Ep. 498: World Vision Prevails, Seminaries Should Examine Faculty Screening Process, and Trust in Churches Rebounds…Slightly

On today’s program, World Vision prevails in court after it was sued for discrimination. The ruling protects the ministry’s right to hire based on its religious beliefs. We’ll have details.

And, a seminary professor accused of sexual misconduct resigned from Concordia Seminary, and is now hired by an independent seminary…raising questions about what background and reference checks seminaries conduct in its hiring process.

Plus, a new study shows that Americans’ trust in the church is rebounding—slightly—after dropping to an all-time low in recent years. We’ll take a look.

But first, a pro-life clinic in Colorado has been cleared by the court to continue offering abortion pill reversal treatments.

The producer for today’s program is Jeff McIntosh. We get database and other technical support from Stephen DuBarry, Rod Pitzer, and Casey Sudduth. Writers who contributed to today’s program include Kim Roberts, Daniel Ritchie, Makella Knowles, Christin Fejervary, Aaron Earls—and you, Warren.

A special thanks to Lifeway Research and The NonProfit Times for contributing material for this week’s podcast.

Until next time, may God bless you.

 

MANUSCRIPT: 

 

FIRST SEGMENT

Warren:

Hello everybody. I’m Warren Smith, coming to you from Charlotte, North Carolina.

Christina:

And I’m Christina Darnell, in for Natasha Cowden this week, and we’d like to welcome you to the MinistryWatch podcast.

Warren:

On today’s program, World Vision prevails in court after it was sued for discrimination. The ruling protects the ministry’s right to hire based on its religious beliefs. We’ll have details.

And, a seminary professor accused of sexual misconduct resigned from Concordia Seminary, and is now hired by an independent seminary…raising questions about what background and reference checks seminaries conduct in its hiring process.

Plus, a new study shows that Americans’ trust in the church is rebounding—slightly—after dropping to an all-time low in recent years. We’ll take a look.

Christina:

But first, a pro-life clinic in Colorado has been cleared by the court to continue offering abortion pill reversal treatments.

Warren:

Two years ago, Colorado enacted a law making it illegal for doctors and nurses to help women who had changed their mind after taking chemical abortion pills. The law threatened professional discipline for practitioners who use progesterone to reverse the abortion attempt and try to save the baby’s life.

Christina:

A Catholic pro-life clinic called Bella Health and Wellness challenged the law in federal court.

Warren:

That’s right. In October 2023, Bella Health won a temporary injunction blocking the law from applying to them—but earlier this month, the court made it permanent.

Christina:

Becket Fund Senior Counsel Rebekah Ricketts told MinistryWatch that during the course of the legal proceedings—so, the last two years or so—16 babies’ lives have been saved.

Warren:

She also said this case is the first court decision in the country to recognize the religious protection for doctors and nurses administering progesterone for abortion pill reversal.

Christina:

You said the court blocked the bill for Bella Health specifically…will this not apply to other pro-life groups?

Warren:

That’s a good question. The injunction is technically limited to Bella Health and Wellness because of a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision limiting injunctions…but Ricketts told us that, practically, it would still apply to any religiously-motivated practitioners in Colorado who want to administer progesterone for abortion pill reversal, Ricketts said.

Ricketts also hopes the judge’s reasoning and decision will guide other courts around the country who might encounter the same issue. Cases involving abortion pill reversal are currently pending in California and New York.

Christina:

In our next story, another ministry prevails in court.

Warren:

World Vision won a discrimination lawsuit by a decision of the U. S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

Because of World Vision’s religious mission, it is not subject to discrimination claims by employees who are performing tasks “key religious functions” central to that mission.

Christina:

What’s the back story for this one?

Warren:

Aubry McMahon applied for and was extended an offer to serve as a remote customer service representative for World Vision in 2021. After World Vision learned a few days later that McMahon was in a same-sex marriage, it revoked the offer.

