Once again, we see the story Dr. Brown is putting out is considered the polar opposite from both victims, who never worked in concert with each other. This infers a pattern. Brown says he met with Monk in the spirit of Mattthew 18 (misuse of the verses) where he deeply apologized for his interactions with Monk. Sarah says that is completely untrue and that the only meeting they had was about Ray's wife, because Sarah had found a confessional letter Brown wrote regarding the sexual conversations he was having with the second woman. According to Sarah, Brown never apologized and the discussion was never about them. This kind of adds up then as to why she never felt the same closure that Brown claimed to have. As Brown has refused to answer these specific allegations, it may seem like a "he said she said," until you now factor in the same dynamic with Ray. Brown's story is that he was truly repentant but Ray says that just getting him to admit something happened was like pulling teeth. Beloved, these allegations are specific and clear. Brown appears to be hiding behind this third-party investigation. At a bare minimum he needs to either revise and clarify his statements and specifically state if both Ray and Sarah are somehow lying about these matters and THEN allow the third party to investigate. Ray then offered even more specifics:
'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 flavor to it."' - Roys Report
I want to make sure we see this picture unraveling at the time. Brown befriends this family as a spiritual leader. He carries himself to them as such. His preaching at the time was all holiness-based. He preached about proper boundaries and how men should not be alone with women unless married. He built his current media and Christian empire on this. Yet at that same time, he finds himself attracted sexually to the man's wife. When he calls their home, he exchanges pleasantries with the husband but then asks to speak to the wife at length. We know from Sarah that Brown pushed the edge of the relationship, which is a stereotypical grooming strategy, to see how it could progress. Soon the conversations start turning to sexual matters. A married holiness minister, having some sort of sexual conversations with another, also married woman. This culminates in the meeting with Brown and Brown's wife Nancy, where Ray is forced to ask Dr. Brown if he is having phone sex with his wife. This is where it seemed like trying to pull teeth to even get an admission, which I think we can understand from a human standpoint, but Brown admitted the sexual dynamic. You can dress it down by calling it inappropriate or saying it had a sexual flavor, but essentially it sounds like how Ray challenged Brown. He was having phone sex with his wife.
Now, just a word here to make sure we keep our eye on the ball. Dr. Brown and Ray's wife were two consenting adults of similar age. She has sadly passed on, so no one really knows what this dynamic was and who played what role. It is wholly plausible that she was always trying to downplay her role to her own husband and again, as a human being I think we can understand that. None of that is relevant here because of the spiritual authority dynamic. If these were just two married folks in church fooling around, they would need to repent and ask for forgiveness from their spouses and it would be NOBODY'S business. The problem is that one of these two consenting adults was in a position of power and authority over the other. The problem is that same person at the time was an adamant preacher of holiness. The problem is that person went on for the next 23 years to call himself the voice of moral sanity and spiritual clarity. The problem today is in how that person is answering these charges. Look, if Dr. Brown just came out and said, yeah that was a time when I was almost falling away but I changed my ways and life and acknowledge that I handled it poorly and apologize profusely to Ray and Sarah and beg their forgiveness, then the issue would be as over as his ministry should be. I am sorry, but you do not get a mulligan on something like this. God has set out qualifications for leadership in His church and Dr. Brown disqualified himself 23 years ago. He could become a political commentator since that seems to be his focus these days anyway but how exactly do you take phone calls as the voice of moral anything and pretend you are the word of spiritual clarity, after this? How would that be even feasible anymore? But he did not take the road lined with truth. Instead, his folks sent out a fundraising email inferring Sarah was working with the devil while someone tried to call her to get her to stand down. Instead, he has apparently not been forthcoming and claims that he had meetings and followed biblical protocols and was so repentant but all of these assertions have been challenged as lies. He has avoided responding directly to the accusations by hiding behind his board and his agreement to a third-party investigation. Look beloved. This story reeks and believe me, I wish none of it were true because it just piles on to the black eye that Charismania continues to give to the cause of Jesus Christ. As a human being I feel badly for all parties, including Dr. Brown, who clearly had a struggle that could have ended his marriage. We are glad it did not by the way. We do not celebrate in the sufferings of others. There are also real victims here and Dr. Brown is not one of them. Even if in some bizarro world Sarah and Ray's wife were secretly luring Dr. Brown into some siren song web of sexual indiscretion, it still would fall upon Dr. Brown to resist and not fall into it as he was in the position of spiritual authority. Difficult? Absolutely in real time. Understandable why he would give in to these temptations? Absolutely. We are all human. In all likelihood however, Sarah was probably just a wide-eyed 19-year-old looking up to the spiritual giant of the recent Brownsville Faux-Revival who did not realize at her age that she was being groomed. In all likelihood, Ray's wife was also enamored on some level with the stature of who Dr. Brown was and did not stop the behaviors until it was too late. It matters not because the consistent fact here is that Dr. Brown, as the spiritual leader, should have been the one in control to say no, to not pursue, to not be the opposite of what he was preaching. I have to believe somewhere, he knows that.
There is very little that can be done now about what happened 23 years ago. What Brown can control is what he does now. He can lessen the pain for Sarah and for Ray by admitting the truth, stepping down, and sincerely asking for forgiveness. He has built a nice life and his marriage has survived. He can enjoy his golden years, maybe try to do some writing about the importance of true repentance. He can focus on his walk and repenting there. Then maybe Sarah and Ray can move on and heal. The body of Christ can too. The NAR unfortunately will survive. Steven Strang will have to find another gatekeeper for all of the false prophets and teachers he supports. I am sure he will. Shane Idleman seems to be jockeying for that role. So, I sincerely hope that Dr. Brown puts out no more videos unless they specifically address the accusations that have been credibly made against him and finally starts trying to protect the church instead of his career.
