Pastor Concerned Over Fallout From Kentucky Minister's Moral Breach
by Jim Brown and Jenni Parker
August 10, 2005
(AgapePress) - A retired conservative United Methodist pastor and Christian author who has been a major contributor to the denomination's debates on the integrity and sanctity of marriage has admitted to having a longtime adulterous affair with a woman in his church. Recently, Pastor David Seamands apologized to his former church in Wilmore, Kentucky, for what he termed "a breach of trust and moral failure." The 83-year-old minister admitted to "abusing the trust" of his family and friends by engaging in sexual misconduct over "a number of years" with a member of Wilmore United Methodist Church, where he had been pastor from 1962 to 1984.
Seamands is a best-selling author of books on emotional healing, who was one of the pioneers of the field of Christian counseling and who served as a professor and dean at Asbury Theological Seminary in Kentucky until his retirement in 1992. According to ChristianityToday.com, he and his wife Helen were leading figures in the Marriage Enrichment and Engaged Discovery movements and have counseled more than 2,200 couples during those weekend programs.
Pastor John Gillmartin of La Verne, California, has been following the Seamands case closely and has written about it in his personal weblog. He says he is troubled that the seminary professor has offered guidance to others and has written several books on the very issues to which he fell.
Gillmartin points out that the damage done in a case like this can be nearly impossible to measure. "For all we know at this particular point," he says, "there are young people out there or people in their middle ministry who are going through a crisis, and the news of this could be devastating to them and could cause them to lose their faith."
The California pastor says while he is not one who believes a person can lose his or her salvation, he is convinced that "people can definitely lose their faith when things like this happen." He feels Seamands' confession of adultery should remind believers, pastors especially, that their tie with God is critical to their Christian walk and witness.
"The focus has got to be vertical and not horizontal," Gillmartin asserts. "I think too many of our people have wonderful ministries, but their focus is too horizontal -- it's too much to the world and not toward God," he says, "and that can really weaken a man or a woman, and put you in a vulnerable position."
Gillmartin says he is encouraged that the Kentucky Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church has already begun its process of church discipline in the Seamands case. In a prepared address read to his home church's adult members, Seamands stated that he would, under the "redemptive plan of accountability" and in accordance with church law, "refrain from all ministerial functions and actions during the next year, and would use this time for penitential prayer and discernment."
