Chris Reed, Rick Joyner, and "Kathryn"

Another Case Study in Image Repair Analysis

It’s been a while since I’ve highlighted a case where an evangelical leader uses Image Repair in response to a scandalous revelation. But here we are.

Today, we have Chris Reed and Rick Joyner.

Chris Reed is the now-former CEO of Morningstar Ministries, founded by Rick Joyner. Morningstar is a major hub for the charismatic-based “prophetic-apostolic” movement which promotes “Fivefold Ministry”. It is not just a church; they offer training classes to prepare people for ministry in that “Fivefold” fashion.

That world, like other sectors of evangelicalism, has been rocked by sexual abuse scandals, one of the biggest being Mike Bickle and the International House Of Prayer Kansas City (IHOPKC).

Reed arrived at Morningstar during the summer of 2021. But, by his own account, it didn’t take him long to get into trouble: engaging in sexual misconduct—due to the power dynamics, this is clergy sexual abuse—with Kathryn, who was a student at Morningstar.

The public revelations of this forced Reed to resign barely a year into his tenure as CEO of Morningstar.

Julie Roys has a more detailed report of the saga. What I will be focusing on here are the statements by Chris Reed and Rick Joyner regarding their actions in this scandal. Julie’s story has a link to a video statement by Reed.

On one hand, Reed appears to be engaging in a good form of Image Repair: MORTIFICATION. This occurs when one apologizes and accepts responsibility for his offense. Reed clearly apologizes and expresses contrition for his actions.

On the other hand, I’m seeing some problems:

• Reed’s story and that of Kathryn are not congruent. As Rick Joyner pointed out, one of them is lying. While Joyner suggested that they take polygraphs, I don’t think that’s going to work. Guilty people can pass polygraphs. What is needed: an actual investigation by a qualified third party.

• Reed uses several minimization tactics:

  • Temporal distancing: He calls attention to the fact that the offense was “three years ago”. This is an appeal to the passage of time as an indicator that he is not today who he was then. The problem? Maybe that three years has not been as good to Kathryn due to Reed’s actions.

  • Triangulation: His wife is in the video. Triangulation is a tactic in which you use the good character of people around you—your spouse, your kids, your boss, high-name associates—to bolster your character and mitigate the perceived severity of the offense. When the offense is sexual, then having your spouse with you is an appeal to the “well…he’s resolved it with his wife, so let’s let bygones be bygones” angle. And trust me: a LOT of folks in the evangelical world will accept that reasoning. Especially if the minister is revered enough.

  • Bolstering: he claims that nothing of this nature “had happened” before in his marriage, or “has happened” since. (Also note that he uses passive voice for this, which weakens the effect of the stated offense.) He is appealing to his marriage to minimize the fact that he broke his marriage vows.

  • DARVO: DARVO is an acronym that stands for Deny, Attack, Reverse Victim and Offender. This is common among ministers and politicians alike. Jim Bakker, when The Charlotte Observer broke the Jessica Hahn scandal, called the scandal a conspiracy to undermine his ministry. Bill Clinton and his team—as the evidence in the Monica Lewinsky case became incontrovertible—attacked Ken Starr, and other conservatives, insisting that they were fixated on sex. Why do I think Reed is using DARVO: he is saying that his and Kathryn’s statements were similar 3 years ago. (They clearly are not congruent now.) So he is accusing her of lying.

  • Transcendence: he attributes his misconduct to having come “under attack” when he arrived at Morningstar in 2021. That led to him succumbing to temptations.

  • Confessing to a minimized offense: He attributes the temptations in part to being alone with a woman not his wife. This is a common tactic by ministers caught in these scandals: they appeal to the Billy Graham Rule. Except that Jesus, and arguably Paul, did not adhere to such a rule, and yet they did not violate women. The Billy Graham Rule was part of the Modesto Manifesto, crafted by Billy Graham and his associates in the wake of other high-profile ministerial sex scandals at the time: it was not designed to keep ministers from “falling into sin”, but rather to avoid even the appearance of impropriety. But Reed is effectively blaming Kathryn for his failure to control his own lusts.

Ultimately, while Reed’s apology seems sincere in many respects, he takes away from it by engaging in minimization tactics.

Still, I won’t say that he isn’t sincere. I would say, however, that he has some ownership issues.

It is my opinion that Chris Reed is not fit for church office at this time.

And given the nature of his offense—he took sexual liberties with a woman under his care—it would be hard to argue that he can surmount the “above reproach” requirement of 1 Timothy 3.