The Parable of Banging the Babysitter

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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.

 


188 comments

  3. Google it! I did.

    Interesting stuff… This deceiver and hypocrite heaped a pile of hurt on his family and flock!

  7. The Vero beach chapter of PFLAG stated in a press release that “simple research” shows that heterosexuals are arrested and charged under the same law as Kaitlyn Hunt. The bias issue was created by the Hunts and their supporters, just like they lied and said Kaitlyn was 17, and her victim 15.

  8. Whenever someone achieves “rock star” status is ANY field, they are in danger of falling into the rock star trap of believing all the praise and adulation.

  11. Brainwashing is a distinct possibility. Brainwashing people renders people susceptible to all sorts of evils. And sadly, in this case, the nonsense had a Biblical “wrapper” on it. It looked like the Bible, and sounded at least vaguely like the Bible, but it was right out of the book of lies.

  19. Based on Doug Phillips writings, sermons, teaching, conferences, etc.

    Also have known several families who tried this out with their own daughters – never allowed one decision on their own, never allowed to further their education in college, etc.
    These young ladies are completely unprepared for life outside their daddy’s home and could easily be manipulated and used by someone like Doug Phillips.

  23. You were complaining, Sarah, that he was ‘blaming’ her. Of course one blames her. This supposedly went on for a decade and she is supposedly ~27 years old. I would not apportion blame equally between the two of them, but you did not complain about malapportionment of blame.

  24. That is disconcerting.

    I wonder how much this is a reaction against evangelical girl culture. I have been reading Mr. Dalrock on his perusal of evangelical literature and his experiences in evangelical congregations. This sounds like a bipolar counter-reaction.

  25. Well, there lies the problem. Supposing she has never had any intent of doing anything like this to him, she was victimized by him when he started the cheating – and who knows if it started with this girl.
    But then, as the cheating goes on, and the wife knows he is cheating or suspects it and doesn’t really pursue the matter, she becomes either negligent or collusive. And then one starts to wonder if it’s because of the money, the prestige, the benefits they get parading around as a married couple…. And in this case, it’s worse because the girl apparently was under 18. So the wife is standing by the side of the husband while he preys and exploit minors. We can’t know what she knew when, but it could be quite ugly as well. Without knowing more details I withhold any pity.

  27. Neither are they nuns. Girls are not as dimly, obsessively horny as boys are, but they have a marvelous talent for confusing lust with love.

  30. The priest who heard my first confession and adminstered First Holy Communion to my siblings was defrocked because of an affair with a parishioner.

    There is no logic to these things; just the opposite.

  31. This is the first I’ve heard of this guy and the organization. I went to the website and there isn’t much there, so I can’t read about the guy at all.

  33. Amen. But the reality of the Cross and Christ’s exculpatory sacrifice is what inspires illogical man to move towards the “more perfect understanding” that is logic (the root of all real science and belief).

  34. Would not be a surprise if they are scrubbing the VF website. But you can find lots of his articles, sermons, etc. online.

    Glad you have never heard of him. Not worth knowing with the damage he has caused thousands,

  35. “…cannot question authority…”
    Who has the authority in Evangelical Protestantism: Scripture or the traditions of men? I thought it was the Catholics who were confused about the locus of supreme moral authority. Rivers of blood were shed over this question, though now it seems the two sides were really in agreement. If I must submit to a man, I choose the Pope, who has a plausible historical as well as Scriptural claim to it. As RSM wonders, what did Phillips say to her to convince her that she should submit to him? Was his argument based in Scripture?
    Teenage Catholic martyr St. Maria Goretti died rather than submit to Alessandro Serenelli.
    (He stabbed her fourteen times IIRC. If you’re unfamiliar with the story, its well worth researching, especially Alessandro’s conversion years later.)

  38. If my sexual accomplice is not herself married, we will both enjoy a cooler level in the flaming abyss than if she or I had been married.

  40. I was going to mention this if no one else did: MUSTN’T BE ALONE WITH THE OPPOSITE SEX. MUST ALWAYS BE CHAPERONED. (Duh!!!)

  41. I was going to mention this if no one else did: MUSTN’T BE ALONE WITH THE OPPOSITE SEX. MUST ALWAYS BE CHAPERONED. (Duh!!!)

  42. In Evangelical Christianity the first, last and only authority is scripture. Popes have been pretty confused, or outright reprobates, like the Borgias. I don’t care what their claims are, the magisterium is just as fallible as any other group of human beings.

  43. “Christian” is the opposite of having a pass, an ‘anti-pass,’ actually. Being a Christian and being married are both aggravating circumstances. As a Christian I know adultery is wrong, and once espoused, I have made an explicit promise to be faithful. I would therefore be not only a fornicator but also an especially treacherous liar. See 2 Samuel Chap. 11-12 for further discussion.

  44. “Christian” simply makes the sin worse. And, there are immoral groups. I can tell you’ve never heard of a swinger’s club. I wish I hadn’t.

  45. One of the conditions for a valid confession is contrition. If I’m not penitent, my confession is invalid. ( I know you know this, I just cant seem to keep my mouth shut tonight.)

  47. There is never logic to sin. Anyone that tells me they thought things out logically when they were actually letting the little head do the thinking, and he knows no logic, is marked as an idiot. Logically considered, Adam would have refused the forbidden fruit when Eve offered it.

  48. FWIW, when I’m rash enough to tell a stranger that I’m a ‘Christian,’ I usually specify that this merely means that I believe the propositions in the Nicene Creed, and all that they imply, and that I have been baptized. I suppose, by that definition, Lucifer is Christian also, in that he has an understanding of God that is correct, as far as it goes. I expressly disclaim to be ‘good.’ I merely claim to be correct. You cannot tell, for example, whether I will commit perjury, but you can assume that I will not do it lightly. I would not do it for Wales, for example. Of course, adultery is a completely different type of sin….

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