The Unlovely Truth
Exploring the intersection of faith and true crime.
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Episodes
Saturday Mar 15, 2025
Saturday Mar 15, 2025
Welcome to the Unlovely Truth. I'm your host church safety advocate Lori Morrison. Our churches need to be the safest places in our communities. Let’s investigate the unlovely truth about real crime stories happening in real churches. I've got two new cases to explore today, so let's dive right in.
Important points from this episode include:
Safeguarding trust is essential
What we call things matters
Get ready for something new!
Visit my website to access more episodes. If you would like to contact me about booking me as a speaker, or ask about my consulting services, please email me at lori@theunlovelytruth.com.
Ways you can support the work of The Unlovely Truth:
Share the episode
Follow me on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Pinterest
Check out my Amazon Author Page to find resources on personal safety, and safety training for churches.
Read more about today’s cases:
Church security guard not trustworthy
Fallen Pastor is using the right language for what he did
Saturday Mar 01, 2025
Saturday Mar 01, 2025
Welcome to the Unlovely Truth. I'm your host church safety advocate and coach, Lori Morrison. Physical, emotional, and spiritual safety issues exist in every church. I'm here to share real stories from real churches to foster awareness, initiate conversations, and encourage ministry leaders to take action. Our churches need to be the safest places in our communities, so I will give you actionable steps to make your house of worship a true sanctuary in your community. Let’s investigate the unlovely truth about real crime stories happening in real churches. I've got three cases to explore today, so we’ll dive right in.
I wish I could tell you that finding stories to report to you is really hard. The truth is, it’s way too easy because they are just too common. Even if you don’t have these exact problems in your church, we can learn a lot about what we need to prevent. Sometimes that means having these hard conversations first.
Important points from this episode include:
No pastor is divinely ordained to beat your child
When we defend horrific behavior, the world turns its back on us
Accountability and transparency are vital to earn back trust
Proverbs 25: 4-5 NLT
Remove the impurities from silver, and the sterling will be ready for the silversmith.
Remove the wicked from the king’s court, and his reign will be made secure by justice.
Earthly kings or civil leaders need to surround themselves with advisors whose integrity is above reproach. We can see by the state our world is in the they certainly don’t always do that. Shouldn’t the church hold itself to an even higher standard? After all, if as believers we say that Jesus is our king, then his court, the church, should be filled with leaders whose actions demonstrate integrity. Why aren’t our churches the places where justice shines the brightest? It’s because we allow men and women whose actions are just plain wicked to remain in power. We make excuses and defend them. We sometimes even try to hide the truth.
That has to stop. But wicked leaders aren’t going to hand over their power and influence willingly. It’s up to you and me to speak out. We have to be willing to talk about hard things and make difficult decisions so we are defending the ones who have been hurt. Jesus saved his harshest criticisms for leaders in the church who had wrong motives. We have to be able to speak the truth about our own leaders who have wrong motives today. If you want to do that but you don’t know what to say or where to start, please reach out. I’d love to help you.
Visit my website to access more episodes. If you would like to contact me about booking me as a speaker, or ask about my consulting services, please email me at lori@theunlovelytruth.com.
Ways you can support the work of The Unlovely Truth:
Buy Me a Coffee to help me continue to offer free church security advice on the podcast
Share the episode
Follow me on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Pinterest
Check out my Amazon Author Page to find resources on personal safety, and safety training for churches.
Read more about today’s cases:
Pastor beats child
Is "well-loved" pastor a sociopath?
What are Southern Baptists hiding?
Listen to my interview with Christa Brown here
Saturday Feb 15, 2025
Saturday Feb 15, 2025
Welcome to the Unlovely Truth. I'm your host church safety advocate and coach Lori Morrison. Our churches need to be the safest places in our communities, so my mission on this podcast is to give you actionable steps to make your house of worship a true sanctuary in your community. Let’s investigate the unlovely truth about real crime stories happening in real churches. I've got three cases to explore today, so let's dive right in.
Important points from this episode include:
Church and Professional Sports Working Together, But Not for Good
Hall of Famer Might Also Be Hall of Shamer
FCA Staffer Involved in SCAM
Titus 2:7-8 NIrV
In everything set them an example by doing what is good. In your teaching show integrity, seriousness and soundness of speech that cannot be condemned, so that those who
oppose you may be ashamed because they have nothing bad to say about us.
That sounds simple but not easy, right? The book of Titus has great lessons in leadership, the importance of sound doctrine, and how the Gospel should inspire us to do good to others. All of that was completely lacking in today’s stories, yet each was about people who traded on their reputations, on the fact that people trusted them, to use and abuse people. Anybody can talk the talk but we have to check our leaders to see if they are truly walking the walk.
