Cedarville University President Thomas White maintains that he was told an “incomplete narrative” about Anthony Moore—the man he hired in 2017 after Moore had been fired by The Village Church (TVC) for “grievous sexual immoral actions.”
However, today an elder at TVC’s Fort Worth campus disputed White’s narrative. He also named two other leaders, a pastor and a professor, whom he says were fully informed about Moore in 2017.
During an interview last week, White told me he knew that Moore had recorded multiple videos of another man showering in Moore’s home. But White said he thought Moore had recorded at most two videos and that Moore’s problem “was not a habitual, perpetual deal” but a “slip into temptation.”
White fired Moore last Friday, claiming that he had just learned that Moore had recorded at least five videos over a span of at least five months.
However, today, Jeff Jamison, an elder at TVC’s Fort Worth campus, told me that the elders clearly communicated with White in 2017 that Moore’s sin “wasn’t a one-time lapse in judgment on Anthony’s part.” Jamison added that the “lapse in judgment” was Moore’s “false narrative” that the TVC elders “corrected regularly” in multiple conversations with both Dr. White and Cedarville Professor Dr. Jason Lee.
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The Village Church added that the elders told Cedarville that they were okay with Moore having a private research job at the school, but also communicated that they believed “Moore was not fit for ministry of any kind.”
During my interview with Dr. White last week, White said that Dr. Lee was responsible for overseeing Moore and holding him accountable during Moore’s employment at Cedarville.
Dr. Lee is Dean of Biblical and Theological Studies at Cedarville. Lee also is a friend of Moore’s who served as Moore’s PhD supervisor when both men were at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. That’s according to a leaked email from Dr. White to Cedarville’s trustees in 2017.
I reached out to Dr. Lee today for comment, but he did not respond. I also reached out to Dr. White for comment about Jamison’s claims, but White did not respond.
Jamison also named another person whom the TVC elders fully informed in 2017 about Moore and the videos Moore had made—Pastor Craig Miller. Miller is senior pastor of Grace Baptist Church in Cedarville, Ohio, where Moore became a member when Moore moved to Cedarville.
During my interview with Dr. White last week, White said that Pastor Miller met weekly with Moore during Moore’s time at Cedarville and also counseled Moore.
In an email to me this week, Miller confirmed this, stating that he “entered into a personal accountability relationship” with Moore when Moore became a member of Grace Baptist Church.
However, Miller denies that he knew all the facts of Moore’s past in a private letter Miller sent to Grace Baptist Church members this week. (To view the letter, church members were required to enter a code. However, someone leaked the letter to Todd Wilhelm, who published it this morning on his blog, Thou Art the Man.)
In the letter, Miller states that in 2017, “We had significantly less information (about Moore) than what has become apparent in the previous days, but the process that was designed and implemented was based upon the knowledge of Anthony’s sin available to us at the time.”
I reached out to Pastor Miller and asked him what information he knows about Moore now that he didn’t know in 2017, but Miller did not respond.
Also, Jamison and The Village Church told me that in October 2018, they informed Pastor Miller that Moore’s victim was reporting Moore to authorities in Tarrant County, Texas. Moore’s alleged crime, known as “invasive visual recording” is a felony punishable by up to two years in jail and $10,000 in fines.
On Tuesday, Miller confirmed in an email that an elder from TVC Fort Worth contacted him in October 2018 to let him know a police report was being filed. Miller said he relayed the information to Moore, but did not inform either Dr. Lee, who’s an elder at Grace Baptist Church, or Dr. White.
The police report, which details the victim’s allegations against Moore, is a public document and made available to anyone upon request. The report was filed on October 12, 2018.
According to the letter Miller sent to members this week, Moore spoke at a “5th Quarter” youth event, which occurred on October 18, 2018—six days after the police report was filed. Miller said Moore spoke at another “5th Quarter” event last fall and at a “weekend high school event” for Grace Baptist students.
Miller said that he gave permission for Moore to speak at these youth events. But he adds that Moore spoke at the “5th Quarter” events at the invitation of a former Grace Baptist youth pastor “who was aware of Anthony being in a restoration process.” However, Miller said Grace Baptist’s new student ministries pastor “was unaware of the restoration process Anthony was in. That was my fault.”