Christina:

McMahon sued, alleging that World Vision had discriminated against her marital status, sex and sexual orientation.

Warren:

Yes, it has. The district court initially ruled in World Vision’s favor, finding that the doctrine of church autonomy essentially made “World Vision’s religiously motivated personnel decision” none of the court’s business.

But the lower court reversed its ruling in 2023 after McMahon appealed. It determined it could use “neutral principles of law” to decide the case and not entangle itself in religion.

Christina:

But World Vision argued that customer service representatives play a significant role in the ministry’s voice, saying they perform key religious functions—things like communicating World Vision’s worldwide ministries and projects to donors, praying with them, and inviting them to join the ministry’s religious mission. The higher court agreed and reversed the lower court’s decision.

Warren:

The court ruled that because of these “vital religious duties,” the ministerial exception applies to hiring customer service representatives and bars McMahon’s discrimination claims.

Christina:

World Vision wasn’t the only Christian ministry interested in the outcome of this case.

Warren:

No, they weren’t.

First Liberty, a nonprofit public interest law firm that defends religious liberty, filed a “friend of the court” brief on behalf of Samaritan’s Purse and the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association in the case. They were pleased with the decision.

Liberty Counsel is another one. They hope the decision might have implications for their case involving Liberty University and Jonathan Zinski, a biological male, who informed the university after his 90-day probation period expired that he wanted to “transition” to “identify as female” and change his name to “Ellenor.” He was terminated for open violation of Liberty’s doctrinal statement regarding human sexuality and is now alleging “sex discrimination.”

Christina:

Warren, let’s look at one more story before the break. An Oklahoma pastor has been fired from his church and removed from the board of a Christian school after being arrested on multiple ‘peeping Tom’ charges.

Warren:

Kendrick Oakley was arrested August 6 and charged with 11 “Peeping Tom” offenses. He is accused of trying to take photos of a woman at a Hobby Lobby store in July 2024.

Christina:

How was he caught?

Warren:

A loss prevention officer reportedly noticed Oakley via the store’s security cameras trying to film up the woman’s skirt. The officer followed Oakley to his car and wrote down his license plate number. The officer then notified the woman and helped her file a police report online.

Christina:

So this happened over a year ago…why the delay in arresting him?

Warren:

In a statement, Tulsa law enforcement blamed a jurisdiction issue for the long delay.

They said Oakley claimed he was Indian. According to something called McGirt case law, that prevents the state from being able to prosecute him. But in the end, officials said Oakley was afforded due process and they decided McGirt was not applicable to his case…he did not meet the criteria for Cherokee citizenship.

Christina:

Oakley served on staff at DestinyLife Church for three years and was recently elected to the board of Claremont Christian School, both located in Claremont.

Warren:

The school and church released a joint statement after Oakley was arrested. They said their church gathered to process the news, and they immediately removed him from the school board and from the church staff and eldership.

Christina:

Warren, let’s take a quick break. When we return, a seminary professor accused of secular misconduct resigns from one seminary only to pop up at another…raising the question of how seriously seminaries take background and reference checks in their hiring process.

I’m Christina Darnell, along with my co-host Warren Smith, and we’ll have that story and much more, after this short break.

 

BREAK

 

SECOND SEGMENT

Christina:

Welcome back.  I’m Christina Darnell, along with my co-host Warren Smith, and you’re listening to the MinistryWatch podcast.

Next, the story we promised before the break.

Warren:

This story is a bit different for us. It involves an alleged affair between two former employees at Concordia Seminary, a Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod seminary in St. Louis. It’s not the sort of story we would normally cover, but this case brings into the open some interesting – and sometimes troubling – questions about church discipline, and seminaries screen their faculty.

Christina:

So what’s the story?

Warren:

It involves Jill Wilson and Erik Herrmann. They were both Concordia Seminary employees. Hermann was a professor there.

