a horrible thing, and I joke about it for the same reason I joke about a lot of horrible things. Sarcastic humor is a defense mechanism, because if I couldn’t make wisecracks about wretched stuff like this, it might drive me to utter despair.
Obama is president, which is enough despair for anyone.
Look, I’m not about “blaming the girl,” I’m just saying I don’t understand the girl.
By what kind of rationalization does a Christian girl justify this behavior, which continued for years? What sort of lines did Doug Phillips feed her that made her think, “Yeah, I’ll just have sex with this married ministry leader and keep quiet about it, because his ministry is so important to preserving the sanctity of the family”?
The contradictions between the doctrine and the behavior are so extreme that one cannot believe that someone who embraced the doctrine would be able to justify the behavior.
There are vulnerable and confused girls aplenty. Likewise there are calculating and manipulative ones. We have no idea where on the spectrum this young woman falls.
We do, however, know precisely where to place this minister who abused his position and betrayed his family, congregation, and oath.
Wise words.
Yes, Protestants often have trouble grasping the problems of conscience.
Confession is meaningless without contrition, no contrition and the slate remains darkened.
And contrition is not merely regret or sorrow for offending God, it must –must– include an earnest and heartfelt desire to not repeat the sin.
Does this blind spot have anything to do with the Protestant notions of election? Probably.
I had a professor tell my my first year of Seminary, “Two things are needed for you to commit adultery: the desire to commit it and the opportunity to commit it.” He continued, “At times you will have the desire, at other times you will have the opportunity. Pray to God and do everything you can do avoid them happening at the same time.”
Looks like Doug failed to do one of those things.
Outstanding. To have thought is to have a thought. To dwell on it gives it the power to turn into action.
I think Billy Graham had the proper strategy. He was never alone with a woman that wasn’t a relative. He knew that he had to be above reproach, so he didn’t even ride an elevator alone with another woman.
I’m not saying that he was ever tempted or not, but his strategy accomplished two things:
1. It couldn’t happen.
2. No one could even lie and suggest it did happen, as there was no opportunity.
Maybe it sounds draconian, but people in the Ministry are held to a higher standard. So, they have to act accordingly.
And Billy Graham never had a sex scandal, did he?
Being a protestant pastor I have dealt with this movement and ministered to number of refugees who have escaped. It is a strange and despicable movement. They do not not educate their daughters, their sons are puffed up – like Doug himself was – and the fathers are almost worshiped.
I remember reading an add for one of their conferences. They had various teachers and workshops and in the workshops daughters were taught to do things like shave their fathers and tie their ties. This was to create an intimacy between father and daughter. They even had pictures of happy daughters lathering up their father’s smiling faces.
Actually, I think that your professor left out one thing. Reading what he warned you against, it sounds more like he is warning you against women — or men — throwing themselves at you. What Mr Phillips seems to have done was not to have the opportunity happen to him, but to have actively worked to create it himself.
The details are, at this point, not clear enough that we can analyze how this happened beyond your point: He wanted it, and he had the chance.
This is why I continue to be astonished by the mystery of what the girl’s thinking was. Here you have a ministry that was specifically devoted to preserving the integrity of the family and traditional morality, and yet this girl — raised within that movement — was somehow able to be seduced by a leader of the movement? And she kept quiet about it (if we can believe blog comments, that is) for an entire decade?
What kind of Kool-Aid was she drinking?
Heck, these days a pastor has to make sure he’s never alone with a man who isn’t a relative as well!
I won’t go as far as you have about Protestants having (more) trouble grasping the problems of conscience, but the sacrament of reconciliation, and the education which precedes it, are a different type of education. We are taught that not only must we confess our sins to another human being, but to (deliberately) exclude something is to try to conceal and avoid responsibility, renders the confession invalid, and that to invalidly seek absolution is a sin in itself. It is an exercise in form that has effects beyond the form.
Remember Stacy, self-delusion is the strongest and most persistent delusion there is …
Thanks for that. Prevents me from replying to the lady in a harsher vein.
The “patriarchy” movement was something I observed from a remote distance some years ago, as a homeschooling father, but participating in it was never really an option. Christian morality requires strength of character, and I do not see how deliberate degradation is compatible with that.