Let me know what you think of this episode! Send me an email a lori@theunlovelytruth.com or message me on social media. I love it when people are willing to have hard, but impactful conversations that strengthen physical, emotional, and spiritual safety at the intersection of faith and true crime.
Visit my website to access more episodes. If you would like to contact me about booking me as a speaker, or ask about my consulting services, please email me at lori@theunlovelytruth.com.
Ways you can support the work of The Unlovely Truth:
Buy Me a Coffee to help me continue to offer free church security advice on the podcast
Share the episode
Follow me on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Pinterest
Check out my Amazon Author Page to find resources on personal safety, and safety training for churches.
Read more about today’s cases:
Coverups by the higherups
Silencing a victim
FCA or SCAM?
Saturday Feb 01, 2025
Saturday Feb 01, 2025
Welcome to the Unlovely Truth. I'm your host church safety advocate and coach Lori Morrison. Physical, emotional, and spiritual safety issues exist in every church. I'm here to share real stories from real churches to foster awareness, initiate conversations, and encourage ministry leaders to take action. Our churches need to be the safest places in our communities, so my mission on this podcast is to give you actionable steps to make your house of worship a true sanctuary in your community. Let’s investigate the unlovely truth about real crime stories happening in real churches. I've got three cases to explore today, so let's dive right in.
Important points from this episode include:
Character matters, especially in the pulpit
Tough decisions require tough evaluations
It’s time for a spring cleaning of sorts in our churches
Proverbs 12:15 ICB
A foolish person thinks he is doing right. But a wise person listens to advice.
The twelfth chapter of Proverbs has a lot to say about wisdom, and I think this verse sums up what we’ve talked about today very nicely. We talked about 2 times a decision should’ve been easy and one that has arguments on both sides. What they all have in common is that they support my argument that decisions that affect the safety of the church should always be discussed with a group of wise leaders who are willing to listen to the advice of the people who know the most about the situation.
Do you know what the decision-making process is at your church, especially where it comes to safety decisions? Are your leaders listening to the people who serve in the ministries that their decisions will affect? They need boots-on-the-ground perspectives to weigh as they make their choices. Are they attending conferences or reading books where they can get perspectives from people who study and analyze current best practices? Maybe you could take one easy step and share this podcast with them, or any other that you think gives soundly Biblical and practical advice.
It starts with us in the trenches of ministry my friends. Let’s speak up and improve the physical, emotional, and spiritual safety of the people God entrusted to our care.
Let me know what you think of this episode! Send me an email a lori@theunlovelytruth.com or message me on social media. I love it when people are willing to have hard, but impactful conversations.
Visit my website to access more episodes. If you would like to contact me about booking me as a speaker, or ask about my consulting services, please email me at lori@theunlovelytruth.com.
Ways you can support the work of The Unlovely Truth:
Buy Me a Coffee to help me continue to offer free church security advice on the podcast
Share the episode
Follow me on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Pinterest
Check out my Amazon Author Page to find resources on personal safety, and safety training for churches.
Read more about today’s cases:
Former pastor accused of stealing hurrican relief funds
Is it ok for registered sex offenders to serve at church?
Time to evaluate your safety protocols
Wednesday Jan 15, 2025
Wednesday Jan 15, 2025
Welcome to the Unlovely Truth. I'm your host church safety advocate and coach Lori Morrison. Physical, emotional, and spiritual safety issues exist in every church. I'm here to share real stories from real churches to foster awareness, initiate conversations, and encourage ministry leaders to take action. Our churches need to be the safest places in our communities, so I’m going to give you actionable steps to make your house of worship a true sanctuary in your community. Let’s investigate the unlovely truth about real crime stories happening in real churches. I've got three cases to explore today, so we’re going to dive right in.
Important points from this episode include:
Background checks are just a first step
Women can be abusers
Pastors can respond to abuse in unhelpful ways
Psalm 55:12-14 NLT
It is not an enemy who taunts me—I could bear that. It is not my foes who so arrogantly insult me—I could have hidden from them. Instead, it is you—my equal, my companion and close friend. What good fellowship we once enjoyed as we walked together to the house of God.
If you’ve read the psalms written by David, like this one, you know he had enemies. I can relate. Don’t we all have at least one or two people in our lives who seem to really enjoy it when things don’t go our way - or worse? I can ignore most of that nonsense. But when it comes from someone who should be in my corner, it’s a lot harder to make sense of. We shouldn’t be surprised that it even happens in church.
