Bobi Gephart then shared that the sexual relationship wasn’t 20 years ago, but rather 27 years ago, saying that she has “lived in a prison of lies and shame.”
“Lying to protect the Lowe family for years, I thought I was a horrible person, having suicidal thoughts and not realizing that what had been truly done to me—that I was a victim,” she explained.
Gephart said her coming forward was prompted by her brother, who approached her two weeks ago, telling her how much it bothered him that the truth had never come to light. Gephart’s brother had witnessed his pastor in bed with his younger sister.
“The lies and the manipulation have to stop,” she said, adding that some people knew about the assault but were too scared to come forward. Not any longer, she said. “I was a prisoner and you kept me in your prison. I’m a prisoner no longer.”
Gephart explained that she was 16 years old when Lowe took her virginity on his office floor. She looked at the pastor and asked, “Do you remember that? I know you do, and I have plenty of other stories that I could bring to remembrance.”
“You did things to my teenage body that had never and shouldn’t ever have been done. If you can’t admit the truth, you have to answer to God,” she told Lowe. “You are not the victim here.” Gephart shared that when she tried to report the assault, it was covered up.
“No one ever came to me. No one ever helped me,” she said. “No one ever got me counseling.” The church that has been built on lies deserves to know the truth, Gephart said. “A partial truth is not truth.”
During her speech, Lowe’s son stood in front of the couple, attempting to stop them from speaking. Responding to something he said, Gephart said that if she would have gotten counseling his father would have gone to prison.
Gephart also claimed that Lowe covered up another sexual abuse situation that took place with the church’s former associate pastor. Lowe allegedly sent the pastor away to another church after it was discovered that he molested his two daughters.
Bobi Gephart’s husband threw a necklace (a gift given to her by the church) and a purity ring onto the pulpit in disgust. Bobi wore the purity ring while Lowe had sex with her, he said, adding, “She felt shame and guilt.”
“We are working through love and forgiveness,” Bobi’s husband said. “But people have to be held accountable, and they can’t just bamboozle people and just say, ‘Well, I’ve just committed adultery.’ It was far beyond adultery. So here’s the covenant purity ring back. I don’t want it in my home,” he said. The two then walked offstage.
The abuse allegedly took place across a 9-year timespan.