It is one thing, I say, to oppose and criticize secular feminism, and to strive to prevent this worldly trend from corrupting the church. It is something entirely different to create a legalistic counter-movement with cult-like overtones.
Doug Phillips’s downfall does not merely negate all the good he may have ever done, but actually aids the enemy his followers sought to oppose. It’s disgusting and shameful.
That depends on who mixed the Kool Aid.
The problem is that, regardless of who “started” this whole thing, both parties were (eventually) adults who continued the affair long after they were responsible for themselves.
It’s quite possible — and I think it likely — that one of them (almost certainly the lady) wanted to end this much earlier, but didn’t know how without revealing everything, like the secretary who embezzled a bit of money in the past, and who has to keep on cooking the books so that the past doesn’t catch up with her.
This is an example.
That is very good advice. Parents leaders in organizations such as the boy scouts are taught never to be alone with other boys without another parent being present. It makes it much harder for a pedophile pederast to slip in to the fold, and it avoids false reports.
Now if we could only keep the pederasts out of this organization.
Thus the real tragedy … as bad as Neal Young’s “The Needle and the Damage Done” as self delusion and self-deception are more powerful drugs than Herion … http://youtu.be/Hd3oqvnDKQk
Thoughts drive everything. If you focus on being a success, you will be a success. I do not mean (necessary) being financially successful (although there is certainly nothing wrong about that). I mean being a good husband, father, and leader and contributor in your community. For a man, it needs to follow that hierarchy.
She was drinking the Doug Phillips brand of unbiblical counsel – the man is always the voice of God to the women folk. The man is always right and holy.
Girls raised in this environment are completely brainwashed. It would have been considered ‘sinful’ and wrong for her to have ever questioned the man – no matter what.
She is not to blame.
Thankful that he is out of business – at least for now.
Feel terrible for his wife and children, the other woman(which probably began while she was still a teen since it was a 10 year affair) and for all other wives and daughters brainwashed by Doug Phillips cult.
Ahhh, but Captain von Trapp is not married at the time, and, as far as the movie lets us know, he and Sister Maria were not engaged in premarital copulation.
I’m trying to picture what this movie would have been like had it been produced this year. Leisl and Rolf would have been fornicating for months by then, and Maria’s counsel to her would concern whether or not she was on the pill, and the best razors for shaving her nether regions. Maria herself, who would have been abused as a child before entering the convent, would be played by Miley Cyrus — Lindsey Lohan having gotten a bit too old for the part — and would be showing off her tramp stamp in her lacy crop tops and skinny jeans. Captain von Trapp and Elsa Schräder would have been shacked up for some time now, but Maria’s services as nanny would still have been needed, because Fraulein Schräder would have her career at Vienna’ Raiffeisen Zentralbank. Eventually, Maria would have left her chamber door deliberately ajar, and Captain von Trapp would see her standing there, blithely unaware of his presence, in her red satin thong, adjusting her nipple rings. From that moment on, the Captain’s thoughts would be filled with nothing but Maria, and wondering if she did anal.
Yup, after eight years of corrupt war criminals (Cheney/Rumsfeld) in the administration, Obama is enough to cause despair. NOT.
Now if he was just to adopt the warm and fuzzy ‘Christian’ values of the left, I’m sure he could be seen as the victim in all of this. From where I’m sitting, this seems like a desperate cry for help against the injustices of the hetero-patriarchy and christo-fascists.
What, you mean that our Nobel Peace Prize winning President, the one killing all of those good, innocent Muslims with drones and having expanded the war in Afghanistan, he doesn’t cause you problems? 🙂
And you base this on what?
LOL !! Except the real ones got married first ! Great example. Please note in the film version, the actor is Gay!
uh… not so much. You’re forgetting the heavy theme of patriarchal control, to the point of robotization of the children in the story. There are still ultra controlled families today, and this family would be that.
Yes, Captain Von Trapp did the right thing and did not take advantage of Maria’s virtue.
He had a fall back.
Who’s gay? Christopher Plummer? I knew he was an asshole, but I never heard he was gay.