Whether it’s someone in charge of finances, the well-being of children, or the spiritual growth of the congregation, we can’t afford to let these people get into or stay in these positions. I know that in our first case, the offender tricked the background check process. But I’d like to know if the church also called references or had appropriate policies and procedures around how money was handled. The same can be said for the school in our second case. How well was this teacher vetted before she was hired, and what policies were in place to control her contact with students? As for John Piper, I’m sure I’ve made a lot of people who put too much faith in him upset. That’s never my goal, but if it makes you think more critically about what he or any pastor says, then that’s a good thing. These are all situations we need to talk more about.
Visit my website to access more episodes. If you would like to contact me about booking me as a speaker, or ask about my consulting services, please email me at lori@theunlovelytruth.com.
Ways you can support the work of The Unlovely Truth:
Buy Me a Coffee to help me continue to offer free church security advice on the podcast
Share the episode
Follow me on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Pinterest
Check out my Amazon Author Page to find resources on personal safety, and safety training for churches.
Read more about today’s cases:
Did a church financial administrator help herself?
Christian School teacher engages in "inappropriate communications" with student
When a man says God told him to marry you
Article about female sex offenders
Godly Response to Abuse in the Christian Environment
Wednesday Jan 01, 2025
Wednesday Jan 01, 2025
Happy New Year and Welcome to the Unlovely Truth. I'm your host church safety advocate and coach Lori Morrison. I help ministry leaders assess and address the 12 critical safety issues that exist in every church. Our churches need to be the safest places in our communities, so my mission on this podcast is to give you actionable steps to make your house of worship a true sanctuary in your community. Let’s investigate the unlovely truth about real crime stories happening in real churches. I've got three cases to explore today, so let's dive right in.
2025 is a great time to resolve to help your church increase its safety across all areas of potential concern. Since you are listening to the podcast, you’re off to a promising start!
Proverbs 21:21-22 (NIV)
Whoever pursues righteousness and love finds life, prosperity, and honor. One who is wise can go up against the city of the mighty and pull down the stronghold in which they trust.
There is so much wisdom packed into these two short verses - it’s why I love Proverbs so much. We all want life, prosperity, and honor for our churches, right? Proverbs gives us a simple recipe to create it for our congregations. We simply pursue righteousness. Of course, we can’t attain complete righteousness on our own, but only through the sacrifice of Jesus. But here we are told that life, prosperity, and honor can be ours if we just pursue righteousness. I think that looks a lot like doing things the way Jesus would. And if we are wise, we can go up against those who aren’t leading well and cast aside the strongholds they hold dear. So I want to ask you: what strongholds are there in your church that get in the way of truly protecting the most vulnerable among you? Point them out and help leaders deal with them so that your church becomes an even more life-giving place for all.
Let me know what you think of this episode! Send me an email a lori@theunlovelytruth.com or message me on social media. I love it when people are willing to have hard, but impactful conversations that strengthen physical, emotional, and spiritual safety in our churches.
Important points from this episode include:
Making spiritual abuse against church law
Avoiding confrontation is wise
How to increase safety in Christian schools
Visit my website to access more episodes. If you would like to contact me about booking me as a speaker or ask about my consulting services, please email me at lori@theunlovelytruth.com.
Ways you can support the work of The Unlovely Truth:
Buy Me a Coffee to help me continue to offer free church security advice on the podcast
Share the episode
Follow me on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Pinterest
Check out my Amazon Author Page to find resources on personal safety, and safety training for churches.
Read more about today’s cases:
Potential new church law
Run and hide saves the day
Christian School Safety
Subscribe to Worship Security newsletter (and read articles by me from time to time!)
Sunday Dec 15, 2024
Sunday Dec 15, 2024
Welcome to the Unlovely Truth. I'm your host church safety advocate and coach Lori Morrison. I help ministry leaders assess and address the 12 critical safety issues that exist in every church. Our churches need to be the safest places in our communities, so my mission on this podcast is to give you actionable steps to make your house of worship a true sanctuary in your community. Let’s investigate the unlovely truth about real crime stories happening in real churches. I've got three cases to explore today, so let's dive right in.
Important points from this episode include:
Kung fu pastor
"She's the voice of God to you" - not!
Pastor speaks out and gets iced out
The Bible verse that I want to read today is Ephesians five 11.
It says in the NLT. Take no part in the worthless deeds of evil and darkness. Instead. Expose them.
That doesn't need a whole lot of exposition or explanation. Not only are we supposed to not do things that are wrong. If we see somebody. Doing evil things. We're supposed to expose them. And I know it's so easy to think. Well, I shouldn't get involved. I don't really know what's going on. But if you see something, say something. Make sure other people are aware of what's happening, just say what, you know. I bring up your concerns. Ask for a committee to be formed, to look into things.
