Yet another American megachurch has found itself embroiled in a metric ton of scandal, of the “thou shalt not commit adultery” variety, after their pastor was busted posting up in the Instagram DMs of a woman who, surprise, was not his wife and mother of his three children.
Matt Chandler has served as the lead pastor of the Village Church, which operates under the Southern Baptist Convention, for 20 years now. But his reign came to a disgraceful close this week when it was discovered, and he subsequently admitted to an online Instagram affair with a woman who was not his wife, ultimately telling his flock, “I fell short.”
Christianity Today came out with a report on the megachurch scandal, revealing that it all began to fall apart for Chandler when elders of the church were tipped off about his ongoing Instagram private messages affair, leading the elders to further scrutinize some distasteful comments the pastor had made on the social media platform. Ultimately, the elders of Village Church determined that much of the private messages Chandler exchanged with the woman “revealed something unhealthy.”
Chandler is, unsurprisingly, a staunchly anti-abortion pastor, even once going so far as to compare victims of rape to Adolf Hitler. He was also at the epicenter of a large scandal within Village Church, when the church “disciplined” a woman for wanting to divorce her husband after she discovered that he had been viewing pornography that sexually exploited underage children. The FBI eventually prosecuted the woman’s husband and, after a slew of rightful backlash, the church was forced to issue a public apology with regard to their treatment of the man’s wife.
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On the topic of his Instagram affair, Chandler claimed to agree with the assessment of the church elders, saying he was grateful for their insight and calling his personal actions with the woman “unguarded and unwise.”
“We cannot be a church where anyone is above the Scriptures and above the high heavenly call into Christ Jesus,” Chandler said in response to the scandal. “The Word of God holds me to a certain standard. And I fell short.”
Of course, the pastor was seemingly fine with his slimy actions, prior to getting caught, when he was approached by a woman who is friends with his Instagram mistress, and told Chandler that she was disturbed by the way the pastor was communicating with her friend.
“He told the congregation he didn’t think he’d done anything wrong, and the DMing was not a secret. His wife knew. The woman’s husband knew. And yet the woman who approached Chandler did not think the online exchanges were appropriate,” the report said. Chandler claimed to have found the interaction “disorienting.” The church elders ultimately conducted a review of the pastor’s interactions with the woman on social media, after learning of their messages, and were quick to take issue with what had been said. The report indicates that the church elders have since employed a law firm to conduct a thorough review of all of Chandler’s social media activity.
Read the full report on the scandal from Christianity Today here.
Featured image via Political Tribune Gallery
