‘The Lies Need to Stop’: After Pastor ‘Confesses’ to ‘Adultery’ His Teenage Victim Takes Pulpit With Truth

An Indiana pastor admitted to assaulting a 16-year-old girl to his congregation on Sunday, but only after first confessing to “adultery” in his past, the details of which were fleshed out just a tad by his victim only moments later.

In video captured from the service — after its livestream conspicuously ended — Pastor John B. Lowe of New Life Christian Church in Warsaw is confronted by his victim and her husband on stage in front of the congregation. Though the pastor does admit to it once the dirty laundry had been aired out, a number of churchgoers actually get up to embrace him and begin a group prayer.

The video was shared by Maisey Cooke on Facebook and flagged by OnlySky.

In his initial confession, Lowe said he had an affair decades in the past.

“To those that I sinned against, many years ago and recently, by keeping this in the dark, and to those of you who are wounded from this fresh hurt. To you, the church, I repent for the adultery and my silence. Please forgive me,” he said. Lowe said he would also be stepping down from his “ministry responsibilities.”

The victim and her husband eventually took the stage and confronted Lowe, with the woman saying she was his victim revealing she was just 16 at the time, a detail the pastor failed to offer up initially.

“The church deserves to know the truth: This church has been built on lies. But no more,” she said. “The lies need to stop. I could give story after story after story to what you did to me.”

She alluded to multiple assaults when she was a teenager, including the pastor taking her virginity in his office, presumably at the church.

“You did things to my teenage body that had never and should never have been done. If you can’t admit the truth, you have to answer to God. You are not the victim here,” she said at one point.

Toward the end of the video, the husband of the victim leaves a necklace and a “purity ring,” both of which he said were given to his wife during the time when she was being assault by the pastor, a man who he added has not been “held accountable” for his actions.

After the couple leaves, a small number of people in the audience yell at the pastor, saying he needs to admit the full truth, which he does after a few moments, revealing this is the story he chalked up as “adultery” earlier.

“I told you I committed adultery. I told you it went on far too long,” he said. The pastor claimed that “not all” of the story the victim shared was true, but he admitted to being with her.

Lowe once again asked for forgiveness, and some seemed satisfied as only moments after being confronted by a woman he victimized at 16, he’s surrounded by churchgoers as they perform a group prayer for the man. Watch the full video of the confrontation below:

The church put out a statement on the incident this week saying that they had no knowledge of Lowe’s actions and said he’d put in his resignation.

“Life is messy. Believers are messy. Church is messy. God is not,” they buttoned up the statement with.