Christian Author Philip Yancey Admits To 8-Year Affair And Announces Retirement
Popular Christian writer Philip Yancey has confessed to “a sinful affair with a married woman” that lasted eight years.
“I have failed morally and spiritually,” Yancey said in an email to Christianity Today published on Jan. 6. “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.”
The 76-year-old author of “What’s So Amazing About Grace?” and “Where Is God When It Hurts?” said he would not share more details about the adultery out of concern for the privacy of the other family. Yancey said his actions “caused deep pain” for his wife, the other person’s husband and both families.
Yancey did not elaborate on the other woman’s relationship to him or whether she worked with him in any capacity.
“I grieve over the devastation I have caused,” Yancey wrote. “I am now focused on rebuilding trust and restoring my marriage.”
The evangelical magazine also published a note from Yancey’s wife, Janet, provided by Yancey. The statement said she is devastated and feels deeply betrayed but is committed to maintaining their marriage.
Janet Yancey said she hoped she could forgive her husband, “despite my unfathomable trauma,” and asked for prayer.
Many of Yancey’s longtime readers reacted to the news online with horror and pain.
“This grieves my heart,” a Free Will Baptist pastor from Tennessee posted on X.
“I have no stones to throw, just a sinking sense of lament and sorrow,” a discipleship pastor at a nondenominational church in Missouri said. “The scourge of sin leaves such deep wounds. Lord have mercy.”
On Facebook, a Bible teacher in North Carolina posted a crying emoji and a broken heart emoji.
“The devil is a liar, man, and he’s coming after you,” the teacher said.
Yancey will retire
Yancey told CT, where he worked for decades as a columnist and editor at large, that he believes his sin has disqualified him from ministry. Now that he’s confessed, he will also retire.
At the time that CT published news of his confession, he was scheduled to speak at a church in California. Yancey was also working on another book — this one about writing. He has written more than 30 books, and 17 million copies of his work are currently in print.
John Armstrong, author of “Can a Fallen Pastor Be Restored?,” told The Roys Report (TRR) that Yancey’s confession and his decision to step away from ministry was admirable.
“The only thing that troubled me is he used the word ‘retired,’” Armstrong said. “Most retirees are still doing things, sometimes in the field that they worked in. I don’t think he left himself a loophole, but the word ‘retired’ was not a good choice.”
Armstrong said that after confession, it’s important that Christian leaders who have disqualified themselves from ministry take the time to address what happened, how it happened and patterns of behavior.
“I’m looking for not just honesty,” Armstrong said, “but accountability.”
Yancey told CT he is committed to professional counseling and an accountability program. He will no longer write, post on social media or speak publicly.
In 2023, Yancey announced he was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease. He wrote that he was being forced to reckon with new limitations and think about his own mortality.
“My future is full of question marks,” he wrote at the time. “May I be a faithful steward of this latest chapter.”
Final books include memoir and work on 17th century poet
In the last few years, Yancey has published a well-regarded memoir and a book on the devotional poetry of John Donne.
Yancey said he hoped the 17th century poet, who wrote in England during a time of bubonic plague, would offer timeless wisdom on “how to live and how to die.” Donne had a conversion experience as a young man and wrote movingly about his love for God, as well as his sexual experiences.
Yancey wrote about sexual sin a few times himself. In 2017, around the time he says he began having an extramarital affair, he published a piece on his blog about the proper Christian understanding of sex.
He said sex should point people to God and carries a “rumor of transcendence.” That spiritual potency is part of why sexual ethics are so important in Christian teaching, according to Yancey.
“This most human act hints at the nature of spiritual reality,” he wrote. “No amount of immediate pleasure can silence the nagging sense that naked intimacy should involve more than body parts.”
This article was originally published in The Roys Report.
Daniel Silliman is senior reporter/editor at The Roys Report. He began his two decades in journalism covering crime in Atlanta and has since led major investigations into abuse and misconduct in Christian contexts. Daniel and his wife live in Johnson City, Tennessee.