Moore also preached at Grace Baptist in March of 2020. In the video below, obtained by Todd Wilhelm, Miller introduces Moore and his family and endorses them in front of the congregation. According to Wilhelm, the video had been posted to the website of Grace Baptist Church, but has since been removed. Also gone is the Vimeo page of Grace Baptist.
In his letter to the congregation, Miller also says that Moore served on the Connections Team and Welcome Table at Grace Baptist. Miller said he viewed both Moore’s volunteer service and preaching “as another step in a restoration process designed to let him use his teaching gift within the Body.”
However, Miller adds, “I realize now (and should have at the time) that this should not have happened before a public acknowledgement of some sort of his sin and repentance here. I believed that the progress I had observed, along with the knowledge and support of others aware of Anthony’s situation and progress, warranted the opportunity. But now I believe that was wrong, and I am sorry for that poor judgment.”
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9 Responses
“White said he thought Moore had recorded at most two videos and that Moore’s problem “was not a habitual, perpetual deal” but a “slip into temptation.” But White fired him over “at least five videos over a span of at least five months.”
So White determined two creepy porn videos were OK… but five, that was crossing the line (??0). White also ignored another significant point; Moore was filming. He was beyond watching porn by others. HE was the one filming others! And secretly, which is even worse. This was not consensual! This is a felony of a gross sexual violation. This was fully per-meditated and carefully orchestrated. Where is the justice? I want to know, is Moore going to be held accountable for his felony?
All I know is, there is an epidemic of sexual sin. An anonymous poll taken back in 2016 revealed the overwhelming majority of surveyed pastors admitted to regularly watching porn, sexual addiction or sexual compulsion. How much worse is it now? And those accounted for only pastors who ‘admitted’ (anonymously).
When I became born-again, I had to leave my first church I attended after personally catching my pastor watching porn just a couple hrs after giving our Sunday Morning teaching. With his wife and children in other rooms, unaware. I never said anything to the other pastors, or his wife who was a personal friend. Regrettably, I was too afraid of ruining his life, his ministry, his marriage & family. It was a horrible burden, especially for a new Christian wanting to do the right thing but believing I could be responsible for destroying this man’s life. I’m a little wiser now and would’ve handled it differently. But this is a massive problem and it’s not being dealt with. Real people are the broken victims of this epidemic of sexual sin. No surprise that the church is infested with it. Calling it an epidemic is not hyperbole. Lord, please help us.
There are enough Christian’s in the world that we NEVER need to put any type of abuser in the pulpit!
i think all parties involved are lying,
christian leaders who lie, deceive, embroider the truth, tell only part of it and rationalize it away…
you are totally expendable. we don’t need you.
‘The Village Church added that the elders told Cedarville that they were okay with Moore having a private research job at the school, but also communicated that they believed “Moore was not fit for ministry of any kind.’
‘Jamison also named another person whom the TVC elders fully informed in 2017 about Moore and the videos Moore had made—Pastor Craig Miller.’
But according to Pastor Miller, TVC took a particular interest in, and demanded regular accountability for the discipline and restoration process for “nearly two years” after Moore had left. Did TVC ever raise further objections or warn anyone when they heard of his rapid return to ‘ministry’? What was the point of their overreaching administration of the issue if nothing tangible was done to protect from a similar situation occurring again?
Worked for our military over 30 years. Been all over and saw a lot of stuff of all kinds. One lady used to make the comment the military was good at eating their young. She was an incredible person.
Going to the church, appears we too eat our own too. A state school close by, in the state I live in, you can do just about “anything” you want. For example, a freshman male can ask for a female roomy and any gender you “identify” as. Society hammers “me too” in some circles, but TV ads that I see send the young conflicting signals all the time. I see the results. The “culture center” at the state school has about everything you can possibly imagine. Honestly, I think you could almost walk to class naked and they would just about let you.
