Tuesday Sep 19, 2023

Exposing the Truth about My Minister Father

Do you think you could turn your own father in to the police? What if I told you that you found out that he had abused children? Could you then? Would it make a difference if one of those children was your own sister, and others were children at the church where your father was the preacher? That’s the dilemma today’s guest faced And it changed the course of his life.

Welcome to another episode of The Unlovely Truth. I’m your host, private investigator Lori Morrison. Join me for another captivating true crime story, where physical, spiritual, and emotional safety takeaways are waiting for us. If you are listening, I believe you have a unique calling—to become a different kind of PI, not a typical private investigator, but a person of impact!

This is Season 4, Episode 5. Our book this week is The Devil Inside and our guest is author and pastor Jimmy Hinton.

Everyone wants a father they can look up to. A father who shows them love and teaches them right from wrong. Jimmy Hinton had a dad like that. He also had a dad who molested dozens of children. It’s hard to imagine one man had these two sides to him.
Jimmy consults with churches who are dealing with leaders who have done things similar to what his father did. Many say, “But you don’t know how much good this man has done for the church”. I love the way Jimmy responds by saying “And you don’t know how much evil he’s done either”.

If you’re a leader in your church I urge you to get this book. There's a link below so you can find it easily. I want to read a quote directly from the book that I think is a call to action we can no longer ignore.

“Our kids can’t afford for us to sit idly by, hoping someone else will step up to the plate to protect them. Idleness hasn’t worked for generations, and it’s not working now. So now is the time for Christians to act. The church’s record on abuse should embarrass us. When secular researchers rightly name the church as the most dangerous place for children, it ought to spark a fight inside every one of us."

Most of us are probably familiar with the first verse of Psalm 89 from the old hymn “I Will Sing of the Mercies of the Lord”. I have put a link below to a video of a bunch of cute kids singing it so you can remember who we are trying to protect with this episode. I want to focus on verse 14, and it seems only right to read it from the International Children’s Bible translation:

Your kingdom is built on what is right and fair. Love and truth are in all you do.

How can we, as the church, tell others about the wonders of God’s kingdom if we don’t do what is right and fair? It’s not right to cover for people who abuse children, or anyone else. Yet we’ve seen it happen again and again in Catholic and Southern Baptist churches, and it’s happening elsewhere and just not getting as much media attention. It’s not fair to our flock to let them think they are safe when we aren’t doing all we can to make that so.

But it doesn’t have to be that way! I know that some of you listening are in churches that are getting it right - and I want to hear what you’re doing. Unfortunately some churches are not placing as much importance on the safety of our children as we should. I want to hear from you too. Send me an email a lori@theunlovelytruth.com or message me on social media. I love it when people are willing to have those hard, but impactful conversations!

Please visit my website to access more episodes, read my blog posts, or check out ways you can financially support the podcast so that together we can impact more people, more families, and more communities. If you would like to contact me about booking me as a speaker, or ask about my consulting and investigative services, please email me at lori@theunlovelytruth.com.

Link to buy The Devil Inside by Jimmy Hinton (and support The Unlovley Truth by using this affiliate link)