Two years after first reporting on Clayton Jennings’ betrayal of ministerial trust, spiritual abuse and sexual use of his followers, and one year after the last article we published on the subject, Jennings began to unravel on social media the weekend before last. Driving across the country with my children, I began to receive texts warning me that Jennings had (A) threatened to come to Montana and kill me and (B) threatened to ‘dox’ the young women who came forward.
Desiring to keep the identities of the women private, because I believe them to be victims of clergy sexual misconduct (or just general scumbaggery, if that’s an easier term), before I published the info two years ago I first sent it to Pirate Christian Radio and certain other evidence to Christian News Network and Julie Anne Smith, an abuse survivor blogger at the Spiritual Sounding Board so that if necessary, they could speak up and say they had seen the uncensored evidence also. So if this is conspiratorial, as Jennings supposes, there’s a lot of people in this conspiracy.
I texted Clayton before I published my first victim testimony, and told him I had an accusation against him. This is not the first time I told Clayton I suspected he was using his ministry platform to lead women astray, but it was the first time I had more evidence than “just” a woman’s testimony. The evidence included text messages, an audio recording that included (among other things) his confession and apology for certain of the woman’s accusations, and additional corroborating facts from other individuals. Then I asked Clayton for his father’s phone number (since he’s his pastor) because I had a ‘charge to bring against him,’ which is parlance in Christian-speak for following Matthew 18 (how the Bible tells us to handle accusations of sin).
When I spoke to Clayton’s father, he was dismissive. He was evasive. And yet we had his father (and pastor) on audio, having heard about Clayton’s sexual immorality and admission to such while an evangelist and while being licensed in the gospel ministry by his church.
Eventually, it was necessary to release this information to the elders of Clayton’s church, who were able to revoke Clayton’s ministry license and, ultimately, find an amicable end to his father’s tenure at the church. Don Jennings’ stormed out of the church after having negotiated a golden parachute severance package, and formed a new church that would embrace his son.
Additionally, Penguin Books pulled his forthcoming book. Although, Clayton claimed it was only being delayed so it could be released with a forthcoming project and “big announcement,” that was a lie. That day never came.
Jennings had continued to promise his fans that his speaking gigs weren’t folding on him, but they were. Churches were canceling because they saw the evidence, and it was undeniable. And in spite of losing his “real life” support on the Christian lecture circuit, he kept his Instagram and Facebook followers who were enamored with his appearance, good looks, and charismatic personality.
Jennings has never admitted to any sin, whether to his fans, church, or public that wasn’t first published about in the pages of this blog. In fact, he has claimed that these were “lies,” yet, Jennings makes vague references to some nebulous shortcomings in his Spoken Word poems which he later refers back to as “confessions.”
During this period of time, many, many young women contacted Pulpit & Pen. We only published the stories from the women who (A) gave us permission, (B) gave us evidence, which we have retained in the event of future litigation and (C) promised in writing that their stories were accurate. We wanted to ensure that these were their words about Clayton and not our words.
Pulpit & Pen has never claimed in any blog post that Clayton “raped” anyone. Rather, we have repeatedly said that it is our religious opinion that it is literal abuse to misuse one’s position of public trust as a minister, as we stated in this post about his mentor publicly stating that Jennings had left the repentance and restoration process:
We persist in using the term victims to refer to the young women even though all of them have admitted openly the sinfulness of their own actions, because using one’s spiritual authority to entrap women in lust and then convince them that their actions are acceptable is not a harmless affair, but is abuse. Likewise, some of the women were first tempted to drunkenness that lowered their inhibitions, and all were the victims of lies and deceit in the “wooing” process.
Jennings’ ‘doxed’ the young women with their names, photos, and employer, last Sunday evening on Facebook that (inexplicably) hasn’t been removed for violating community standards. In no uncertain terms, he “slut-shamed” them, one by one. He was on Instagram telling one of the women (the only one who came forward by name) that he would release information about her if she didn’t recant her story. The best she could give him
His angry fit, however, will probably be his ultimate undoing. We were contacted by a Rabbi, with whom we had no personal, philosophical, or theological connection, who had provided counsel to four women who were recently abused by Jennings. The Rabbi wrote about it on his blog site, and he explained how Jennings sets the trap for the women on his radio show, which you can listen to here (the pertinent time stamp is the 9.30 mark, and the link is at the bottom of the page hyperlinked above).
The Rabbi shared that the women’s accounts are all
Other women have also reached out with their own stories about Jennings’ mistreatment since his meltdown and public doxing of the courageous young women. They are now coalescing together.
In Jennings’ mind, in spite of the testimony of each woman, these are not his victims. He did not abuse them, so he thinks. As he said in his doxing video, “I’m not a predator. I’m a player.” In Clayton’s mind, he is the victim.
