An Ohio minister, who encouraged husbands to honor and praise their wives, was recently arrested on assault charges related to the alleged physical abuse of his wife and daughter, according to police reports.
Joshua Lough was charged in Franklin County (Ohio) Municipal Court with two counts of domestic violence – assault and battery, both misdemeanors. He was released on a personal recognizance bond this week, according to court personnel.
en un Mother’s Day sermon en Grace Bible Church located in Canal Winchester, Lough opened the hour long sermon by saying, “How a man treats his wife reflects what his mother has done in his life.”
Lough outlines several reasons for marriage, including partnership, companionship, procreation, and sanctification. “Marriage is humbling,” Lough added. “God uses marriage to humble us.”
According to a Dec. 8 complaint, Lough slammed his wife’s head against a hardwood floor The assault reportedly left marks on her arms and a “large knot behind her right ear.”
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Lough denied to police he hit his wife but claimed she had “mental problems,” and they were fighting and grabbing each other, according to an arrest affidavit. Lough is also accused of slapping his daughter, court records show.
Lough preached at Grace Bible Church y el last sermon on the church’s website was June 30 on Spiritual Gifts. His LinkedIn profile shows he attended Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary and earned a Master of Divinity in May 2003 and attended Moody Bible Institute Aug 1995 to May 1999.
A message left on the church’s answering machine on Friday afternoon was not returned. The church is closed on Fridays at noon.
Currently the church’s website shows Joe Bennett as Interim Teaching Elder and Pastor.
Lough is free on a personal recognize bond and is scheduled to return to court on Jan. 7, 2025, a Franklin County Municipal Court employee confirmed.
As of Feb. 11, 2025, charges against Lough were despedido. Franklin County Municipal prosecutors cited the dismissal was based on “insufficient evidence.”
*Update 4/10/25. This story has been updated to reflect new information on the charges’ dismissal.
Sheila Stogsdill is a freelance print journalist and digital reporter, primarily covering crime issues for KSN/KODE.
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9 Responses
** Lough opened the hour long sermon by saying, “How a man treats his wife reflects what his mother has done in his life.” **
Maybe he was trying to say his mother hit him and knocked him down, without actually saying that.
Pope Francis recently said that sermons (“homilies”) should be no longer than ten minutes and should have Jesus, and not the preacher, for the subject. While this view may be open to argument – I’m willing to listen to someone talking about Jesus for longer than ten minutes – one advantage of a brief sermon with Jesus as the subject is that the pastor wouldn’t be saying a lot of things about life and relationships that turn out to be the opposite of his own life and relationships.
At The Chapel in Akron he counseled abused wives to stay with husbands….
Yep, no shortage of irony here! I hope his wife and daughter are cared for and he finally comes clean.
“How a man treats his wife reflects what his mother has done in his life.” Hmm. The logical statement is: “How a man treats his wife is reflected in what his father modeled treating his wife” because a husband is to treat his wife in such a way as to be a role model to his son of how to treat a wife, or to his daughter of how a wife is to be treated by her husband. His statement – given to, and wrongly/negatively influencing those in his congregation – alleviates responsibility of the man/husband/father. Convenient indeed.
It wouldn’t surprise me if he was stubborn, defiant and rebellious-giving his mother a hard time, and continues to be that way, projecting his mother onto his wife, who tries to run the household alongside a ‘partner’ with this mindset that has continued into ‘adulthood’. Now he’s big and strong so can out power anybody he perceives to be standing in his way. How sad, when Jesus offers his kind of power to overcome this sin and provides what is needed for sanctification.
Court date January 7th. Hope got an update! Today’s sermon by the “interim” pastor was very manipulating and damage control through the book of Philippians.
Jury trial will be held on Jan 28th at 9:30am.
Respectfully, and humbly I say I think it’s shameful the way this article was written and these comments made. I’ve known Mr. Lough and these comments and this half-story does not capture the truth, nor his heart. ALL charges were dropped for him, because the arresting officer did not hear his side of the story, and his side showed, he was acting in the best interest of the family. He also has a wonderful relationship with his parents. We should be quicker to assume our brother/sister in Christ needs grace for what we don’t understand instead of passing judgement from only what we hear on one side. Even this article didn’t get Mr. Lough’s side of the story. I mean no disrespect, but we should remember our call to be Christlike in how we judge and show grace and mercy. Certainly when the law is broken, or people are mistreated there must be accountability, but this did not happen when all the dust settled.
Respectfully, and humbly I say I think it’s wrong the way this article was written and these comments made. I’ve known Mr. Lough and these comments and this half-story does not capture the truth, nor his heart. As of end of January, all charges were dropped for him, because the arresting officer did not hear his side of the story, and his side showed, he was acting in the best interest of the family – which the rest of the family corroborated. He also has a wonderful relationship with his parents. We should be quicker to assume our brother/sister in Christ needs grace for what we don’t understand instead of passing judgement from only what we hear on one side. Even this article didn’t get Mr. Lough’s side of the story. I mean no disrespect, but we should remember our call to be Christlike in how we judge and show grace and mercy. Certainly when the law is broken, or people are mistreated there must be accountability, but this did not happen when all the dust settled.
I second what John Pouste has posted. Knowing Pastor Lough I was certain he was falsely accused by who was apparently a 22 year old police officer who clearly was negligent! It’s terrible and sad when agents in society (police officers)
Falsely accuse and damage the reputation of a precious brother in the Lord who has made a massive contribution to Gods Church, but when a so called Christian journalist writes an article which (of course never directly accusing to protect from legal litigation) clearly leads the reader to conclude he must have done something wrong, slanders and damages that brother’s reputation, it is outrageously wicked! The Roy’s Report owes this good man a heartfelt apology. I am not confident that you will apologize or even post this reply
(You have already not posted my last 2 attempts… I guess they weren’t nice enough). With what you did to Pastor Lough, this is as nice as I can be!!) I wonder why The Roy’s Report would not post my opinion in the past. I thought journalists were all about free speech… marketplace of ideas, etc. Must be I was expressing “misinformation “!!