Many years ago, I heard an LCMS pastor say something alone the lines of: "while God does forgive our sins because of the work of Jesus Christ, and when it comes to our relatoinship with Him, our sins are as far from us as the east is from the west, that does not mean that He always takes away the consequences of our sins in this life. We are also told in the 8th Commandment that when we speak of others, we are to do so "in the kindest way."
The "statement" Erik Herrmann pulbished and emailed to many late last week brings a lot of issues to the surface, some of which are addressed in this article. One issue, and one person, that isn't is the other party in this situation: Jill Wilson.
Jill has freely confessed to her sin in this situation. Dr. Herrmann has successfully taken her voice away with the defamation suit, and the legal remedy that was settled upon. She has the right for people to allow her to move on with her marriage and her life as a forgiven, redeemed child of God without having her name continually be brought up in articles such as these.
The focus of the issue this article addresses should be on Dr. Herrmann. In particular, the reality his statement expresses: he does not seem to understand the concept that there are consequences to our sin that we don't always get to escape in this life. In this case, he should not expect with this pubic knowledge (and his own confession in his statement of a sinful, adulterous affair) to ever again be put into a position of public ministry. I would everyone reading this would agree this would and should permanently bar him from ever serving in ordained ministry again. But it is more than reasonable to also expect that this would also preclude him from service in another institution of the wider church (LCMS or beyond) that is tasked with the formation of clergy or other professional church workers.
Instead, it appears Dr. Herrmann wants to, indirectly, lay the blame on Jill Wilson and not accept the reality of the consequences of his own sin, which brings into question the sincereity of his "repentance" and amendment of life.
At this point, if we're even going to give this topic any further attention, the focus needs to be on Dr. Herrmann, not Jill Wilson. To speak of this situation in the kindest way, we simply need to let her, her husband, and their family live their lives, and let this issue die.
That's well said. I believe this report tilts in the direction you talk of.
It is alarming that Herrmann's statement is not, in any familiar sense, a confession and a plea for forgiveness and reconciliation. Where he deploys Scripture, it is to make himself the main character in two parables that cast him as the sufferer: the prodigal in the earlier phase and the man beaten and left on the roadside in the later.
Compare his statement with that of another pastor caught in the same vice:
It is a lesson for all our pastors and teachers of the church - the office and everything attached and associated with it is forfeited by the sin. No more books, no more church lectures and seminars, no more teaching, no more preaching, no more blogs, no more recognition of your prior gifts... Come and sit in the pews with the other sheep and receive God's good gifts so that your soul is not forfeit also. Losing a pulpit is nothing compared with eternal damnation.
I suppose my contrarian nature will once again command a response that may not be well received.
You were exactly spot on to remind readers of the true nature of repentance: "The last thing the church needs is performative communal processing of shame and the rapid reintegration that results from misguided and misapplied ‘gospelly’ empathy. Indeed, we should be highly suspicious of pastors who do not process their shame in remote, prolonged solitude. Not exiled, just managed with extreme judiciousness, with equal doses of law and gospel." Well said.
I don't desire to continue to stir this pot, but there are valuable lessons in properly applying the third use of the law for all of us, men AND women alike. Jill Wilson's post on her substack this week (https://jillszoowilson.com/2026/07/04/the-cost-of-silence-the-courage-to-speak/) is hardly one characterized by remorse and shame. To this reader's interpretation, it is intensely "gospelly" and intentionally deflective of any true remorse for even the untruths she has admitted on the record. It reeks of the feminist gospel ravaging the church that women are always ultimately victims and, to the extent any wrong was done on her part, it was due to some form of overpowering manipulation. She proudly talks about speaking out and telling her truth, even though the implication is that she was forced into silence.
So isn't there shame to process in her part of the sin? Is the man the only one to be (rightly) held to this standard of prolonged solitude? There's no hint of such remorse that stands out as a central theme in her statement. It's over. She's done. She's been forgiven. Let's don't dwell on the personal damage she has wrought.
I'm reminded of an old friend of mine who was ordained in the Catholic Church years ago. He recalls, perhaps tongue in cheek, that his spiritual father cautioned him to only confess children in his first year as a new priest. In the second year he was advised to add men to his regular confessional duties, but to wait until at least the third year before hearing women's sins. When asked by my friend the reason for this advice he was told "because women never do anything wrong."
We've got a real problem in the Western Church around the whole issue of women and their roles. I'm not being flippant here, but ask yourself "when was the last time I heard a sermon addressing the specific sins of women?" (We hear lots of them about men and their well-earned opprobrium). It just doesn't happen with women. Preachers of all stripes instinctively know that there would be a huge price to pay in their congregations for opening Pandora's special container. Feminist dogma only reinforces this angst.
