YouTube preacher Abednego Lufile alleged that Meadows’ admission “has not even scratched the surface” of the pastor’s evil behavior. “Either you believe the man of God who has been hiding this and lying for 12 years,” Lufile said, “or you believe the other women and stories that they encounter.”
Kate Roberts of the Restored Voices Collective told The Roys Report that abusive church leaders use “position-leveling” to portray a victim as an equal. For the pastor who violates congregational trust, she said, “It’s in their best interest to be able to frame it as an affair because that enables them to escape accountability for the fact that they have actually engaged in abuse.”
Roberts referred to the control pastors exert over co-workers and congregants, which means “there can’t be consent.” The onus for enforcing boundaries is on the person who’s “in a position of spiritual authority,” she emphasized.
According to Roberts, Embassy City Church should have hired a third-party investigator to assess the pastor’s conduct as well as the church’s response. Elders and other leaders can become blindly loyal, she said, eliminating any true accountability.
