'God Will Not Be Mocked;' Bob Coy Resigned Over Multiple Counts of Adultery and Porn, Reveals Calvary Chapel Pastor Chet Lowe
Declaring that "God will not be mocked" in a fiery message entitled "The Fear of God," Calvary Chapel's Outreach Pastor Chet Lowe revealed that the "moral failing" that forced the church's founding pastor to resign earlier this month included multiple counts of adultery and a penchant for porn.
This is the first time a church official has gone beyond the moral failing phrase to discuss the sins that toppled their charismatic and beloved former leader, according to the Sun Sentinel.
"Our former pastor was caught in sin," Lowe revealed to the congregation in a 78-minute service on April 16. "Our pastor, he committed adultery with more than one woman. Our pastor, he committed sexual immorality, habitually, through pornography."
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"Rest assured, God will not be mocked," he warned.
Lowe explained that Coy's fall from grace was the most difficult period pastors have ever endured in the church's 30-year history.
"Your pastors have wept," he said. "We have never felt a grief like this."
Nevertheless, he noted, it was Jesus who saw it fit to expose Coy's sins publicly.
"Your sins will find you out," Lowe warned. "Jesus, because He loved him, exposed him publicly."
Since the scandal broke on Coy's activities, the former pastor has reportedly left the home he shared with his wife and two teenage children. Lowe asked the church to have compassion for their former leader, but said his future will not involve leading Calvary Chapel again.
"We love and forgive our former pastor," said Lowe as the congregation cheered. "It's now our time to move forward."
"Bob will have a new life," he added, "but it won't be leading Calvary Chapel."
John Vaughan, director of the Megachurch Research Center in Springfield, Missouri, said the revelation surprised him. "I was really surprised," he said. "I always had a high regard for Bob and his church."
He further noted, however, that adultery is not as widespread among church leaders as some people might think.
"It's not nearly as epidemic as people think it is," he said. "When it happens, it's big news and people extrapolate."
Church leaders, he said, are just as prone to temptation as any other powerful man. "There are a lot of beautiful Christian women," said Vaughan. "A pastor, as a man, would have the same kind of temptation as a man anywhere else would."
