.png)
When faced with accusations from the widower of a second alleged victim of his sexual misconduct, Messianic teacher and apologist Michael Brown posted a video online admitting to an “emotional” relationship with a woman.
“While I have never committed adultery in all our years of marriage, in late 2001, the beginning of 2002, I developed an emotional, not a physical, tie with another individual,” Brown said in the video. He added that he would have done this “days ago” but has been out of the country with his grandson.
Just two hours before Brown posted the video (see below to view it in full), The Roys Report reached out to him to request comment on allegations he had sexual conversations with a woman about 20 years ago, with whom he was “obsessed.”
After posting the video online, Brown responded that he’d have a statement to TRR by the evening after he conferred with his board. About an hour later, TRR emailed him about the video. Brown replied that the video would be his only statement, as per his board’s instruction.
The allegations came from the husband of a woman referred to in a previous TRR article on allegations against Brown. In the article, “Erin,” Brown’s alleged first victim, tells of finding a note in Brown’s handwriting that described sexual conversations Brown was having with another woman.
That second alleged victim died in 2021, and her husband, “Ray,” requested that we not use his or her name to protect his late wife’s identity. TRR has a policy of not naming alleged victims of adult clergy sexual abuse. But we confirmed the woman’s identity with former Brownsville School of Ministry student Amber Rhodes and Niels Prip, a former FIRE School of Ministry administrator and longtime friend of Ray and his wife.
Ray claimed Brown pursued an “inappropriate” relationship with his wife about 20 years ago, in 2001 to 2002, when she was 41 and Brown was 46. Ray said that he and his wife considered Brown, a prominent leader for the Brownsville revival in the 1990s and founder of FIRE School of Ministry, to be their spiritual leader.
“It is my view that he became infatuated and obsessed with her, learned over time some of her vulnerabilities, exploited that, and manipulated her into a place that she did not desire or intend,” Ray said. “In short, a victim to a man who postured and prided himself to be one of our spiritual leaders.”
Ray had previously declined to comment about what transpired between his wife and Brown. However, Ray objected to Brown’s characterization of Brown’s relationship with his wife, which we reported in our previous article.
Brown reportedly told former FIRE staff Kris Bennett that Ray’s wife had said something inappropriate to Brown, which Brown documented in the note Erin found. Ray said he interpreted this as blaming Ray’s wife for what happened, but Ray says Brown deserves the blame.
“I don’t want him to throw my wife under the bus,” Ray said. “She does not deserve that at all. ... You can’t just leave it there without some context. Especially if Mike controls the narrative, he’s going to end up being a victim.”
According to Boz Tchividjian, an attorney specializing in sexual abuse cases, sexual contact between a religious leader and a person under the leader’s care is considered adult clergy sexual abuse due to the power differential.
According to Jason Martin, a secondary ACSA survivor and social science researcher, Ray would also be considered a considered a “secondary victim” of adult clergy sexual abuse. For both victim and spouse, the betrayer is the pastor who abused his position. And if that pastor is unrepentant, true healing is difficult.
“The impact is an injury that keeps on injuring,” Martin said. “A couple can do all the healing work in the world, and it will not mend, restore, or reconcile them to their former community. This results in survivors and survivor spouses living in a state of suspended exile where the only comfort and understanding they can find is through peer support.”
Brown claimed in the video that he was repentant in 2002 for his emotional relationship with another woman. However, Ray said that’s not true. He said Brown reluctantly admitted to the details when confronted with them, but “it was like pulling teeth.”
Brown also addressed what happened with his first alleged victim, Erin.
“Please forgive me for my actions which caused you so much pain,” he said in the video. “Had I more clearly understood the result of those actions in 2002 I would have responded very differently.”
Previously, Brown said his relationship with Erin was “nonsexual,” lacked judgment, and resulted from him treating her like family.
However, Erin told TRR Brown had a pattern of kissing her on the lips and slapping her butt.
Yesterday, Erin came out publicly on social media as Sarah Erin Monk, her maiden name. She accused Brown of lying when he said earlier that he and his wife met with Monk years ago to follow the method of reconciliation outlined in Matthew 18 and to apologize to her.
“Well, it NEVER happened,” Monk wrote in her statement. “The idea that he apologized to me in this meeting is a complete fabrication.”
Monk said the only meeting she had with Brown and his wife was when she confronted him about finding the letter about Ray’s wife, whom Monk said she now believes was a victim.
“He has lied, and I lied for him for two decades, protecting him and his ministry,” she wrote.
In the statement, Brown said he didn’t want to confirm or deny specific allegations but would let a third-party investigation find the truth. Brown’s ministry, The Line of Fire, is reportedly in the process of hiring a third-party to investigate the allegations against him.
Messianic Jewish ministry Tikkun Global praised the decision to hire a third party in a public statement yesterday and urged due process.
“The question of ‘how was this handled/adjudicated’ can be just as important as the question of ‘what actually happened,’” the Tikkun Global statement said. “But we don’t agree with ‘cancelling’ or ‘trial by social media’ as a substitute for biblical process whereby witnesses are heard and the accused are allowed to respond.”
