John Ortberg, a popular evangelical author and megachurch pastor, betrayed a “bond of trust” by allowing a church volunteer who admitted being attracted to minors to still work with children, according to a statement from the elders at the Bay Area church he leads.
“In July of 2018, a person serving in the Menlo Church community came to John and shared in confidence an unwanted thought pattern of attraction to minors,” the church’s elder said in a statement. “The person assured, to John’s satisfaction, that the person had not acted on the attraction and sought John’s support. John believed the person and provided prayers and referrals for counseling.”
But Ortberg took no steps to bar the person from working with minors, according to the elders. He also did not talk to other staff or church members about the situation.
The church’s statement did not name the third party who brought Ortberg’s actions to the church’s attention. On Sunday (Feb. 2.), Daniel Lavery, Ortberg’s estranged son, posted a message on Twitter saying he and his wife had reported the pastor.
Lavery said that a church member had confessed having “obsessive sexual feelings about young children” for years and that they had intentionally sought out “unsupervised” positions where they could volunteer with children — including volunteer opportunities that included overnight travel. He also said that the church member told him “John Ortberg had continually encouraged this person in their unsupervised work with children.”
After speaking to the church member, Lavery said he and his wife confronted his parents about the situation. He said that John Ortberg and his wife, Nancy, were aware of the church member’s confession. He also wrote that John Ortberg defended his handling of the situation and said that their advice was dismissed — in part because both Lavery and his wife are transgender. Lavery also said that Ortberg did not know if the church member was still traveling overnight with children.
Lavery, who writes the Dear Prudence advice column for Slate.com, said that he suggested that the church member seek treatment and immediately stop volunteering with church. He also said he wrote to Ortberg and urged him to report the situation to the church’s elders. When his father did not do that, Lavery said he and his wife reported their concerns to the church board.
Following that conversation, Ortberg went on leave.
Lavery said that he did not know if the church member had ever acted on their attraction to minors.
“I have no firsthand knowledge of any criminal activity, and I have real compassion for anyone trying to treat sexual compulsions with accountability and oversight,” he wrote on Twitter. “But the situation they had created was risky, unsafe and unsustainable.”
In their statement, Menlo Church leaders say they hired an independent investigator to look into the concerns over Ortberg’s handling of the church member.
Source: Christianity Today
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