You're spot on about the special status of a pastor and the high standard we should hold them to. But that can't mean women are held to no standard at all or that they get a free pass on shame and guilt. Our culture proclaims that the "fairer sex" has for eons been accused and trampled under patriarchal dominance/interpretation. The scripture plainly says that "ALL have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God." Our reluctance to solemnly apply the law's third use to women is simply making cultural impacts in Christian life worse rather than better. We're all called to a high standard of holiness and it's time we started acting like we know what that looks like.
You're tag line that hell has no fury like a woman scorned is not just poetry. Any man older than 20 years of age knows this to be true. But is that response in keeping with Christ's teachings? When wronged (even by a man), what is a woman's best Christ-like response? Well, we don't really talk about it, do we?
A few thoughts from a woman’s point of view of this article, and the issues you raise within its context.
I would think the reason for the wider church’s heavier focus on the damage done to the church body by the pastor’s grievous sin of adultery, than the sins of the lay woman also guilty of adultery and lying, is that the pastor’s sins cause more damage to the church at large, by virtue of the role/office he holds in the church, as noted in the article, and as you also seemed to recognize. “Herrmann was grievously wronged, but he brought it upon himself and his family because, as a pastor, he had a higher duty and responsibility and was under stricter judgment.”
You suggested you hear a lot of sermons through which the law is preached about sins that are particularly committed by men, as opposed to women? I don’t remember hearing a sermon like that for over a decade; maybe longer, although I have vague memories of hearing maybe one like that a long time ago. In most of the sermons I hear where the law is preached in relation to specific sins, the specific sins addressed are plainly thought to be equally committed by males and females. I suspect almost every female hearing the sermons hears the law against any of those sins addressed specifically to them, as much as any male because I know I do. Actually, I hear more LCMS sermons criticizing primarily conservative “political“ values and positions on issues, as if conservative values were sins, and leftist values were God pleasing, than any other type of law preached in sermons lately.
The bottom line is, obviously the female in this piece caught in adultery and lying, committed grievous sins and her behavior is not something to emulate, but the Pastor’s grievous sin causes more widespread damage to the church at large because of the office he holds, so it stands to reason there would be greater focus on the damage he has caused.
We need to be on guard against cultivating the LCMS reputation for being ungracious toward our girls and ladies, with a hint of wanting them to be mere property or pets instead of souls who struggle with temptation, sin, and faith in similar yet different ways to men. The Bible has a ton of good things to say about women, and it would behoove our men to remember that women are the weaker vessel, which means they need careful handling and nurturing. The failings of women reflect those of the men entrusted to care for them.
Faith explicitly commended by Jesus
Matthew 15:28 – To the Canaanite woman: "great is your faith"
Mark 5:34 (paralleled in Luke 8:48) – To the woman healed of her bleeding: "your faith has made you well"
Luke 7:50 – To the woman who anointed his feet: "your faith has saved you; go in peace"
Matthew 26:6-13 / Mark 14:3-9 – Jesus says the woman who anointed him will be remembered wherever the gospel is preached
Luke 21:1-4 – The poor widow's offering praised above the wealthy givers'
Confessions and declarations of faith
John 11:27 – Martha's confession that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God
Luke 1:42, 45 – Elizabeth blesses Mary and praises her belief
Hebrews 11:11 – Sarah commended for faith to conceive in her old age
Hebrews 11:31 / James 2:25 – Rahab commended for faith and works in hiding the spies
Character and wisdom
Proverbs 31:10-31 – The capable wife, especially v.30: a woman who fears the Lord is praised
Ruth 3:11 – Boaz tells Ruth the whole town knows she is a woman of noble character
1 Samuel 25:32-33 – David blesses Abigail's discernment and good sense
Service and gifts in the early church
Romans 16:1-2 – Phoebe commended as a servant of the church at Cenchreae
Romans 16:3-4 – Priscilla praised alongside Aquila as fellow workers who risked their necks for Paul
Romans 16:6, 12 – Mary, Tryphena, Tryphosa, and Persis noted for their hard labor
Acts 9:36-39 – Tabitha (Dorcas), full of good works and acts of charity
Acts 16:14-15, 40 – Lydia, whose heart the Lord opened, and her household of faith
Acts 18:26 – Priscilla, with Aquila, explains the way of God more accurately to Apollos
Philippians 4:2-3 – Euodia and Syntyche, who labored side by side with Paul in the gospel
2 Timothy 1:5 – Timothy's faith traced to his grandmother Lois and mother Eunice
“Not exiled, just managed with extreme judiciousness, with equal doses of law and gospel." Who is in authority to do this within the structure of our church. Next, who are the men with wisdom to carry out such a task. Then, how public should the details be made known by which all are then judged by those not given the task to do so.
