Andy Savage allegations and whether he should stay in ministry
- Should Andy Savage remain in ministry after the twenty-year-old sexual misconduct allegation, and was the applauding church right?
The hosts cover the allegations against Andy Savage, teaching pastor at High Point Church in Memphis: that twenty years earlier, as a 22-year-old youth pastor in Texas, he coerced 17-year-old Jules Woodson into oral sex, apologized, and had the church instruct her to keep quiet; he later told the story as a sermon illustration and the congregation applauded, drawing backlash in the Me Too moment. The hosts agree God's forgiveness is real but say hiding it for twenty years and telling half-truths disqualifies him from the pastorate — grace warming a person produces unprompted apologies, and he could serve Jesus in many ways other than the stage. They also note he broke the 'cardinal rule of illustration': the illustration became bigger than the sermon.
More on Forgiveness
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Dear LFTP: the $4,200 loan that never came back
- How do I get past the sadness over the $4,200 loan my friend never repaid — do I just let it go?
The final Dear LFTP letter: a year ago a supposed friend asked to borrow money — her husband had left the country to renew his visa, her car was repossessed, she had no way to get to work.
From No. 603 · Found Out
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Dear LFTP: the stolen college fund and telling the 90-year-olds
- Should I tell my 90-year-old parents that their grandson stole my granddaughter's college fund?
Ben hands to Mike, who reads a grandmother's letter: her son helped himself to the college money the great-grandparents set aside for her granddaughter; she fears telling her parents, in their nineties, could shock them into a stroke.
From No. 586 · Nothing Personal
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Dear LFTP: forty years of a cheating wife and a temptation
- Would it be wrong to rekindle an old friendship for intimacy when my wife has cheated for forty years?
A man approaching his fortieth anniversary writes that his wife has always been a serial cheater, a secret he kept to protect the children's view of her; with retirement and a sexless marriage he asks whether rekindling things with old female friends would be wrong.
From No. 581 · Silly Rabbit | Christianity, Culture, and Navigating Social Expectations
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Dear LFTP: the stalker ex-girlfriend
- How do I get my stalker ex-girlfriend to leave me alone?
Mike reads a letter from a man whose ex-girlfriend keeps trying to get him back, even stalking him, after he blocked her number.