Now, if we're talking about anything where a minor is being harmed, you need to call the police. Any, anything that could be criminal behavior, you need to call the police and let them deal with it. But if it's somebody that's being, you know, emotionally abusive as, as a teacher of something,
You need to bring that up.
That person needs to be. Corrected. Maybe they don't realize what they're doing. And they can fix that. That'd be great. If not. And they don't need to be that type of leader. They can serve in other ways.
So as we're coming to the end of 2024. I just want to give you encouragement. Yes. We've talked about a lot of tough stuff. This season. But getting that out in the light, keeping it from being hidden, bringing it up to the proper people. That's what we're called to do. And I am here to help you. So have a Merry Christmas, a happy new year, and we'll keep on fighting the good fight in 2025. 📍
Let me know what you thought of this episode. You can send me an email@loriattheunlovelytruth.com or message me on social media. Because I absolutely love it when people are willing to jump in and have hard, but impactful conversations. Because that's how we're going to strengthen physical, emotional, and spiritual safety in all of our churches.
Visit my website to access more episodes. If you would like to contact me about booking me as a speaker, or ask about my consulting services, please email me at lori@theunlovelytruth.com.
Ways you can support the work of The Unlovely Truth:
Buy Me a Coffee to help me continue to offer free church security advice on the podcast
Share the episode (w/link)
Follow me on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Pinterest
Check out my Amazon Author Page to find resources on personal safety, and safety training for churches.
Read more about today’s cases:
Kung Fu Pastor
"She's the Voice of God to You"
Pastor Speaks Out, Gets Iced Out
Learn more about ballistic glass and window film (this is not an affiliate link. It's for information only.
Sunday Dec 01, 2024
Sunday Dec 01, 2024
Welcome to the Unlovely Truth. I'm your host church safety advocate and coach Lori Morrison. I help ministry leaders assess and address the 12 critical safety issues that exist in every church. Our churches need to be the safest places in our communities, so my mission on this podcast is to give you actionable steps to make your house of worship a true sanctuary in your community. Let’s investigate the unlovely truth about real crime stories happening in real churches. I've got three cases to explore today, so let's dive right in.
Important points from this episode include:
Dealing with a controlling pastor
Dealing with a neglectful pastor
Dealing with a deceitful pastor
1 Corinthians 5:9-13 NIV
I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people— not at all meaning the people of this world who are immoral, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters. In that case you would have to leave this world. But now I am writing to you that you must not associate with anyone who claims to be a brother or sister but is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or slanderer, a drunkard or swindler. Do not even eat with such people.
What business is it of mine to judge those outside the church? Are you not to judge those inside? God will judge those outside. “Expel the wicked person from among you.”
Paul wrote his first letter to the Corinthians to address problems he saw in the church, and one of the big ones was sexual immorality. If it happened back then, why do we think it can’t happen now? Paul didn’t ignore the problem, he acknowledged it so the church could fix things.
And part of his recipe for fixing things was to not associate with those in the church who were being sexually immoral. So why do we today do the exact opposite? I suppose that some of it is in the name of tolerance. We like to think we are amazing people when we overlook evil and call it loving people. Paul says that when it comes to people who call themselves Christians, that is exactly the opposite of what we should be doing.
It is so frustrating to watch churches get this wrong over and over and over. If this is a problem at your church, it’s time to speak out. If you need my help, all you’ve got to do is ask.
Let me know what you think of this episode! Send me an email a lori@theunlovelytruth.com or message me on social media. I love it when people are willing to have hard, but impactful conversations that strengthen physical, emotional, and spiritual safety in our churches. See you all next time!
Visit my website to access more episodes. If you would like to contact me about booking me as a speaker, or ask about my consulting services, please email me at lori@theunlovelytruth.com.
Ways you can support the work of The Unlovely Truth:
Buy Me a Coffee to help me continue to offer free church security advice on the podcast
Share the episode
Follow me on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Pinterest
Check out my Amazon Author Page to find resources on personal safety, and safety training for churches.
Read more about today’s cases:
Unhealthy leadership story
You should have called the police
Child abuses child
Friday Nov 15, 2024
Friday Nov 15, 2024
Welcome to the Unlovely Truth. I'm your host church safety advocate and coach Lori Morrison. I help ministry leaders assess and address the 12 critical safety issues that exist in every church. Our churches need to be the safest places in our communities, so my mission on this podcast is to give you actionable steps to make your house of worship a true sanctuary in your community. Let’s investigate the unlovely truth about real crime stories happening in real churches. I've got three cases to explore today, so let's dive right in.
