FirstLadyB | Connecting Faith and Hollywood
In the midst of Bill Hybels facing new allegations of sexual abuse, lead teaching Pastor, Steve Carter announced his resignation Sunday over disagreement with how the church handled the sexual misconduct allegations against Hybels.
Former assistant, Pat Baranowski alleges in an article featured in Sunday’s New York Times that the former mega church Pastor first assaulted her in 1986.
Once, while Mr. Hybels’s wife, Lynne, and their children were away, the pastor took Ms. Baranowski out for dinner. When they got home, Mr. Hybels offered her a back rub in front of the fireplace and told her to lie face down.
Stunned, she remembered feeling unable to say no to her boss and pastor as he straddled her, unhooked her bra and touched her near her breasts. She remembered feeling his hands shake.
That first back rub in 1986 led to multiple occasions over nearly two years in which he fondled her breasts and rubbed against her. The incidents later escalated to one occasion of oral sex. Ms. Baranowski said she was mortified and determined to stay silent.
Hybels has denied her allegations about her time working and living with him. “I never had an inappropriate physical or emotional relationship with her before that time, during that time or after that time,” he said in an email.
Pastor Carter shared his reason behind resigning from Willow Creek on his website:“The new facts and allegations that came to light this morning are horrifying, and my heart goes out to Ms. Baranowski and her family for the pain they have lived with. These most recent revelations have also compelled me to make public my decision to leave, as much as it grieves me to go,” he wrote.
Hybels resigned as the head Pastor of Willow Creek back in April amid a cloud of misconduct allegations involving women in his congregation.
