Freshman Democratic congresswoman Katie Hill is in a fix. News broke last week that the California representative has allegedly had extramarital affairs with two of her staffers. One of the affairs was a supposedly committed threesome relationship involving her now estranged husband.

Now a pastor in her district is speaking up. And reaching out.

The Allegations

RedState broke the story on Friday alleging that Hill involved her female staffer in a 2-year “throuple” relationship with her and her estranged husband, Kenny Heslep. The article includes photos of Hill kissing the female staffer. It also links to a censored image of a nude Hill brushing a woman’s hair.

The article also alleges that Hill had another extramarital affair for a year with her then-finance director, now Legislative Director, Graham Kelly. Haslep allegedly filed for divorce after finding out about Hill’s affair with Kelly and made the affair public on his since-deleted Facebook account.

The article author, Jennifer Van Laar, raised questions about the ethics of the power difference between Hill and her staffers. Van Laar also wrote that there’s an age gap between Hill and the female staffer: the staffer allegedly was 22 when the relationship started, while Hill and Haslep were in their 30s.

Hill denies having an affair with Kelly and calls the controversy a “smear campaign.” She blamed her “abusive husband” and “republican operatives” for spreading allegations.

“The fact is I am going through a divorce from an abusive husband who seems determined to try to humiliate me,” Hill said in a statement to Politico.

How Should Christians Respond?

Stream contributor Shane Idleman pastors at Westside Christian Fellowship in Hill’s district, north of L.A. In a video posted on Tuesday, Idleman says, “As a pastor, of course, my heart breaks for any type of situation where a person is embarrassed. I don’t think it’s right whatsoever. We can fundamentally disagree on many issues including the LGBTQ agenda, loving those who struggle with sexual sin, but at the same time not compromising God’s Word.”

“Who am I to judge? You should look at my lifestyle 25 plus years ago,” Pastor Shane said.

“Our Christian stances should be not posting stuff on Facebook slamming her, slamming the Democratic party,” Pastor Shane continued. “We need to stand for truth. We need to voice our concerns with love and grace and compassion.”

In an introduction to the video, Idleman writes:

As the result of massive ad campaigns on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and so on, we are witnessing a strong surge of young elected officials. Sadly, talking points and wrong information rather than character and truth is influencing the next generation.

As I recently wrote in an op-ed, much of the division in our nation centers around a biblical worldview or a lack thereof. Students of Scripture understand that God uses governmental leaders to accomplish His purposes and plans. But how are Christian supposed to act when those who oppose us fall from such as in the case of Rep. Katie Hill? 

“We’re supposed to love the person,” he said, and “help them in their struggle with compassion and point them to the cross.”

“God changes you from the inside out,” he added.

To Hill, Pastor Shane said “We want to just reach out and let you know we are praying for you.”

“We want to let you know that there is a lifeline. Just let us know. We’d love to meet with you, reach out and pray with you and tell you about the hope that we have.”