Important points from this episode include:
Proven character is more important than a title
A ministry ban is a good way to curb spiritual abuse
If you want your church to grow, don’t use a taser on a worshipper
For anybody who says they're a follower of Jesus, their character should be producing such amazing fruit that we know exactly who guides their steps. And in Galatians chapter five, verses 22 and 23, it says, “But the fruit of the spirit is love. Joy peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such things there is no law.”
So if we think back over our three cases from today, we definitely didn't see any faithfulness in that first one. And the second one -- we didn't see kindness. And that third one, golly. We did not see any kind of Christian love.
And I know none of us are going to be producing all of this, all the time. But when we look at our leaders, our volunteers, the people we look up to in our spiritual lives -- we should see the fruit of the spirit in their actions.
So I want you to ask yourself. Is there anything in your church where you think that leadership is not really showing the fruit of the spirit? Maybe they need to step aside for a time, maybe they're going through a tough time. Maybe they never should have been a leader in the first place. But things aren't going to be better unless somebody steps up. And is willing to say the hard thing and have those conversations. And if you need help with that, please, please get in touch with me.
I would love to help you with that.
Visit my website to access more episodes. If you would like to contact me about booking me as a speaker, or ask about my consulting services, please email me at lori@theunlovelytruth.com.
Ways you can support the work of The Unlovely Truth:
Buy Me a Coffee to help me continue to offer free church security advice on the podcast
Share the episode
Follow me on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Pinterest
Check out my Amazon Author Page to find resources on personal safety, and safety training for churches.
Read more about today’s cases:
Pastor murders one of his girlfriends
Spiritual abuse busted
Tasers and tambourines
Friday Nov 01, 2024
Friday Nov 01, 2024
Welcome to the Unlovely Truth. I'm your host church safety advocate and coach Lori Morrison. I help ministry leaders assess and address the 12 critical safety issues that exist in every church. Our churches need to be the safest places in our communities, so my mission on this podcast is to give you actionable steps to make your house of worship a true sanctuary in your community. Let’s investigate the unlovely truth about real crime stories happening in real churches. I've got three cases to explore today, so let's dive right in.
I'm not a fan of horror movies. There’s enough real-life stuff that scares me so why would I look for fake scary stuff. The episode proves that we’ve got to be on the lookout for horrific happenings even in our churches. So why do I think it’s important to talk about the things I talk about on the podcast?
Numbers 21:6-9 (CSB)
Then the Lord sent poisonous snakes among the people, and they bit them so that many Israelites died. The people then came to Moses and said, “We have sinned by speaking against the Lord and against you. Intercede with the Lord so that he will take the snakes away from us.” And Moses interceded for the people.
Then the Lord said to Moses, “Make a snake image and mount it on a pole. When anyone who is bitten looks at it, he will recover.” So Moses made a bronze snake and mounted it on a pole. Whenever someone was bitten, and he looked at the bronze snake, he recovered.
The children of Israel were whining, again, about the state they found themselves in. Never did it seem to occur to them that THEY were the reason things weren’t going so good. It would get a lot worse once the snakes made their appearance. And I’m fascinated to think about the idea that God “sent” these snakes. Was it that he commanded them to go and bite the people, or that He had been restraining them to protect the people and now since they were murmuring against God, he simply got out of the way like they seemed to say they wanted?
Ouch. That hits pretty close to home doesn’t it?
But God is merciful and gave the people a way out of the mess they’d created. If they would look up in their distress at the bronze snake, they would live. Let’s think hard about this. They had to look at the very thing that was killing them to live.
I think that as a whole, the church has whined and grumbled about taking the protection of the vulnerable among us as seriously as we need to. We need to hear these stories, these things that have the potential to strike and wound the church, if we want the church to live and thrive.
So I want to ask you - are you willing to be a person who speaks out? Who tries to get your leaders to look at problems they don’t want to look at? If you are, please reach out to me. I’d love to help you on that important journey.
Let me know what you think of this episode! Send me an email at lori@theunlovelytruth.com or message me on social media. I love it when people are willing to have hard, but impactful conversations that strengthen physical, emotional, and spiritual safety
Visit my website to access more episodes. If you would like to contact me about booking me as a speaker, or ask about my consulting services, please email me at lori@theunlovelytruth.com.
Ways you can support the work of The Unlovely Truth:
Buy Me a Coffee to help me continue to offer free church security advice on the podcast
Share the episode
Follow me on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Pinterest
Check out my Amazon Author Page to find resources on personal safety, and safety training for churches.
Read more about today’s cases:
Volunteer youth pastor also a pimp
Another denomination covers up abuse
Spiritual abuse against women