When John Pavlovitz reminded us in 2018 that good people don’t defend a bad man, he must have had some of Trump’s most ardent evangelical supporters in mind. It turns out that some of the nation’s so-called moral guardians share one trait with their dear one—they’re horrible people.
For instance, Rick Joyner has taken well-deserved fire for coddling two evangelists who have been exposed as full-on perverts. Jesse Lee Peterson has no qualms about giving succor to white nationalists and Nazis. Rick Wiles is a full-blown anti-Semite. And on, and on, and on.
Well, add another to the list—Perry Stone. You may know him as the yayhoo who suggested that Trump’s foes were demon-possessed, threatened to sic the wrath of God on Democrats if they didn’t leave him alone, and claimed coronavirus was divine punishment for abortion and the gay.
However, in April, Stone went incommunicado with almost no warning, only this cryptic message on his Facebook feed.
According to the Chattanooga Times Free Press, Stone broke his silence earlier this month in a meeting with a small group of members at his local church, Omega Center International in Cleveland, Tennessee—a suburb of Chattanooga. At that meeting, Stone revealed that the board of his ministry, Voice of Evangelism, had forced him to go on sabbatical in part because of complaints that he’d acted inappropriately with several of his female employees.
In the message, Stone said women brought concerns about his actions and words to his Voice of Evangelism board of directors. The board then asked him to step aside from public ministry and receive counseling.
Stone suggested multiple times that his treatment of female employees was because his work as a minister is stressful.
"I confess at times I've been inappropriate in all this weariness of just non-stop ministry," Stone said in the message. "I let my guard down and I've asked, of course, God to forgive me for that. I sat down with my family, with my beautiful, precious wife Pam, the love of my life. I asked her to forgive me. And I very humbly and very sincerely ask those who have been hurt or offended by my actions to, please, also forgive me for those things."
Stone, 61, did not say specifically what occurred but said he "acted inappropriately with them, and with words and sometimes actions."
Listen to the whole thing here.
In a statement, the VOE board said that it initially told Stone to go on sabbatical out of concern for his health. After seeing signs of “physical and spiritual burnout,” Stone’s board ordered a medical exam. The results revealed his blood pressure was high enough to put him at risk for a stroke. While this was going on, several female employees informed the board of “inappropriate words and actions” on Stone’s part.
The board concluded that Stone’s behavior was “civil in nature and not criminal”—i.e., that it didn’t break Tennessee law on sexual harassment. Nonetheless, it deemed Stone’s behavior serious enough that it forced him to call off “all pulpit and travel ministry for an extended period of time.” He has been at an out-of-state clinic receiving professional counseling, and will remain on sabbatical for some time to come.
All of that looks well and good. But it was negated by Stone’s suggestion that the stress of his job led him to act like a jerk. Excuse me? What kind of boss, secular or otherwise, takes out the stress of his job on his female employees? That sounds like a problem that can’t be fixed with just a sabbatical. And for him to have the gall to say that, even privately—well, let’s just say that he’d better be glad I’m not the boyfriend, husband or father of one of those women.
We also don’t know a whole lot about how the investigation was conducted, or whether law enforcement was brought in. What we do know, however, is that if it was even remotely possible for Stone to take out his stress on female coworkers, it says a lot about the environment at his ministry. And it isn’t good. It sounds like something that demands an independent investigation.
Almost as alarming—if they found it was merely civil, there’s a good chance that all or most of the women targeted by Stone will be afraid to sue him, lest they be seen as “touching God’s anointed.” That’s the very thing that sparked MeToo’s cousin, “ChurchToo.”
Stone gave another suggestion that whatever counseling he’s receiving isn’t taking hold. Just hours after the Times Free Press started making inquiries, Stone took to Facebook with this video.
In it, Stone claimed to have had a dream about being chased by a snake sucking people into its belly—which he believed represented a demonic attack that was about to be unleashed on his ministry. In other words, Stone had a chance to express some real contrition—and blew it eight ways to Sunday. Instead, he fired off an all-too-common spiritual kick in the groin.
The Times Free Press isn’t backing down. It’s launching an investigation into Stone’s behavior, and wants anyone who has information that could help to contact reporter Wyatt Massey at wmassey at timesfreepress dot com or call him at (423) 757-6249.
This isn’t the first time that the Times Free Press has blown the whistle on fundies behaving badly in its coverage area. If you’ll remember, back in February, it exposed a ministry based over the line in Dalton, Georgia for hawking snake oil—literally. They claimed to have a Bible that was flowing with anointing oil, but chemical tests revealed it was nothing more than ordinary mineral oil from Tractor Supply.
Now they’ve got one of the more famous religious personalities in their footprint in their crosshairs. And apparently the slings and arrows are already flying. On their Facebook page, there are more than a few comments that amount to basically, “Leave this fine man of God alone!” News flash—they’re doing their job. And from the looks of it, Stone needs to be out of his job. Permanently.