Yes the Captain did the honorable thing with Maria.
Not so sure about the Barnoness though…
Sad to say it, but you do have a point there.
With you until you bashed President Obama…Who by the way is a faithful family man,…for no good reason.You’re as big a scum bag as the man you’re railing against.
Faithful by having a homosexual “body-man” in Reggie Love? A faithful family man who has a membership in “Man Country” (a notorious gay bathouse in Chicage)? A faithful family man who lies to the American people at every occasion? Take the plank out of your own eye before you attempt to remove the mote from another’s …
You forgot the /sarc close tag …
Freaking ZOMBIES!
Exactly. As someone who has had to confront his own lies and other sinful (as well as criminal) behaviors, I find his ‘confession’ lacking candor and truthfulness. It is a very facile and shallow attempt at a “mea culpa” …
hmmm, the girl was a teenager, that this guy has a sexual relation with. this guy is what 38, and having a relation with a teen, yet you are calling him a pedo? This is exactly what freekate was sayaing you only called her a pedo because she was gay
Incorrect Skippy, Kate is a pedo because she had sexual relations with a minor who is incapable of giving consent.
Without the revelation of the age of the female in this situation when it began (was she legally able to consent?) I must withhold labeling him as a pedo, just a very foolish man who has potentially committed a crime by using his position of authority to coerce sexual activity.
Genders and sexual preference play not a whit into this story.
To attempt to hijack this story for the glorification of Kate and the #FreeKate movement reveals you to be a disingenuous and dishonest assclown.
“Incorrect Skippy, Kate is a pedo because she had sexual relations with a minor who is incapable…” — rmnixondeceased http://t.co/WazajxV9ZQ
At first, a child’s rationalization. I’m SPECIAL. God picked me out for this. I’m in need of special-ness. I’m really to blame. I’ll get in trouble. Then, It’s “true love.” Etc etc. If that is the puzzle, it’s no more complicated than that.
I’m sure we all have our sins properly sorted at the end, and her share of guilt is not very interesting to me. It was his duty to protect the people in his charge, and he used her instead.
This man was always in charge of his fate, as an adult, with his own covenants to keep. He selected someone who might buy his bull$t, until she didn’t anymore.
Yet, it was even worse with all the priests and bishops sexually abusing boys in the CC
Thinking most normal people are logical is a myth.
I see no evidence she’s avoided “accountability” for being his plaything. But more to the point, if “She can’t have been very nice” is his defense, I’m not accepting it. He is MORE guilty and there is no getting around it.
Only if she is close to retarded. Most women who have husbands on this level of junk at least sense something is wrong if it goes on this long. Many know very well their husbands are cheating and don’t want to leave the husband, so they put up with whatever he does.
As long as we’re talking about an immoral individual and not an immoral group, I agree.
At the same time, “Christian” shouldn’t be a pass for someone. They should still be held accountable for what they did.
Hypo-Christians! http://t.co/M51wSoELPO
She wanted something from him as well. She apparently thought she was getting it (whatever “it” was) for a long time, and then changed her mind.
It takes two to tango.
I just roll eyes at the whole thing… I know several Christians like this, including missionaries, Church activity leaders, and members of churches. OK, so the people I know are after or go after adults, not teens.
And now we see a much greater number of bisexual women, married women calling themselves Christians and pretending to be so, who are all ready to go after other women and often do. My impression is that they are hiding from their clueless Christian husbands, some who are quite nice, and good husbands, what kind of sexuality pigs they have become.
When someone says to me nowadays that they are a Christian, in my mind the first thought is: until you prove it, clamcake, until you prove it.
And by coincidence, I met a man last week who claimed to be a Christian and who said he had been going to a certain church for 3O years and by our conversation I am willing to bet a crate of gold that he is a true gangster. Yes, just like in the movies. Christian gangsta in an Armani suit. Weren’t the Mafia guys all Catholic usually anyways?
Anna and the King of Siam?
I consider myself pretty well versed in matters evangelical and, assuming this guy is an evangie (I’m a fundie so I may be wrong) I have never heard of him before now. What exactly is/was Vision Forum?