She worked for him in a coordinating position at Concordia Seminary where he was the Dean of Theological Research and Publication. Both were married. Concordia Seminary trains ministers for the Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod (LCMS).

After just a few weeks on the job, Wilson decided to leave Concordia to pursue another position.

The affair ended in April 2023.

Christina:

Well, that behavior is certainly troubling, but I’m still not sure why this is a story for MinistryWatch?

Warren:

On May 18, 2023, Wilson took the first step in trying to get Herrmann to face some accountability for his actions. She contacted Lee Hagan, president of the LCMS Missouri District, to report Herrmann’s alleged sexual misconduct.

Less than a month later, Hagan informed Wilson by email that Herrmann had resigned from the LCMS clergy roster and from the faculty of Concordia Seminary. He also wrote, “I pray that you and your husband are receiving the pastoral care and support that you need.”

He did not mention if the school would conduct an investigation or if they would enact any disciplinary action or restorative process. Hagan declined to comment about the situation when contacted by MinistryWatch. Egger did not reply to our multiple inquiries.

Christina:

OK, so this story is not really about the affair itself, but how Concordia, and – by association – the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod handled the affair.

Warren:

That’s right. And not just them.

Now Herrmann is a member of the faculty at the Christ School of Theology with the Institute of Lutheran Theology (ILT). He has been appointed as a Distinguished Professor and Research Fellow (DPRF) in historical theology.

ILT is an online institution accredited by the Association for Biblical Higher Education (ABHE), and its Christ School of Theology is accredited by the Association of Theological Schools (ATS). It is an independent institution not funded by any denomination.

Christina:

So this story is really about how easily individuals can move between positions of spiritual influence without oversight.

Warren:

That’s right. Wilson has now gone public with her concerns, maintaining a blog related to spiritual abuse and other matters. She wrote: “Institutions and endorsers must ask themselves: What processes failed? And how can they be strengthened to ensure this does not happen again?”

Christina:

Those are good questions.

Warren:

ABHE Standard 4 related to faculty requires that the institution be characterized by “[c]ommitted Christian faculty members who engage in the academic, spiritual, and vocational development of students.” However, there doesn’t appear to be any specific background or reference checks for faculty. ABHE did not respond to a request for more information before the time of publication.

Barbara Mutch is ATS senior director of accreditation. She wrote in reply to MinistryWatch’s inquiry, “The ATS Standards of Accreditation do not explicitly require background or reference checks for faculty. However, they do require schools to ensure that faculty are qualified and that hiring practices are fair and ethical.”

“To meet these standards, schools must have clear, reliable procedures for verifying credentials and assessing faculty suitability,” Mutch said. “Depending on the institution’s context and policies, this may include background or reference checks. However, schools may also fulfill these expectations through other rigorous and appropriate means.”

Christina:

So what do other schools do?

Warren:

In comparison, Talbot School of Theology at Biola University in California conducts background and reference checks for its faculty as an “essential” part of its hiring process, Talbot President Ed Stetzer told MinistryWatch.

He said Talbot conducts a thorough and detailed interview process in which candidates must articulate their views through responses to questions and sit for multiple interviews.

“If you don’t hire well, you don’t maintain your identity and your focus. If you don’t screen well, you [don’t] protect your students well. I’ve never regretted a thorough hiring process,” Stetzer said.

Christina:

Our next story involves financial fraud in an Indiana church – and what all churches can learn from it.

Warren:

Heartland Community Church in Lafayette, Indiana, filed a police report last year after receiving an alert from their bank about account discrepancies.

On Aug. 20, 2024, the Tippecanoe County Sheriff’s Department began investigating, revealing over $100,000 had been embezzled from church accounts since December 2021.

Now, Julia Wonnacott, 36, is accused of stealing hundreds of thousands from her local church for personal use. That personal use included designer bag purchases to a surgery in Mexico.

Christina:

According to a probable cause affidavit, Wonnacott confessed to fellow church employees she had been misusing her position to siphon church funds. When she began working for HCC in February 2020 as an administrative assistant, she was given access to all church bank accounts.

