Early this week, following Doug Phillips' resignation from his position as a board member and as president of Vision Forum Ministries, the Vision Forum Board of Directors announced its decision to discontinue operations.
In a statement published to the ministry's website, Doug explains the reason for his resignation:
There has been serious sin in my life for which God has graciously brought me to repentance. I have confessed my sin to my wife and family, my local church, and the board of Vision Forum Ministries. I engaged in a lengthy, inappropriate relationship with a woman. While we did not “know” each other in a Biblical sense, it was nevertheless inappropriately romantic and affectionate.
There are no words to describe the magnitude of shame I feel, or grief from the injury I caused my beloved bride and children, both of whom have responded to my repentance with what seems a supernatural love and forgiveness. I thought too highly of myself and behaved without proper accountability. I have acted grievously before the Lord, in a destructive manner hypocritical of life messages I hold dear, inappropriate for a leader, abusive of the trust that I was given, and hurtful to family and friends.
My church leadership came alongside me with love and admonition, providing counsel, strong direction and accountability. Where I have directly wronged others, I confessed and repented. I am still in the process of trying to seek reconciliation privately with people I have injured, and to be aware of ways in which my own selfishness has hurt family and friends. I am most sensitive to the fact that my actions have dishonored the living God and been shameful to the name of Jesus Christ, my only hope and Savior.
This is a time when my repentance needs to be proven, and I need to lead a quiet life focusing on my family and serving as a foot soldier, not a ministry leader. Though I am broken over my failures, I am grateful to be able to spend more time with my family, nurturing my wife and children and preparing my older sons and daughters for life. So, for these reasons I want to let my friends know that I have stepped down as a board member and as president of Vision Forum Ministries. The Board will be making provision for the management of the ministry during this time. To the friends of this ministry, I ask for your forgiveness, and hope that you will pray for the Phillips family at this time..."
The Duggars are not directly involved in Vision Forum Ministries, although they have been guest speakers at several conferences sponsored by Vision Forum over the years.
In a statement published to the ministry's website, Doug explains the reason for his resignation:
There has been serious sin in my life for which God has graciously brought me to repentance. I have confessed my sin to my wife and family, my local church, and the board of Vision Forum Ministries. I engaged in a lengthy, inappropriate relationship with a woman. While we did not “know” each other in a Biblical sense, it was nevertheless inappropriately romantic and affectionate.
There are no words to describe the magnitude of shame I feel, or grief from the injury I caused my beloved bride and children, both of whom have responded to my repentance with what seems a supernatural love and forgiveness. I thought too highly of myself and behaved without proper accountability. I have acted grievously before the Lord, in a destructive manner hypocritical of life messages I hold dear, inappropriate for a leader, abusive of the trust that I was given, and hurtful to family and friends.
My church leadership came alongside me with love and admonition, providing counsel, strong direction and accountability. Where I have directly wronged others, I confessed and repented. I am still in the process of trying to seek reconciliation privately with people I have injured, and to be aware of ways in which my own selfishness has hurt family and friends. I am most sensitive to the fact that my actions have dishonored the living God and been shameful to the name of Jesus Christ, my only hope and Savior.
This is a time when my repentance needs to be proven, and I need to lead a quiet life focusing on my family and serving as a foot soldier, not a ministry leader. Though I am broken over my failures, I am grateful to be able to spend more time with my family, nurturing my wife and children and preparing my older sons and daughters for life. So, for these reasons I want to let my friends know that I have stepped down as a board member and as president of Vision Forum Ministries. The Board will be making provision for the management of the ministry during this time. To the friends of this ministry, I ask for your forgiveness, and hope that you will pray for the Phillips family at this time..."
The Duggars are not directly involved in Vision Forum Ministries, although they have been guest speakers at several conferences sponsored by Vision Forum over the years.
How sad! I love this ministry and all the wholesome toys, books and entertainment it provided. I pray that someone can reproduce all the items and out reach ministries that this one did. This should remind us how human we are and how vulnerable our sin nature is, and how much we need God on a daily basis. Prayers for this family and there recovery.
