The family of Baptist professor and pastor John Gibson is calling his death a suicide connected to the Ashley Madison website hack.
By openly discussing the circumstances surrounding his death, including a CNN interview that aired Sept. 8, the Gibsons hope to help other families find forgiveness and reconciliation. Gibson served for 17 years as a professor at Leavell College, New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary’s (NOBTS) undergraduate college. At the time of his death he also served as pastor of First Baptist Church, Pearlington, Mississippi.
Gibson, 56, was discovered at his home on the seminary campus Aug. 24 at approximately 5:30 p.m. by his wife, Christi Gibson, when she arrived home from work. After finding John Gibson unresponsive she immediately notified emergency medical service (EMS). EMS workers were unable to revive him and John Gibson was pronounced dead at the scene.
John Gibson’s son, Trey, spoke of all of his father’s good qualities — his ability to preach, his servant heart and his sense of humor — during a memorial service on the seminary campus Aug. 28. But Trey Gibson also spoke of his father’s secret struggles with depression and pornography. Trey Gibson acknowledged at the time that his father had taken his own life. He boldly encouraged the mourners to seek accountability relationships to guard against secret sin.
“My dad was a great man. He was a great man with struggles. My dad reached a point of such hopelessness and despair that he took his own life,” Trey Gibson said.
While the news jolted the campus, the seminary community has rallied around the Gibson family as they opened up about the struggles that led to the death of the beloved professor and minister. Seminary President Chuck Kelley touched on the subject again Sept. 8 during the NOBTS convocation chapel service.
Openly speaking
“On the first day of classes we had the unexpected death of a much loved professor, colleague and friend, Dr. John Gibson,” Kelley said. “We learned that he made some very sad and unfortunate choices in his life and his son shared in his memorial service his death appeared to come at his own hand.”
The family spoke openly about Gibson’s death during a national television interview on CNN. Appearing in the interview with her children, Christi Gibson confirmed the existence of a suicide note in which her husband confessed to his failures and that his name was released in the Ashley Madison website hack. Christi Gibson noted her husband also expressed great sorrow for his actions.
In the interview the family acknowledged they would have been willing to forgive Gibson’s failures and work toward restoration if they had been given a chance.
“I still believe it could have been fixed. It could have been healed,” Christi Gibson told CNN.
“There is brokenness in every single one of us. We all have things that we struggle with,” she said. “It wasn’t so bad that we wouldn’t have forgiven it and so many people have said that to us, but for John, it carried with him such shame.”
Christi Gibson also expressed her concern for other families grappling with the fallout from the Ashley Madison scandal. For the millions of families affected, she encouraged love and forgiveness.
‘Real people’
“These were real people with real families, real pain and real loss,” Christi Gibson said. “Don’t underestimate the power of love. Nothing is worth the loss of a father and a husband and a friend. It just didn’t merit it.”
Kelley asked for continued prayer for the Gibson family and the entire NOBTS community as they struggle with this loss and the circumstances behind it.
A group of students responded to the news of Gibson’s suicide and the events that led to it by organizing a prayer initiative on campus.
Beginning Aug. 31, participants in the student-led prayer time met daily on the steps of Leavell Chapel to pray for the faculty and their families. The first week culminated with a joint student-faculty prayer time. After the Labor Day holiday, the student-led prayer meetings moved to a twice-weekly schedule. (Baptist Press)
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What Baptist leaders are saying
“I’m on the Ashley Madison List. Now What?” via The Exchange blog
Some offenses are so big they look like Everest in the windshield, with no way over, no way around and no way through. … No matter how large the offense looms before you, suicide is not the way to confront your failure.
Do not give up. Throw yourself on God’s mercy and find grace to help in time of need. If you are on the list, maybe you are not sure what to do. Let me make suggestions.
- Get right with God.
- Cast everything on Him.
- Confess to your spouse.
- Confess to someone else.
- If you are a pastor, confess to your church.
Ed Stetzer
Executive Director, LifeWay Research
“Ashley Madison, Adultery and the Church” via thomrainer.com
“We are already hearing stories of families torn apart, of children terrified about what is happening to their dad and of the tragedy of suicide. Church leaders cannot respond in their own power. God, however, can provide them all they need to respond in such a time of tragedy and hurt.”
Thom Rainer
President and CEO, LifeWay Christian Resources
“Scripture encourages us to keep our focus and minds upon that which makes us more like Christ. Oh, may every follower of Christ so live that we serve our Lord with a whole heart — a heart that is devoted totally in its focus upon Christ. This is the great antidote to the allures of the flesh.”
Frank S. Page
President, Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee
“Ashley Madison is Just the Beginning” via russellmoore.com
“The brokenness of sexuality all around us demonstrates something far deeper than a crisis of culture. The brokenness of sexuality around us demonstrates a crisis of worship. We will not get out of this with better Internet filters or more accountability groups. We must recognize that technology will continue to offer fallen humanity what it thinks it wants — the illusion that we can transgress God and not surely die. Our only hope starts with the kind of vision which sees that, no matter the technology, we are never anonymous to God.”
Russell Moore
President, Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission
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