Ray said he and his wife met Brown through the Brownsville revival and were initially excited about Brown’s revolutionary mindset. But Ray said in 2001 and 2002, Ray noticed his wife, who had young kids, spending more and more time in front of the computer reading the many emails Brown would send her.
Brown would also often call their house, talk to Ray for a few minutes, then ask to talk to Ray’s wife. Ray didn’t understand why Brown was spending so much time engaging Ray’s wife.
“I had a growing discomfort with something, and she was growing quieter,” Ray said. “The whole thing was, either something’s not right — or, am I just going crazy?”
Ray asked his wife what was going on, and she disclosed to Ray how Brown had turned their phone conversations inappropriate.
“She said that she wasn’t sure how it happened,” Ray said. “She just wanted to be friends with everyone and did not desire anything else. She tried to explain how he crossed a line in their phone conversations, and somehow she followed. She wasn’t sure why or how.”
Ray said his wife told him that Brown repeatedly requested she meet Brown alone, which she refused to do. She reportedly told Ray that Brown also instructed her to stop having sex with Ray, which she also refused. Ray said his wife also told him that one evening when both couples were in a car together on the way to a dinner — Brown driving, his wife Nancy in the seat beside him — Brown reached behind him and touched Ray’s wife’s leg.
Ray said his wife couldn’t figure out how to stop the inappropriate interactions and return things to how they used to be.
“She knew the truth would bring down a minister, and she did not want to be known as the woman who had a part in that,” Ray said.
So, Ray stepped in. In early 2002, Ray met with Brown and his wife, Nancy, to confront him, Ray said.
“I used the term ... ‘Are you just having phone sex with my wife?’” Ray said.
Ray said Brown’s responses were confusing and not fully repentant, but that Brown admitted to the inappropriate dynamic.
“He admitted to everything I confronted him with, but it was just very reluctantly,” Ray said. “I kept having to pull him around. It was like pulling teeth a little bit. ... It was admitted that he was doing something that had — or saying something, or perpetuating something, that had some sort of sexual flavour to it.”
Ray said Nancy asked Ray what he was going to do about the situation. Ray, who didn’t want to embarrass his wife, said he told them he and his wife just wanted quietly out of the situation.
“I just wanted him to know that I knew what kind of a person he was … and I just wanted to be done with them,” Ray said.
Ray said he and his wife didn’t tell anybody else about what happened with Brown.
“We never breathed a word of it,” Ray said.
The Line of Fire board member Cindy Panepinto previously told TRR that Brown recently told the board about an emotional connection with a second woman. But Panepinto said Brown had previously “repented of” it.
In yesterday’s statement, Brown said in early 2002, because his conscience was bothering him, he confessed the matter to a close friend, then to his wife, Nancy. Brown said he wanted to tell his leadership team, school and church, but the two “offended spouses” didn’t want him to.
“At that time, in January 2002, I was eager to share all this with my leadership team as well as with our entire school and church community,” Brown said in his statement yesterday. “That was not my decision alone to make, and both offended spouses agreed that since we had not committed adultery, the matter would end there, sparing them further shame and dishonor. That’s the reason I’ve never discussed it with anyone else until recently. It was not to hide things. It was to honor my spouse whom I had hurt so deeply.”
TRR asked Brown the name of the close friend he confessed to, and whether he confessed to the friend before or after Ray confronted him. Brown declined to comment.
But Ray said he didn’t know about a confession Brown made to anyone else. He also believes Brown hasn’t repented.
“I wish that in 2002, he would have just repented and done whatever he needed to do, or talked to his staff and said, ‘Hey, I messed up,’” Ray said. “He’ll be 20 years down the road now and he just won’t do it.”
Ray also didn’t know that around the same time, Brown was crossing physical lines with a different woman — Erin — until this year.
“I left, hoping and expecting that he would fix his problem,” Ray said. “I did not realize he was preying upon Erin at or near the same time until many years later.”
Brown said in yesterday’s statement that in 2001 and 2002, he was going through a difficult time of ministry, sought help, and made changes.
“In the months that followed in 2002, I made radical changes to my schedule and lifestyle, received intensive counseling, and experienced the holy discipline of the Lord,” Brown said. “I am profoundly grateful that our Lord is a forgiving Lord, that he responds to deep heartfelt repentance, that he does not discard and cast off his children because of their failings when they turned back to him.”
Meanwhile, Ray said he’s still grieving the loss of his wife.
“She’s the most sincere, unpretentious, intentional person I’ve ever known,” Ray said. “When she passed, home seemed to leave with her. I have been torn between two worlds ever since.”
Ray said he had no desire to publicly criticize Brown, but Brown’s lack of repentance drove him to it.
“He just won’t do it,” Ray said. “When you refuse to do that over the window God gives you, it seems like it ends in humiliation instead of humbling.”
This piece is republished from The Roys Report via Religion Unplugged.
Rebecca Hopkins is a journalist based in Colorado.