ReplyDeleteSuch a sad thing! I've always loved Vision Forum. :(
ReplyDeleteAre they still going to sell all of those books, audios, movies, and cds on their website? Or are they going to shut it down? Where you can't buy things on there anymore? So are they going to eventually have the different conferences again? I hope that they will do the Father/Daughter Conference again in the future. I went to it with my two my sisters three years ago and it was a really great bonding time for us.
ReplyDeleteI will be praying for you and your family!
Deletegod bless u for being obediene, the bible says he is faithful to forgive our sins if we confessto him. Plus he removes them as far as the east is to the west n REMEMEBERS THEM KNOW MORE!!!!!!!, WHAT A LOVING GOD WE SERVE. We will be praying for you
ReplyDeleteThe ministry did not produce the toys, books, and such. That is the business: Vision Forum, which is still open last I checked.
ReplyDeleteI so agree with the first anonymous comment. So sad, but such poignant reminder of how vulnerable we are and how much we dearly need to cling to Jesus Christ on a daily basis.
ReplyDeleteActually what is really sad is that in his statement, Doug never directly apologizes to the thousands of people who he deceived on a daily basis while committing his "serious sin." There were so many folks & families who faithfully watched and listened to this man, supported him and VF both with their words & finances only to have him leave them until the very end, NOT apologizing, but only asking for forgiveness of the "friends" of the "ministry". He asks for prayer for his own family, but not for the thousands who may struggle with coming to terms with a spiritual leader, if you will, having betrayed their minds & hearts. No one is perfect, everyone does & will sin, but his statement does not feel genuine to me in any sense of the word and actually comes off as rather self-centered, as he rambles on about the many personal effects of his "sin", or rather dare I say trying to explain away the oops now that I got caught.
ReplyDeleteI do wonder if people would be so forgiving and understanding if it was Doug's wife that had an extramarrital affair instead of him.
ReplyDelete@ ginger, it was vision forum ministries that sold those items, I've purchased from that website before. Not only that, some of their 'radio dramas' have been heavily discounted at www.christianbook.com. That says to me they are trying to sell off their stock before their doors close.
ReplyDeleteThank you for your honesty.We are praying for you!God Bless Your Family!
ReplyDeleteits not my place to judge or comment, he will meet his maker..
ReplyDeleteThe thing that bothers me the most about this is not what Doug Phillips did. It is that Josh's organization today put out the quote "Let us turn aside for a moment from the hilarity of Bill Clinton lecturing his successor — or anybody else–about honor." They did this knowing they could replace the name Bill Clinton with Doug Phillips. This is my problems with the Duggars, "do as I say as not as I do" seems to be a theme. And Josh admitted the show is edited as in he said, "We have very good editors," when someone asks about misbehaving, etc. Talk about phony. This is it.
ReplyDeleteThis is so sad, disappointing, and shocking. Thank you for posting this. Remember to keep this family in our prayers
ReplyDeleteSince this cult believes men are God's to women, I find it ironic in Phillip's "apology," he fails to mention how many women he mislead and how many heads he has messed up. He says, "I have confessed my sin to my wife and family, my local church, and the board of Vision Forum Ministries." What about the other woman (women)? How about all of us praying for this (these) victim (victims)? She (they) deserve the most prayers out of anybody.
ReplyDeleteClarification on Resignation
ReplyDeleteby Douglas Phillips, Esq., November 14, 2013
I would like to express my gratitude for the great kindness so many have shown to my family in the wake of my stepping down as president of Vision Forum Ministries. My family has been greatly encouraged by many loving notes we have received. With that in mind, I want to be so very clear about the rightness of this transition, and I want to clear up some matters which have been brought to my attention. My sin has resulted in great pain within the Body of Christ, some confusion, and has given the enemies of God reason to rejoice. This is heartbreaking to me. Some have suggested that my sin was not sufficiently serious to step down. Let me be clear: it absolutely does merit my resignation. My resignation is sincere and necessary given the weightiness of my sin. Some reading the words of my resignation have questioned if there was an inappropriate physical component with an unmarried woman. There was, and it was intermittent over a period of years. The local church, not the Internet, is the proper forum for overseeing the details of a man’s repentance, but I just want to be clear for the sake of peace within the Body of Christ, that the tragic events we are experiencing, including the closing of Vision Forum Ministries are my fault, and that I am sincere that I should not be in leadership, but must spend this season of my life quietly walking a path of proven repentance. Please pray for the Phillips family, the Board, and the men who have made up the staff of Vision Forum Ministries.
