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Christian author Philip Yancey, who has been married for more than five decades, confessed to engaging in a multi-year affair, telling Christianity Today in a statement that he had “disqualified” himself from ministry.
Yancey did not mince words or seek to defend the affair — he acknowledged the sinfulness of his behavior and the devastating consequences of his actions.
“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,” he noted in the statement, according to the outlet.
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Philip Yancey at Waterstone Community Church on April 18, 2019, in Littleton, Colo. (Joe Amon/MediaNews Group/The Denver Post via Getty Images)
“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,” he noted, according to the outlet.
“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 wrote in the emailed statement, according to Christianity Today.
He also supplied the outlet with a statement from his wife.
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A Denver County Jail inmate confined to dormitory Twelve Alpha reads a book by Philip Yancey called Where Is God When It Hurts? ( Karl Gehring/The Denver Post via Getty Images)
In the statement, Janet Yancey noted that in the face of this “trauma and devastation” she does not plan to break her “marriage vow,” and she asked for people to pray for her and her husband.
“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,” she said in the statement, according to the outlet.
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Christian cross against the sky. (Godong/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)
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In a 2023 piece about being diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease, Yancey wrote, “I have an omnicompetent wife of 52 years who takes my health and well-being as a personal challenge.”
“Sixteen years ago, when I lay strapped to a backboard with a broken neck after an auto accident, Janet drove through a blizzard to retrieve me. Already she was mentally redesigning our house in case she needed to prepare for life with a paralytic. She shows that same selfless, fierce loyalty now, even as she faces the potentially demanding role of caregiving,” he wrote in the piece.