Pastor Who Admitted to ‘Sexual Incident’ With Student 20 Years Ago Resigns

A Memphis, Tennessee, megachurch pastor whose congregation applauded him in January after he admitted that he had engaged in a “sexual incident” with a high school student in 1998 resigned from the church this week.

The decision by the pastor, Andy Savage, 42, came on the same day that Highpoint Church said it had completed a two-month investigation into his past and found no other cases of suspected abuse. But church leaders also said that while Savage had disclosed the episode with the woman, Jules Woodson, when he was hired in 2002, they had not been told the full story.

“Before employing Andy Savage, the church leadership was informed of his past with Jules Woodson, and we understood that it had been thoroughly addressed at the time,” the church said in a statement. “We have since learned that this was not the case.”

On the heels of the #MeToo movement, Woodson came forward with her story in a blog post in January about when she said she was 17 and Savage was a youth pastor at a church outside Houston. One night in 1998, she wrote, Savage offered to drive her home from the church but first took her to a wooded area off a dirt road and had her perform oral sex on him.

A few minutes later, Savage broke down, ran to the other side of his parked truck and apologized to her, Woodson said in an interview with The New York Times in January. Afterward, an associate pastor at the Houston-area church urged her to stay quiet, and police were not informed, she said.

In separate statements posted Tuesday on the church’s website, both Savage and Highpoint leaders apologized to Woodson, a stark reversal from when the church stood by Savage in January.

On the Sunday after she published her blog post, Savage and Highpoint’s lead pastor, Chris Conlee, addressed their congregation during a church service, saying that Savage’s relationship had been consensual, that they handled the aftermath of the episode in a “biblical way” and that he, too, was a victim in the “sexual incident.”

The church’s response to Woodson’s allegations, along with video Highpoint posted online of the congregation giving Savage a standing ovation after his admission, was widely criticized. Highpoint then placed Savage on leave while it opened an investigation, and the video was taken down.

On Tuesday, Highpoint leaders said the church would “develop a deeper understanding of an appropriate, more compassionate response to victims of abuse.”

Savage also acknowledged that his initial response was wrong and that Woodson “deserved and did not get a full investigation and proper response 20 years ago.”

“When Jules cried out for justice, I carelessly turned the topic to my own story of moral change, as if getting my own life in order should help to make up for what she went through and continues to go through,” Savage, who did not return a call seeking comment Wednesday, said in a statement. “I have come to see that many wrongs occurred in 1998.”

Woodson said on Wednesday that Savage’s resignation was “a step in the right direction” and a “wake-up call for everyone.” In a statement, she added, “There is a systemic problem within the institution of the church that props people up in places of power and gives them immunity based on cheap grace and a call for forgiveness.”

Earlier this month, Woodson spoke at length about the church’s response in a video produced by the Opinion section of The New York Times. She was filmed as she watched a clip of Savage from the January church service.

“In their eyes, it was a consensual sexual sin,” Woodson said. “It is unfathomable to me that the secular world, Hollywood, are taking a stand. The church should have been the first group to stand up and say they will not allow this.”

The Montgomery County Constable’s Office outside Houston said in January that it had opened an investigation into the alleged 1998 assault and spoke with Woodson but determined that the statute of limitations had passed.