Many years ago, I heard an LCMS pastor say something alone the lines of: "while God does forgive our sins because of the work of Jesus Christ, and when it comes to our relatoinship with Him, our sins are as far from us as the east is from the west, that does not mean that He always takes away the consequences of our sins in this life. We are also told in the 8th Commandment that when we speak of others, we are to do so "in the kindest way."
The "statement" Erik Herrmann pulbished and emailed to many late last week brings a lot of issues to the surface, some of which are addressed in this article. One issue, and one person, that isn't is the other party in this situation: Jill Wilson.
Jill has freely confessed to her sin in this situation. Dr. Herrmann has successfully taken her voice away with the defamation suit, and the legal remedy that was settled upon. She has the right for people to allow her to move on with her marriage and her life as a forgiven, redeemed child of God without having her name continually be brought up in articles such as these.
The focus of the issue this article addresses should be on Dr. Herrmann. In particular, the reality his statement expresses: he does not seem to understand the concept that there are consequences to our sin that we don't always get to escape in this life. In this case, he should not expect with this pubic knowledge (and his own confession in his statement of a sinful, adulterous affair) to ever again be put into a position of public ministry. I would everyone reading this would agree this would and should permanently bar him from ever serving in ordained ministry again. But it is more than reasonable to also expect that this would also preclude him from service in another institution of the wider church (LCMS or beyond) that is tasked with the formation of clergy or other professional church workers.
Instead, it appears Dr. Herrmann wants to, indirectly, lay the blame on Jill Wilson and not accept the reality of the consequences of his own sin, which brings into question the sincereity of his "repentance" and amendment of life.
At this point, if we're even going to give this topic any further attention, the focus needs to be on Dr. Herrmann, not Jill Wilson. To speak of this situation in the kindest way, we simply need to let her, her husband, and their family live their lives, and let this issue die.
That's well said. I believe this report tilts in the direction you talk of.
It is alarming that Herrmann's statement is not, in any familiar sense, a confession and a plea for forgiveness and reconciliation. Where he deploys Scripture, it is to make himself the main character in two parables that cast him as the sufferer: the prodigal in the earlier phase and the man beaten and left on the roadside in the later.
Compare his statement with that of another pastor caught in the same vice:
https://web.archive.org/web/20251124021445/https://pettyfrance.wordpress.com/2025/11/17/a-letter-of-confession/
It is a lesson for all our pastors and teachers of the church - the office and everything attached and associated with it is forfeited by the sin. No more books, no more church lectures and seminars, no more teaching, no more preaching, no more blogs, no more recognition of your prior gifts... Come and sit in the pews with the other sheep and receive God's good gifts so that your soul is not forfeit also. Losing a pulpit is nothing compared with eternal damnation.
I suppose my contrarian nature will once again command a response that may not be well received.
You were exactly spot on to remind readers of the true nature of repentance: "The last thing the church needs is performative communal processing of shame and the rapid reintegration that results from misguided and misapplied ‘gospelly’ empathy. Indeed, we should be highly suspicious of pastors who do not process their shame in remote, prolonged solitude. Not exiled, just managed with extreme judiciousness, with equal doses of law and gospel." Well said.
I don't desire to continue to stir this pot, but there are valuable lessons in properly applying the third use of the law for all of us, men AND women alike. Jill Wilson's post on her substack this week (https://jillszoowilson.com/2026/07/04/the-cost-of-silence-the-courage-to-speak/) is hardly one characterized by remorse and shame. To this reader's interpretation, it is intensely "gospelly" and intentionally deflective of any true remorse for even the untruths she has admitted on the record. It reeks of the feminist gospel ravaging the church that women are always ultimately victims and, to the extent any wrong was done on her part, it was due to some form of overpowering manipulation. She proudly talks about speaking out and telling her truth, even though the implication is that she was forced into silence.
So isn't there shame to process in her part of the sin? Is the man the only one to be (rightly) held to this standard of prolonged solitude? There's no hint of such remorse that stands out as a central theme in her statement. It's over. She's done. She's been forgiven. Let's don't dwell on the personal damage she has wrought.
I'm reminded of an old friend of mine who was ordained in the Catholic Church years ago. He recalls, perhaps tongue in cheek, that his spiritual father cautioned him to only confess children in his first year as a new priest. In the second year he was advised to add men to his regular confessional duties, but to wait until at least the third year before hearing women's sins. When asked by my friend the reason for this advice he was told "because women never do anything wrong."
We've got a real problem in the Western Church around the whole issue of women and their roles. I'm not being flippant here, but ask yourself "when was the last time I heard a sermon addressing the specific sins of women?" (We hear lots of them about men and their well-earned opprobrium). It just doesn't happen with women. Preachers of all stripes instinctively know that there would be a huge price to pay in their congregations for opening Pandora's special container. Feminist dogma only reinforces this angst.