Deplorably, in a recent Spoken Word video (in which he threatened me with personal violence again, said I didn’t have a d#$ and was a bi#$%), he referred to the victims as ‘former girlfriends.’ Most were not in ongoing relationships but were carried along by lies and misplaced trust for a single carnal purpose, and then disposed of.
In that same video, Jennings astonishingly admitted adultery during his marriage, following the pattern of the past. First, his sin is reported upon. Second, he admits to it,
Clayton lived a lie when he was an evangelist, while bedding girls between revival events.
Clayton lied to me when I asked him directly if he was abusing women in 2015, a year before I had the evidence in hand.
Clayton lied for two years about the nature of his sexual infidelity, only ‘confessing’ to nebulous failures.
Clayton blamed the women he abused and lied to. He projected them as promiscuous stalkers and alleged that they entrapped him.
The victims were threatened and
Clayton blamed the journalists (Seth Dunn and me) who reported the information, weaponizing his fans to come after our organization with death threats, texts of intimidation, thousands of angry messages, and false, de-bunked, slanderous and libelous accusations for which he’ll give an account.
Clayton blamed the church that disciplined him, calling them a cult.
Clayton blamed the elders who pulled his ministry license, claiming they were partial and biased.
Clayton blamed the media, like the Christian Post, Christian News Network, and Charisma Mag who reported the facts on the case (they all performed due dilligence and verified the story).
Clayton has even blamed his fans for leaving
Clayton blamed his daughter’s diabetes and the stress caused by his victims’ testimonies for his drug abuse (first reported by the Rabbi, then belatedly “confessed” to in a Spoken Word).
Clayton blamed his victims for the adultery he committed against his wife! In his mind, because we reported on his sexual immorality, it made him to be more sexually immoral and it’s our fault.
In recent days, Jennings has used an SEO tool to help bury the news reports on his scandals on Google. He has urged his fans to scrub his Wiki page.
He has threatened to dox women if they didn’t recant (and he has followed through). Plus, Clayton has teamed up with one of the only two disgraced evangelical celebrities I know of who tried to sue reporters for reporting their misdeeds (James MacDonald and Ergun Caner, both of whom lost in court). Caner is without a doubt the most infamous fraud in recent evangelical history (the term “Canerize,” a popular expression used to describe trying to scrub the Internet of negative reporting, is named after him), having manufactured an almost completely false life story to bolster his evangelical rise to stardom. The two disgraced celebrities – Jennings and Caner – have capitalized on the unfortunate and tragic death of Caner’s son five years ago and the diabetes of Clayton’s daughter and a heretofore unnamed, unspecified alleged reference to her in an unnamed, unspecified forum to weaponize a large Instagram and Facebook following against the reporters who exposed them. Sadly, both men seem to have stood by while the rumor grew that the young man was” bullied to death” because he was LGBT (the young man was not gay), in order to capitalize on Clayton’s LGBT fans who would be worked up into a frenzy by the notion.
Whether humorous or tragic (probably a little bit of both), Jennings is now trying to position himself as a champion for women and the “bullied,” which is as insanely self-unaware as if Bill Cosby tried to become a champion for sexual consent. This man has doxed, slut-shamed, attacked, intimidated, and further victimized these innocent women in just the last week. If he’s a champion of women and the bullied, I’m an Instagram model. It’s patently insane. He’s even tried desperately to get female leaders in the #churchtoo movement to support him in his crusade against his victims by hashtagging them on Twitter and begging for their support. Clayton Jennings is the walking epitome of clergy sexual misconduct, and in his head, he thinks he can swing that perception and rebrand himself a defender of women. It’s nuts.
Today, at 1:10 pm, I got a call from Lafayette, Indiana (telephone # 1(765) 426-0***). It was the second call from this number within the span of 20 minutes. I answered the phone.
The
I responded, “Why didn’t I block your number, moron?”
This is what happens when I respond by sheer instinct. However, after regaining my composure and speaking reasonably with the man, the conversation ended well, and it included an apology from the caller. He had questions, and I had answers.
Why didn’t you go to him directly instead of putting him on blast? I did. I spoke first to him privately, then his father, and then his elders. He ignored it. We followed Matthew 18.
Why don’t you stop talking about him? We haven’t written about him in a year.
It’s just your words against his, right? No. We have produced (and published) text messages. There’s audio. And finally, he admitted to the bulk of it recently but has claimed that the long line of women he has slept with were the aggressors.
Why did you attack his wife and baby? I did not do that. Do you notice how he hasn’t revealed any evidence of that? I suspect no one did.
Why don’t you just leave him alone? Because he’s still doing it to women and he needs to be stopped. Did you see the most recent articles?
Ultimately, the man apologized sincerely and hung up the phone. We now consider one another friends. The minds of many have been changed by the Pulpit & Pen admins in Messenger when they get sworn at with an F-bomb as a greeting and they respond kindly with a few links here and there pointing them to the evidence and full story. Many more times than not, the person who begins by swearing at us for “bullying an LGBT kid to suicide” or “hating LGBT people” or “demeaning women” (or whatever else Clayton is accusing us of) changes their mind with just a few links to the evidence. Truth is our ultimate defense. It’s also Clayton’s worst enemy.
