Official Statement from Dr. Michael Brown
Editor’s Note: According to a Dec. 2 news article, the board members of The Line of Fire have hired an outside firm to investigate charges made against its founder and longtime Stream contributor Dr. Michael Brown.
The allegations, which you can read about elsewhere, concern a relationship between Brown and a ministry school graduate in the mid-1990s. Brown’s response is included below.
The Stream will refrain from reporting on this story until the investigation is complete.
In recent weeks, very serious accusations have come to me and my board concerning events from 23 years ago. Upon receiving the news, both Nancy and I were shocked and horrified by the mix of accusations, allegations, false statements, and mischaracterizations. That’s why we wholeheartedly supported our board’s immediate decision to launch a thorough third-party investigation.
I can categorically state that in my 53 years in the Lord and more than 50 years with Nancy, I have never committed adultery or been sexually intimate with another woman, nor do the charges allege that. Yet I must ask, in all humility and in the fear of the Lord, if an article on [a news site] is the best way to address these allegations and accusations. Does this glorify the Lord, edify the Body, bring healing and restoration, or advance the cause of truth?
Nancy and I did have a relationship with the woman in question and considered her to be like a family member, and she conducted herself as one who viewed our relationship the same way. But she was not a family member, and aspects of my interaction with her, although totally non-sexual in every way, reflected a definite lack of judgment on my part.
Before she relocated to another state in August 2002, she informed me that our interaction months earlier had made her uncomfortable. And so Nancy and I met with her immediately in the spirit of Matthew 18, I apologized to her from the heart, we talked things through together, after which, to our knowledge, everything was good between us. In the years that followed, at least through 2015, she contacted me sharing family updates, sending prayer requests, and checking in on Nancy and me. Naturally, we thought that everything was fine in every way. How could we have known otherwise? As to allegations that I stifled those who questioned the nature of our relationship, it is because they accused me of having an affair. Of course I rebutted those ridiculous charges. At no time over the years did anyone approach me, asking me or my ministry to conduct a third-party investigation.
The fact is that my actions towards her were certainly foolish and irresponsible – but neither sexual nor amorous in any way– and my highest priority, as well as Nancy’s, is to have the opportunity to meet together in a setting acceptable to her and bring healing, where I can take full responsibility for the things which apparently hurt her so deeply, things which I thought we addressed 23 years ago. Unfortunately, when Nancy and I learned through [the media] that there was an offense towards me in this woman’s heart, we were not allowed to follow the mandate of Jesus in Matthew 5:23-26, but only given the option of offering a response to an article that would be released online. What happened to biblical process?
That being said, if it’s true that for 23 years she has carried this pain and I am responsible for it, I am beyond mortified and would plead forgiveness and the opportunity to bring healing and restoration. Her wellbeing remains our priority.
Dr. Michael Brown is the host of the nationally syndicated Line of Fire radio program. He is the author of more than 40 books, including Can You be Gay and Christian?; Our Hands Are Stained With Blood; and Seize the Moment: How to Fuel the Fires of Revival. You can connect with him on Facebook, X, or YouTube.