According to a recent report from The Daily Mail, a 65-year-old Indiana pastor has resigned from his role at the New Life Christian Church after he was forced to admit to a sordid, decades-old sexual relationship with a 16-year-old girl who personally called him out on the grooming and assault in front of the entire stunned congregation.
Pastor John Lowe II had little choice but to step down from his pastoral role after Bobi Gephart, a now 43-year-old woman and member of the New Life Christian Church in Warsaw, Indiana, took to the stage alongside Lowe, with a microphone, and exposed the grooming and assault the church’s pastor has subjected her to years ago when she was just 16-years-old — the technical legal age of consent in Indiana.
It seems Gephart was emboldened to come forward with her story after Lowe told the congregation that he had “sinned” 20 years ago by having an affair and committing adultery against his wife. Lowe did not originally confess to the age of his “affair” partner or the circumstances surrounding their “relationship.”
Lowe begged his congregation for forgiveness of his sins and earned himself a standing ovation for it.
But Bobi could not stomach the mockery he was making of what he had done to her.
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Gephart stormed the stage with her husband Nate to inform the entire congregation that Lowe’s so-called affair “was not just adultery,” she was a literal teenager at the time of the assault.
“For 27 years I lived in a prison… I lived in a prison of lies and shame. Lying to protect the Lowe family. For years I thought I was a horrible person, having suicidal thoughts and not realizing what had been truly done to me,” Bobi bravely admitted from the stage.
“I would still be in a prison if my brother had not just approached me two weeks ago with what he had seen as a teenager that bothered him all these years: his pastor in bed with his younger sister.”
Gephart then turned to face Lowe directly and said:
I was just 16 when you took my virginity on your office floor. Do you remember that? I know you do.
You did things to to my teenage body that should have never been done. If you can’t admit the truth, you have to answer to God. You are not the victim here.”
Bobi’s husband Nate added, “This is a lie. This is not just adultery. It’s another level. It happened for nine years. When she was 15, 16, the grooming started.”
Lowe allegedly presented a teen Gephart with a pearl necklace that his wife had been given by the church as well as a “purity ring” — both of which Nate physically confronted the pastor with.
Bobi’s husband gave those items back and ensured that he and his wife “were not stretching the truth” before encouraging other women who may have also been gifted these “gifts of the ministry” to return them too.
As Bobi and Nate walked off the stage, Lowe faced an angry congregation.
“If you did it you need to admit it!” one fuming church-goer yelled out.
Another shouted, “We need to hear from our pastor!” while another yelled, “Give him the microphone!”
Lowe made his way back to the stage where he said at first, “I told you I committed adultery and that it went on far too long.”
But his congregation was not letting him off that easy, with one person shouting: “You didn’t tell us she was 16!”
Lowe cracked and admitted to what he had done, “It was wrong. I can’t make it right. I can’t make it better. That’s just the way it is.”
“It’s not all true but it did happen, yes.”
Lowe likely, unfortunately, will not face legal troubles over the incident, due to the legal age of consent in Indiana. However, he has stepped down from his position in the church and his name has been effectively scrubbed from the website.
The church released a statement reading:
This long-held secret first came to light when a woman in the church came forward and disclosed the relationship to various people within the church.
When confronted by others in church leadership concerning that report, Pastor Lowe confessed privately that the adultery did, in fact, occur.
In anticipation of Pastor Lowe’s public confession during our church service, the woman in question and her family were invited to be present.
She did attend and, together with her husband, also addressed the congregation, indicating that improper sexual conduct first occurred when she was 16 years of age and continued into her twenties. She tearfully described living with deep shame and pain over the ensuing years.
In the wake of what has now been revealed, we are hurting and broken for a woman who has lovingly attended and served in the church for many years, as well as for her husband and family.
It is our deepest prayer and commitment to love, support, encourage and help her through a process of healing in any way in which we are able.
Our brokenness extends to Pastor Lowe, his wife and family as well.
For 42 years, New Life has taught and preached a Cross-driven message of repentance, forgiveness and restoration; a ministry of reconciliation which has been both led and modeled by Pastors John and Debbie Lowe.
As healing occurs in their hearts, their marriage and family, we are committed to demonstrating the same support, encouragement, counsel and forgiveness that has come to define the collective heart and ministry of this body.”
Lowe and his wife have children the same age as Bobi.
See the video from The Daily Mail here:
Featured image via screen capture