Warren:

That’s right, and that’s one of the lessons that other churches can learn from this situation. It’s better if no one person has access to all the accounts and of a non profit organization. And for any expenditures over a pre-set amount, the organization should require two signatures.

Christina:

That’s good advice, but how do you protect against someone who is just trying to commit fraud.

Warren:

That’s a good question, and in this case, it’s not clear that simply dividing duties would have completely solved the problem, because she is accused of forging the signatures of other church officials.

Christina:

And she piled up huge purchases.

Warren:

She reportedly transferred hundreds of thousands of dollars in church funds into her personal PayPal account until every account was empty or overdrawn. She made multiple purchases on PayPal, Walmart, Target, and Amazon, all from her work computer.

Wonnacott misappropriated $2,800 as earnest money for her home and $13,000 for the down payment. Authorities estimate the losses to be well over the initial speculation, now assumed to be about $250,000 in 2023 and up to $200,000 in 2022.

Christina:

These are huge amounts of money, and it appears that she was pretty obvious and brazen in her behavior.

Warren:

That’s right, and that’s another tip for other churches. These transactions would likely have been uncovered in an annual audit, or any sort of regular oversight of the financial records. The alleged wrongdoing took place over multiple years, so an annual audit would certainly have raised red flags.

Finally, if you are a church, you should have someone who is NOT the bookkeeper review the monthly financial statements and bank accounts. Perhaps an elder with a banking and accounting background. And change that person every year or two. A cursory review won’t catch much, but it will tell you how much money is in the bank account, and just knowing the monthly bank balance can be an indicator of the overall financial health of the church.

Christina:

So what’s going to happen to Wonnacott herself?

Warren:

Wonnacott now faces 17 felony charges—namely fraud, corrupt business influence, and counterfeiting. The investigation is ongoing.

Her trial is set for December 1.

Christina:

Our next story is one we’ve been following for a while. That’s the so-called Great Generational Wealth Transfer.

Warren:

Millennial Christians and their generational peers are in the process of becoming stewards of the largest amount of wealth that has ever passed from one generation to the next. Roughly $124 trillion will shift from the current generation to the next as the Great Wealth Transfer transpires.

Christina:

That means the next generation is poised to become power players on the global philanthropic scene.

Warren:

New research from National Christian Foundation (NCF) suggests there are some important differences between the Christian philanthropic culture of today and the Christian philanthropy that might form as the Great Wealth Transfer continues.

In fact, the next generation of givers have already begun changing the landscape. NCF interviewed 360 Millennial Christians (ages 28-45). Of these, 159 had a high net worth of at least $1 million in investible assets.

Christina:

What were some of the findings?

Warren:

Only 60% of this younger cohort feel called to give in the same way as their parents. This shift will have striking implications for philanthropy as the next generation’s priorities will set the tone for stewardship and giving for the coming decades.

Also, the next generation of stewards wants to make more than a financial contribution.

The next generation tends to prioritize communities, rather than institutions. Only half of next-generation stewards responded they felt strongly aligned with the church as an institution, in contrast to the 74% of current-generation stewards who feel that way.

Christina:

Anything else?

Warren:

Additionally, more than one-third of next-gen stewards who have not created wealth but stand to inherit it reported feeling “uninformed.” This demographic reported feeling more burdened and overwhelmed by the prospect of wealth management than those who had contributed to wealth creation.

The research also found that agency was a key factor in determining whether a steward’s view on wealth was broadly negative or positive, though the responses were almost always complex.

Those in the next generation who already had experience creating, giving and utilizing wealth reported more confidence, peace, gratitude, and joy than those who had not yet been involved.

Christina:

Warren, we’re going to take another break. When we return, our lightning round of ministry news of the week.

I’m Christina Darnell, with my co-host Warren Smith. More in a moment.