You're spot on about the special status of a pastor and the high standard we should hold them to. But that can't mean women are held to no standard at all or that they get a free pass on shame and guilt. Our culture proclaims that the "fairer sex" has for eons been accused and trampled under patriarchal dominance/interpretation. The scripture plainly says that "ALL have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God." Our reluctance to solemnly apply the law's third use to women is simply making cultural impacts in Christian life worse rather than better. We're all called to a high standard of holiness and it's time we started acting like we know what that looks like.
You're tag line that hell has no fury like a woman scorned is not just poetry. Any man older than 20 years of age knows this to be true. But is that response in keeping with Christ's teachings? When wronged (even by a man), what is a woman's best Christ-like response? Well, we don't really talk about it, do we?
A few thoughts from a woman’s point of view of this article, and the issues you raise within its context.
I would think the reason for the wider church’s heavier focus on the damage done to the church body by the pastor’s grievous sin of adultery, than the sins of the lay woman also guilty of adultery and lying, is that the pastor’s sins cause more damage to the church at large, by virtue of the role/office he holds in the church, as noted in the article, and as you also seemed to recognize. “Herrmann was grievously wronged, but he brought it upon himself and his family because, as a pastor, he had a higher duty and responsibility and was under stricter judgment.”
You suggested you hear a lot of sermons through which the law is preached about sins that are particularly committed by men, as opposed to women? I don’t remember hearing a sermon like that for over a decade; maybe longer, although I have vague memories of hearing maybe one like that a long time ago. In most of the sermons I hear where the law is preached in relation to specific sins, the specific sins addressed are plainly thought to be equally committed by males and females. I suspect almost every female hearing the sermons hears the law against any of those sins addressed specifically to them, as much as any male because I know I do. Actually, I hear more LCMS sermons criticizing primarily conservative “political“ values and positions on issues, as if conservative values were sins, and leftist values were God pleasing, than any other type of law preached in sermons lately.
The bottom line is, obviously the female in this piece caught in adultery and lying, committed grievous sins and her behavior is not something to emulate, but the Pastor’s grievous sin causes more widespread damage to the church at large because of the office he holds, so it stands to reason there would be greater focus on the damage he has caused.
We need to be on guard against cultivating the LCMS reputation for being ungracious toward our girls and ladies, with a hint of wanting them to be mere property or pets instead of souls who struggle with temptation, sin, and faith in similar yet different ways to men. The Bible has a ton of good things to say about women, and it would behoove our men to remember that women are the weaker vessel, which means they need careful handling and nurturing. The failings of women reflect those of the men entrusted to care for them.
Faith explicitly commended by Jesus
Matthew 15:28 – To the Canaanite woman: "great is your faith"
Mark 5:34 (paralleled in Luke 8:48) – To the woman healed of her bleeding: "your faith has made you well"
Luke 7:50 – To the woman who anointed his feet: "your faith has saved you; go in peace"
Matthew 26:6-13 / Mark 14:3-9 – Jesus says the woman who anointed him will be remembered wherever the gospel is preached
Luke 21:1-4 – The poor widow's offering praised above the wealthy givers'
Confessions and declarations of faith
John 11:27 – Martha's confession that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God
Luke 1:42, 45 – Elizabeth blesses Mary and praises her belief
Hebrews 11:11 – Sarah commended for faith to conceive in her old age
Hebrews 11:31 / James 2:25 – Rahab commended for faith and works in hiding the spies
Character and wisdom
Proverbs 31:10-31 – The capable wife, especially v.30: a woman who fears the Lord is praised
Ruth 3:11 – Boaz tells Ruth the whole town knows she is a woman of noble character
1 Samuel 25:32-33 – David blesses Abigail's discernment and good sense
Service and gifts in the early church
Romans 16:1-2 – Phoebe commended as a servant of the church at Cenchreae
Romans 16:3-4 – Priscilla praised alongside Aquila as fellow workers who risked their necks for Paul
Romans 16:6, 12 – Mary, Tryphena, Tryphosa, and Persis noted for their hard labor
Acts 9:36-39 – Tabitha (Dorcas), full of good works and acts of charity
Acts 16:14-15, 40 – Lydia, whose heart the Lord opened, and her household of faith
Acts 18:26 – Priscilla, with Aquila, explains the way of God more accurately to Apollos
Philippians 4:2-3 – Euodia and Syntyche, who labored side by side with Paul in the gospel
2 Timothy 1:5 – Timothy's faith traced to his grandmother Lois and mother Eunice
“Not exiled, just managed with extreme judiciousness, with equal doses of law and gospel." Who is in authority to do this within the structure of our church. Next, who are the men with wisdom to carry out such a task. Then, how public should the details be made known by which all are then judged by those not given the task to do so.