Last week, I wrote about how one of my all-time favorite singer-songwriters — a long-time stalwart of the Christian music industry — disillusioned me when she released a new single that was loaded with left-wing sentiment. It wasn’t a moral failure on her part in the most literal sense, but it was a tremendous letdown. And I wasn’t alone in feeling it.
On the heels of that disappointment comes the revelation of a genuine moral failing from an important figure in evangelical circles. Philip Yancey has been a Christian writer longer than I’ve been alive. I didn’t follow his career as closely as others, but he contributed heavily to the teen study Bible that was instrumental in my spiritual growth in high school.
His classic book What’s So Amazing About Grace? has sold over 15 million copies, and he wrote for Christianity Today for nearly half a century. Yancey’s presence has loomed large over evangelical thought.
That’s what made Yancey’s admission land hard. Last week, he sent a statement to Christianity Today that detailed a years-long extramarital affair:
To my great shame, I confess that for eight years I willfully engaged in a sinful affair with a married woman.
My conduct defied everything that I believe about marriage. It was also totally inconsistent with my faith and my writings and caused deep pain for her husband and both of our families. I will not share further details out of respect for the other family.
I have confessed my sin before God and my wife, and have committed myself to a professional counseling and accountability program. I have failed morally and spiritually, and I grieve over the devastation I have caused. I realize that my actions will disillusion readers who have previously trusted in my writing. Worst of all, my sin has brought dishonor to God. I am filled with remorse and repentance, and I have nothing to stand on except God’s mercy and grace.
I am now focused on rebuilding trust and restoring my marriage of 55 years. Having disqualified myself from Christian ministry, I am therefore retiring from writing, speaking, and social media. Instead, I need to spend my remaining years living up to the words I have already written. I pray for God’s grace and forgiveness—as well as yours—and for healing in the lives of those I’ve wounded.
Yancey was supposed to speak at a church in California last week at a service marking the anniversary of the Eaton fire, but the church removed him from its speakers’ list. He has also apparently deleted his social media presence.
Related: When Politics Ruin the Music: My Disillusionment With One of My Favorite Artists
There’s a twist to this story. Yancey faced a diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease in 2023, and the woman who has committed herself to his care is his wife, Janet. She issued her own statement:
I, Janet Yancey, am speaking from a place of trauma and devastation that only people who have lived through betrayal can understand. Yet I made a sacred and binding marriage vow 55½ years ago, and I will not break that promise. I accept and understand that God through Jesus has paid for and forgiven the sins of the world, including Philip’s. God grant me the grace to forgive also, despite my unfathomable trauma. Please pray for us.
The most remarkable part of this story is that Janet Yancey will continue to honor her marriage to Philip and his care in light of this heartbreaking betrayal of trust. Good for her; she deserves all the prayers we can send up on her behalf.
There’s also a lesson for believers who have a platform of any kind. We must be vigilant to avoid temptation.
“For those of us in ministry, especially those of us past fifty, this is a sobering reminder: there is no automatic guarantee we will finish well,” writes Joseph D’Souza of the Yanceys’ situation at The Christian Post. “Human hearts are complex. Minds never stop working. Temptations evolve. Only daily dependence on Christ, lived out in honest relationships, offers real protection.”
Pray for the Yanceys. There’s a lot of difficulty ahead for them — and, hopefully, a lot of healing.
The culture doesn’t take a day off—and neither do we.
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