All our kids attended Cedarville as I did not want them around sex of any and all kinds, drugs of any kind and much more. They all graduated and immediately got good jobs that pay, the reason to get additional schooling. My perspective is a little different. If all of you can’t figure out what I am trying to say I am not going to tell you. There was only ONE man-God and He died for my sin. There is a passage in the Bible that says to forgive 70 x 7. I miss the mark many times, but if there is one thing the military taught me, that is GET BACK UP, and all should be glad the military teaches perseverance.
Amazing the shallow self-righteous that have all kinds of rocks to throw. Did I say we chase debauchery? I don’t think so, but all of you be careful throwing rocks in glass houses with a narrow self-righteous attitude. We know as a min Dr. White has done a lot of good. The school was slipping some before he came around. Dr. Moore, don’t know anything about him, but if any of you tell me he is beyond God’s healing, I can’t get there. Some will say healed from what, we need to let him be him. What? I know where I have been and am today. It is NOT me, it is about the God I serve. Hold the line and lend a hand. Dr. White, thanks for bringing the motto back, “For the Word of God and the Testimony of Jesus Christ”. CV was fast becoming just another bland school like all the others. One of the biggest things I see from the “diversity crowd” is their complete and utter disregard for tolerance.
Handy, I agree completely.
Dr. White is a good man and done wonderful work for CU. However, he can be pious and heavy handed. He also can be untruthful in administrative matters, in addition to the instance at hand.
Frankly, if the Board of Trustees is to deal with Dr. White by the standard he has dealt with faculty, staff and former faculty and former staff. He should be terminated.
I guess we can agree to disagree. As I said before there was only ONE perfect and his name was Jesus. My boss was a retired Marine. Said many times most young and snowflakes today would not have liked working for him. I understood him. We bucked heads a few times, but we both had the mission in mind. Funny how most of us NEVER look in the mirror.
A significantly frustrating part of this to me that no one is speaking of is how self-righteously all the leadership in this situation was handled. I have dealt with my own sexual sin, and have thus read a lot of literature in the area, read counseling books, done peer support, etc, etc, etc. I feel no actual expert in restoration of people who have sinned after sexual trauma would look at the plan that anyone had here for Moore and think, “Hey, this is good.” The Village Church seems to have done the best, and informed all the parties involved. I would suspect that they did not do enough with providing Moore with counselling for him to understand he needed to stay away from ministry for at least 5 years while he healed himself.
At Cedarville, White appears to have failed to consult anyone with experience in restoration after sexual trauma, seems to think that his approach was OK except he got caught, and to me, appear to fail to understand how he, White, has sinned against Moore. Miller, in the same way, does not appear to have consulted counselors or anyone with experience in this area, and has also greviously failed Moore. If he were truly in a pastoral counselling role in this area, he would have discouraged Moore from taking any leadership or teaching roles while still undergoing restoration, gone to White and told him that Moore was not yet ready to take on those roles. He would have told Moore to stay away from the basketball team, would have told White that was an entirely inappropriate role for Moore, would have encouraged him to run from sin. Grace, from their website, does not appear to have anyone on staff trained in recovery or counselling, nor do they appear to have ministries designed around those areas.
These failure have to be devestating to Moore and his family, who are suffering again because of his sin, only this time, much of this suffering was entirely preventable by men who, in their own pride and their own lack of understanding of sin, seemed to think they could create a plan for helping restore a man without asking anyone else who has restored people in this area what they would do. They failed to follow the basic principle of disclosure – tell it all, tell it once, and don’t let it trickle out later. They failed to follow anyone’s guidance for restoration from sexual sin – keep the sinner away from behaviors that tempt them to sin.
It’s hard not to construe their actions as pride that they could restore someone, pride that they could have this dynamic and effective person serving under them. These men failed all the people under their charge, the organizations they served, Anthony Moore, and most tragically of all, Moore’s wife and children, who have been revictimized again.
None of these men are truly fit for ministry if they are unwilling to take a long deep look at where they failed, accept where they failed, and repent of where they failed. To someone with deep, painful experience in this area, it is clear where they have.
The inconceivable risk of White hiring Moore must have been outweighed by some benefit. But what?
If you were White would you risk EVERYTHING (concerning not only yourself and career, but an entire campus and community) for saving a brother? Hmmm