 

BREAK

 

THIRD SEGMENT

Christina:

Welcome back.  I’m Christina Darnell, with my co-host Warren Smith and you’re listening to the MinistryWatch Podcast.

Warren, we like to use this last segment as a sort of lightning round of shorter news briefs.

What’s up first?

Warren:

While most Americans remain distrustful of the church, a growing number say they have confidence in the institution. Currently, 36% say they trust the church, according to Gallup’s annual tracking poll.

For the past three years, the percentage of U.S. adults who said they had a great deal or quite a lot of confidence in the church or organized religion has hovered near record lows. In 2022, trust fell to 31% of Americans and has been at 32% the previous two years.

For the first time since 2020, however, the church has experienced a significant jump in trust. In 2025, 36% say they have a great deal or quite a lot of confidence in the church as an institution. The church was last that high in 2021 (37%).

Christina:

We’ve released the latest MinistryWatch Index. It was flat throughout July, remaining unchanged from the month before.

Warren:

The MinistryWatch Index is based on the revenue of 38 large Christian ministries, ministries that represent all of the 21 ministry segments tracked by MinistryWatch.

This month’s lackluster performance adds another month to a now record eight months of flat performance by the Index. The no growth and negative growth of the MinistryWatch Index over the past eight months could suggest concern about the future of the economy.

Christina:

A recent survey conducted by MinistryWatch of ministry executives found that fundraising has now replaced finding and recruiting staff as their top leadership concern.

Warren:

This concern seems well-founded. A recent survey found that giving by evangelicals is down.

Christina:

Other studies, especially those by Giving USA, suggest that philanthropic giving correlates closely to the rise and fall in value of the major stock markets.

Warren:

Note that this relationship is correlative and not causative.

That theory is being tested this year. The Dow Jones Industrial Average is up about 3.5 percent for the year. The tech-heavy NASDAQ has been volatile. It was flat for the first five months of the year, though at one point in April is was down about 19 percent. A recent rally has year-to-date performance up about 10.2 percent.

Christina:

MinistryWatch, in collaboration with the Trinity Foundation, each month publishes a list of the private planes belonging to pastors and Christian ministries.

The list also includes basic information about their usage by pastors and ministries.

Warren:

This month’s list is below. Here are a few highlights:

• The Trinity Foundation currently tracks 61 planes owned by more than 40 ministries. Last month, Samaritan’s Purse sold one of its Gulfstream G550 jets.
• During July, these planes made a total of 307 flights. That was down significantly from the 383 flights in June and 375 in May.
• Operating costs were approximately $1.43 million for the month, down from $1.68 million in June and $1.82 million in May. These costs do not include the cost of the plane itself.
• The three biggest users of private aircraft remain the same as last month, though in a different order. Samaritan’s purse came in first ($209,306), followed by Assemblies of God ($177,860). Liberty University was in a close third with $177,600, although that was a sharp decline from the prior month when Liberty University’s private aircraft usage cost was $264,900.

If you find this information interesting or helpful, you might want to follow The Trinity Foundation’s daily X feed. You can find that account, @PastorPlanes, here.) But we think that for most people this monthly list will be more digestible and easier to read.

Christina:

Warren, any final thoughts before we go?

Warren:

Warren Ad-Lib AUGUST Donor Premium.

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Christina:

The producer for today’s program is Jeff McIntosh. We get database and other technical support from Stephen DuBarry, Rod Pitzer, and Casey Sudduth. Writers who contributed to today’s program include Kim Roberts, Daniel Ritchie, Makella Knowles, Christin Fejervary, Aaron Earls—and you, Warren.

A special thanks to Lifeway Research and The NonProfit Times for contributing material for this week’s podcast.

I’m Christina Darnell, in for Natasha Cowden, coming to you from Mooresville, North Carolina.

Warren:

And I’m Warren Smith, also in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Christina:

You’ve been listening to the MinistryWatch podcast.  Until next time, may God bless you.