Doug Phillips
Please remember to keep the young woman that was exploited in your prayers. She is the one that needs your prayers most of all. It is absolutely amazing to me that she is being ignored in prayer requests.
ReplyDeleteWhat about the young woman's recovery? This makes me so mad. I say again, what about prayers for this young woman's recovery?
ReplyDeleteWhy are prayers for the young woman missing in all these posts?
ReplyDelete@Mmolesy
ReplyDeleteIf you go to Vision Forum Minstries(.com), there is no links to shop. The products are on VisionForum.com, not Vision Forum Minstries.com.
I love you and your family very much. Mr. Phillips you will forever have my respect and forgiveness. I am thankful for you and your family. May God's blessing be upon your life. Elizabeth(Germanie)
ReplyDeleteWe (www.hungryfishmedia.org) will attempt to pick up the slack that is now left due to Vision Forum Ministries closing its doors. Our first event will be held on the outskirts of San Antonio, Texas February 21-23, 2014. Please pray that God uses us to fill the void.
ReplyDeleteEveryone makes mistakes an no one is totally free of sin in their lives. It is nice to see a public apology but in my heart I don't feel they are necessary.. God your wife an family an the other woman an anyone hurt by her actions are the only ones you need to be truly sorry to an also ask forgiveness from..
ReplyDeleteWhile repentance and apology are well and good, nowhere did he apologize to the woman he mistreated. He didn't apologize for her ruined reputation. The emotional damage/PTSD she will suffer. The trust issues she will likely have.
ReplyDeleteIt's sad that your ministry had to close down forever because of this, but sadder still that you think asking your wife's forgiveness, and not that of the victim, is enough of an apology.
Ask Jesus for forgiveness first. Then ask the person you have faulted for forgiveness and then try to do right by them and Jesus. Make amends fully, and learn, and then purpose yourself towards preventing similar situations from happening to other young women across the globe by teaching the laws of consent.
I am disturbed to read some of the negative comments about Doug Phillips and his ministry as well as criticism of his actions in repentance. I find it disconcerting that there are some immediate assumptions that appear to be made in regards to his "inappropriate relationship." There are some who appear to assume that the woman involved is somehow innocent and less responsible for her actions, that the woman is the "victim." This goes right along with feminist propaganda. Feminists want "equality" for women but as soon as something goes wrong it is always the man's fault and the fault of the "patriarchy." As the bible says, men and woman are equally sinful, we are all sinful as human beings. We don't know all the details of what happened so these assumptions are dangerous. What is clear about this situation is that the enemy has been lying in wait to look for any opportunity to try to bring down a wonderful and godly organization founded on biblical principles. Vision Forum is one of the most impressive organizations that I have seen in regards to speaking the truth about God's design for marriage and the family. My heartfelt prayer is that their ministry work can continue in the future.
ReplyDeleteI am very disturbed to read this sad news. I thought that great leaders were immuned to such sin and yet they are the most targeted of the devil. I just think the woman was attractive beyond his control and she created the environment to pull him down and his testimony.
ReplyDeleteShe succeeded. Devil's advocate was she. Why doesn't she apologize for the wrong she has done to this family?
We all are sinful and those that criticized siverely above might not have had the courage and humility to publicly admitting and apologizing. I think that takes a great courage especially it is greatly humiliating in front of his children.
Be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about seeking whom he may devour. 1 Peter 5:8
Let ujs be sober and examine ourselves before criticizing an unfortunate defeated leader.