Humiliating a repentant brother

I am ashamed of what I have read in this article, Joseph Farah and WND staff.

Why do you, Farah, Michael Farris and David Gibbs help this clearly unrepentant woman who seeks to profit off her sin throw stones at a man who appears to be repentant? You join her in blaming Mr. Phillips for their consensual sin, whereas she should follow Phillips' example and humbly repent without pointing fingers and deflecting blame.

Why does she spread smutty details that do not contradict Phillips' confession, but are only inclined to humiliate him and his family? Haven't Phillips' church elders already heard both sides and rendered their decision? Why do you help this woman harm Phillips for the very sins of which she is also guilty? Isn't that the very definition of hypocrisy? Isn't this evidence that she is precisely the woman of whom Proverbs warns, still peddling her sexuality for money?

The Bible says the adulteress hunts for the precious life. "For by means of a whorish woman a man is brought to a piece of bread." What does the male adulterer hunt for? According to Proverbs – a prostitute. But Mr. Farah and WND link arms with the covetous adulteress against the repentant brother.

I searched your article for a virtuous reason to file suit and go public with such smutty details, and you give two reasons. First: Phillips might go back into the ministry. So you punish and humiliate a man for what he might do? How would you like it, Mr. Farah, if God punished you for what you might do? "With what measure you mete, it shall be measured to you," Jesus warns us in Matthew 7.

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Your second reason is even more pathetic: You expose him because Phillips teaches patriarchy, of which you disapprove. And why is that even remotely connected to his sin? He's also a Trinitarian and a Calvinist – does his forsaken sin refute those beliefs as well?

Even if Phillips is unrepentant, you have presented no evidence that he is, and thus you have no justification for publicizing these shameful details and siding with a woman who is clearly unrepentant and seeking to profit off consensual sexual sin.

Reading the posts following your article, most of your readers don't have the discernment to see through your subterfuge. Many join your unjustified bias against patriarchy, a belief you don't even try to refute biblically, but refute by pointing at a repentant brother's sin and flaunting humiliating details obtained from the covetous adulteress who sinned with him. This is the stuff of Playboy magazine – I would not expect it from WND, HSLDA and David Gibbs.

I pray the Lord would rise to judge the matter, and let the wicked fall into the pit dug for the righteous. Comfort the repentant, dear Lord, rise to defend those who unjustly persecute them for the sins you refuse to remember.

Dr. Patrick Johnston