PENSACOLA (FL)
The Roys Report [Chicago IL]
April 30, 2025
By Rebecca Hopkins
Accusations and counter-accusations are ricocheting about charismatic circles after the release of an elders’ report that exonerated apologist Michael Brown this week.
It effectively dampened a months-long investigation that concluded Brown engaged in “sexually abusive misconduct.” Meanwhile, some Brown supporters have taken to social media to toss “spirit of Jezebel” and “cancel culture” accusations at Brown critics.
And Brown’s wife, Nancy, has spoken out publicly in support of her husband for the first time since an investigation started. She called accusations against her husband “vile” and asked God to reveal the truth for the sake of “GENUINE justice.”
The tense divisions among charismatics center on allegations that Brown swatted a former secretary’s rearend, kissed her, held her hand, and allowed her to sit on his lap in the early 2000s. He was also accused of engaging in inappropriate communications with a married woman in 2001 and 2002.
The wide spectrum of responses to accusations against Brown points to an accepted culture of cover-up in charismatic circles, argued Bible teacher Mike Winger, who heads up the YouTube channel “Learn to Think Biblically.”
“This isn’t about some petty revenge or gossip, it’s about undoing the culture of cover up that is bringing unspeakable harm to the Body of Christ and is deeply ingrained in the charismatic movement,” Winger posted on X.
Brown, who now runs the North Carolina-based Line of Fire, was heading up the Fire School of Ministry in Pensacola, Florida at the time of the allegations.
Ron Cantor, a whistleblower and president of Messianic-themed Shelanu TV, posted on his website Wednesday a scathing 17-page rebuttal to the elders’ report. Cantor listed what he called false statements and broken promises by the elders.
“This is a massive breach of trust. . . .” Cantor wrote. “If there is anything we have learned in the past few years, it is that New Testament eldership today is not qualified to deal with allegations of sexual abuse on its own.”
Cantor, one-time friend to Brown, was one of multiple leaders and staff who attempted to confront Brown, but has recently spoken out against him. In response to Cantor’s and others’ concerns, Brown’s Line of Fire board in January commissioned former police chief Jim Holler of the investigative group Firefly to conduct a third-party investigation.
Brown has been telling people that Firefly’s report would exonerate him, Cantor wrote. Instead, Firefly concluded Brown had engaged in “sexually abusive misconduct.” Firefly also concluded that when confronted, Brown responded with a “calculated effort to evade accountability, suppress the allegations, and protect his ministry’s reputation.”
The Line of Fire board tasked a group of elders—one of which was Jonathan Bernis, a Line of Fire board member— with holding Brown accountable in response to the Firefly investigation. However, the elders’ report undermined Firefly’s investigation, praising much of Brown’s handling of the matter, and reinstating Brown to ministry.
Cantor suggested Brown himself may have written the report.
“This document was confusing and contradicted what we know to be fact,” Cantor wrote. “A friend asked ChatGPT if Dr. Brown wrote it, and it concluded that with 94% certainty, he had a major role.”
Cantor did not include any evidence to back up this accusation.
Both he and Joel Richardson, a New York Times best-selling author and Bible teacher, called for a retraction of the elders’ report.
“The truth has now emerged, and it demands action,” Richardson posted. “I urge the Line of Fire board to retract their stance, bar Brown from ministry, and amplify the voices of Sarah, former elders, staff, and students who have spoken out.”
Richardson added an appeal for Brown to stop serving in ministry.
“This minimization disregards the profound damage done to Sarah, who literally fled Dr. Brown’s abuse, left the ministry broken, her faith shattered,” Richardson wrote on X . “Brown’s sins—confirmed as predatory—disqualify him from ministry leadership.”
Brown’s supporters criticize whistleblowers
However, heavy-hitting charismatic leaders attacked the whistleblowers and watchdog organizations.
“Beware the spirit of Jezebel that weaponizes accusation,” wrote the elders of the Fort Worth-based Mercy Culture Church, on the church’s Instagram page. Comments were turned off. “They are not preserving righteousness; they are spreading division. They are not restoring the church; they are attempting to tear it down.”
Landon Schott, pastor of Mercy Culture, recently led a standing ovation of Brown at a conference, calling the accusations against Brown “gossip and slander.” Brown is listed as an apostolic elder at Mercy Culture.
(Schott has also previously called The Roys Report’s(TRR) journalist Julie Roys a “wolf” and “in sin” for publishing an article reporting on Schott calling Mercy Culture’s neighbors “witches” and “warlocks.”)
On Monday, former Trump prophet Jeremiah Johnson posted on Facebook, with comments turned off, praise for the “seasoned elders” and their report on Brown and called those who criticized Brown online “kangaroo courts.”
“The unbelievable slander, false accusations, fabricating and exaggeration of stories, hellacious reporting full of lies and deceit going around social media is evil and I sincerely pray many people repent,” Johnson wrote. “I will continue to stand for justice and will use my voice to confront abuse in the body of Christ, but I will also continue to speak out against ‘kangaroo courts’ who are spreading massive division and ungodliness in the Lord’s body.”
Brown’s wife speaks out
The elders’ report said that Nancy Brown’s testimony wasn’t included in Firefly’s report and encouraged her to write a response. She did so, and Johnson reposted her statement on Facebook, with comments turned off.
Her husband’s treatment of Monk was “foolish and irresponsible” but also “innocent,” Nancy Brown wrote. She also denied that Brown is a predator.
“(T)he way he has been portrayed on social media is absolutely sickening (to put it very mildly) . . . and it is a complete fantasy,” she wrote. “I must state here categorically and in no uncertain terms; Mike is not, and has never been a sexual predator, groomer, or deviant nor has he EVER exploited a single human being for his own personal gain or ego whether it be physical, mental, emotional or spiritual. That is not who he is and never who he was.”
Nancy Brown called the 47-page Firefly report of eyewitness reports of Brown’s behavior “unsubstantiated.”
“I can only say that so many of these accusations and accounts are categorically untrue, yet the publishing of them has succeeded in conveying a completely false narrative . . . completely,” she wrote. “There has been a relentless pursuit and orchestration to smear and then not only rewrite history, but create new history, which has no basis in truth or fact.”
*Correction: Joel Richardson was never a leader at the International House of Prayer in Kansas City as the article initially stated.