Death of The Pastor’s Wife: How Pastoral Abuse Happens

[gentle music] Julie Roys, thanks so much for making time to be on the show today.

Hey, Matthew, great to be with you.

Thanks for inviting me.

Yeah, I mean, I, I'm so excited to talk to you today, um, even though we have to talk about something, uh, really, really ugly and grisly.

Mm-hmm.

And, um, uh, I, I think I'd just like to start off with when we're gonna talk about something, um, so upsetting, I wanna, I wanna make sure that we're clearing why we're talking about it.

So I'd love for you to-

Mm-hmm

... um, explain why you think it's so important that Christians are informed, um, about what happened, uh, to Micah Miller and, and about similar situations.

Well, what happened to Micah Miller in some ways is unique in its awfulness because she ended up dead, and most abuse situations that I've reported on, I mean, rarely does it end up with the victim either taking her own life, although there's a lot of question about, uh, and the circumstances surrounding that, and I know there's plenty of people who have questioned whether John Paul could have actually done it himself and made it look like a suicide.

Um, but that, that part of it is unique because that it doesn't normally end in that, although I will say there have been, uh, abuse situations, and, and I would say this is adult clergy sexual abuse, where, uh, Micah was preyed on, I would say, by John Paul Miller.

And, and it, it, it is not a situation where you have two people who are on a, a level playing field when you have a pastor who is, you know, 15 years older than her and, uh, initiating what they called a relationship.

I would say it was adult clergy sexual abuse.

Um, but adult clergy sexual abuse happens a lot, and the s- the circumstances surrounding what happened to Micah Miller are not that unique.

It is not unique for, sadly, for these predator pastors to groom somebody under them, to do it over a period of many years, to begin breaking down the, the boundaries, and to do it slowly in such a way that they're unsuspecting.

Um, and to use his position of power and influence to manipulate another human being, I mean, that happens, sadly, Matthew, a, a lot in the stories that I report.

And so to have a, a secular organization, I mean, to my knowledge, I, I don't know if there are Christians involved in the production of, uh, the Netflix documentary, but, um, I mean, to have a secular organization put it on such a huge stage, I mean, this was number one on Netflix for a long time.

I mean, millions and millions of people all around the world saw, saw this documentary, and I think, um- That it will open some eyes to how this can happen and how somebody very, very charismatic, somebody on stage, uh, can do this.

And it gets hopefully people talking about, uh, spiritual abuse in the church, sexual abuse in the church, and also just how deceptive and cunning and manipulative these predators are that happen to be up on stage.

I hate to even call them pastors.

I mean, that's a title that they have, but they have no, no likeness to a shepherd biblically defined.

They are just, they are just predators and, and they're hypocrites, which Jesus talked a lot about.

And that, the word that hypocrites comes from is word for actor.

And what we have unfortunately is a lot of wolves in sheep's clothing.

They are actors pretending to be pastors, but they're really there not to protect the sheep, but to prey on the sheep.