New information on Clayton’s behavior is continually being collated, organized, and forwarded to where it needs to go. In the meantime, his attempt to scrub the internet by the use of SEO specialists shouldn’t go unchallenged. Here’s a list of just a few of the articles that include the information you need to make an informed decision.
First victim’s account of Jennings including sex, morning-after pill, texts, evidence…
FAQ on Jennings and new victims...
Jennings’ mentor announces Clayton left ‘restoration’ process…
Third victim comes out with evidence…
The first time he sent messages blackmailing his victims…
Penguin Book Publisher drops Jennings’ book (he denied it at the time)…
Clayton Jennings brags about his genitals, attacks victims in latest video…
Jennings denounced by elders and license revoked, he goes on to attack them…
A (then) full list of publications writing about Jennings’ victimization, with links…
Jennings celebrity friend and father help cover up his deeds, try to suppress release of info…
Jennings again attacks the church that defrocked him…
Reality star comes out about Jennings…
Moody radio apologizes for interviewing Jennings…
Jennings still speaking with major Christian leaders, Louie Giglio and Trip Lee…
After intimidating them for years, Jennings finally doxes his victims…
After doxing victims, counselor speaks out about new victims he’s intimidating as of mere weeks ago…
However, in conclusion, people want to know why we do this. Let me answer that concisely.
First, we do this because we passionately believe there is
Second, we do this because it is our firm opinion, given us by credible testimony, that Jennings’ behavior has continued long after our reporting stopped more than a year ago. That means women are currently in danger. Therefore, we desire to report the truth until women stop giving him their confidence.
Third, we are often told, “Just pray for him!” Please understand that we do pray for him. We are worried
When one of Clayton’s friends from Indiana, a real estate agent named Dustin Kelly (photo, above) unwisely tried to contact my wife on my cellular phone – which is just one of the many things Jennings’ and his followers have done to legitimately harass my family – I caught him and posted the screenshots in our Facebook group as a public shaming of sorts.
When Clayton texted to say he had nothing to do with his “homie” bringing my wife into it after I publicly posted these screenshots, I responded by telling Clayton to call me because I wanted to offer him some help. I was going to encourage him to go into rehab and seek professional treatment. The point is, we are genuinely concerned for him. However, and make no mistake about this, we are more concerned about women who misplace their trust in someone who they believe is a conduit to God.
In the last few months, Jennings has taken ‘evangelist’ off his Facebook and Instagram profiles. In the last year, Jennings has repeatedly said he’s leaving religion. In the last few weeks, Jennings has said he never wants to step back into a “religious church” again.
If Jenning fully recognizes himself as apostate and stops using Jesus’ name to lure unsuspecting women to the bedroom, we are happy to let him do whatever it is that two consenting lost people do. However, if he continues to use his platform as a religious leader to lead astray women enamored by his perceived spiritual authority and personal charisma, only to go on to further abuse and intimidate them, Pulpit & Pen will be right here where we’ve always been, helping his victims and reporting the facts.
Each day or so, I do a Facebook live video from the P&P page and put Clayton Jennings in the title. It is, admittedly, click bait. I don’t receive money from FB videos. I am clickbaiting the titles because of the thousands of Clayton Jennings followers who come to our page to attack me or Clayton’s victims. Instead of talking about Clayton Jennings, I share the Gospel. My prayer is that many thousands might come to Christ and those who – like Paul – are “breathing out murderous threats,” might come to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ.
[Editor’s Note: ATTN Clayton fans…If you want to know where the evidence is, click the hyperlinks. They’re the words in different colors on your browser]
UPDATE
In Jennings’ “Spoken Word” poem on March 13, Jennings called his victims “sluts” and “bitches.” He admitted (again) to adultery, which he only confessed after our reporting, but blamed his fornication on the negative reporting about him. He also made a new admission, which is that after he confessed adultery to his wife, he recently engaged in illicit relationships in which nude photos were involved, which was first reported by the Rabbi who came out several weeks ago on behalf of the women (above). Ironically, in spite of speaking of women this way, and in spite of his clear attempt to intimidate women who have yet come forward except through their counselor, and in spite of referring to the reporters who covered the story with seemingly endless profanity and vulgarity, Jennings continues to project himself as someone standing up for bullies and women.
Jennings also made overtures to the LGBT and Muslims, “repenting” for saying harsh things about both groups in previous poems. Apparently, Jennings is looking for a new fan base. Jennings also came close to
If Jennings is no longer a minister (which is good), we expect him no longer take advantage of the title for the purpose of his taxes or non-profit status and we expect him to stop using the term ‘ministry’ to refer to his poetry and online-sales enterprise.
