FORT MILL (SC)
The Roys Report [Chicago IL]
September 3, 2024
By Rebecca Hopkins
MorningStar Ministries president Rick Joyner said that “evidence is mounting” that the South Carolina prophetic ministry’s former president Chris Reed engaged in physical sexual misconduct in a statement to the ministry’s congregation Sunday.
“There’s a lot of evidence and it’s mounting that, yes, there was physical stuff that happened,” Joyner said. “Evidence is mounting, and I don’t know where it’s going to lead, but we’re not going to cover up anything.”
Joyner also admitted Sunday that he allowed Reed to be acting president of MorningStar during a “restoration” process for Reed’s 2021 misconduct with an adult student.
Also, on Saturday, Justin Perry, a former MorningStar pastor and leader, said in a public statement that Reed became acting Morningstar president just a couple months after Morningstar’s board learned of Reed’s misconduct. Perry said that’s why he resigned from Morningstar in 2022, after 20 years of involvement with the ministry. Perry added that the board also decided not to inform the public about Reed’s misconduct.
Joyner made national headlines in 2021 for prophesying a civil war in the United States because the 2020 election was “stolen” from Trump.
A few months later Reed used prophecy to pursue an inappropriate relationship with Kathryn, a student of the ministry, The Roys Report (TRR) reported last week. Kathryn also told TRR that Reed sent her “vulgar” sexual texts, kissed her, and also touched her genitals.
Kathryn said she reported all but the sexual touch to MorningStar leaders in 2022. At that same time, Joyner, who founded MorningStar, was training Reed to replace him as the ministry’s president.
Joyner said Sunday that he was “fooled,” “lied to,” and “betrayed” by Reed in 2022 about the nature of the relationship Reed had with Kathryn.
Joyner told TRR last week that he and some MorningStar board members saw Reed’s sexually explicit texts to Kathryn. But Joyner said last week that both Reed and Kathryn had told leaders the only physical contact Reed had with Kathryn was when Kathryn “kissed him on the cheek.” As a result, the board chose to put Reed through a restoration process before becoming president, Joyner said.
“I didn’t discern these things,” Joyner said Sunday. “I did ask the Lord to make manifest the truth in this or any deception of whatever and I trusted the Lord to do it. . . Then I forgot to say, ‘Do it now.’ And He happened to wait until now.”
Joyner said Sunday that in the last few days, he’s been investigating the allegations of physical sexual misconduct against Reed. Joyner added that he believes Reed’s alleged physical contact with Kathryn would have “disqualified” Reed as a leader.
“I would’ve never turned this ministry over to them if I’d known what I know right now,” Joyner said. “I feel like things were done that should’ve disqualified Chris from being made the leader of this ministry.”
Reed did not respond to TRR’s request for comment about Joyner’s and Perry’s statements.
New timeline of Reed’s presidency revealed
Perry said in his public statement Saturday that Kathryn and her mom told Perry and MorningStar Director and Pastor Tom Hardiman in February 2022 about the “inappropriate relationship” Reed had with her.
“Tom and I were devastated,” Perry said. “I was physically ill. . . . It was definitely one of, if not the most, disturbing moment (sic) of my life. I was heartbroken not only for Kathryn. . . . I was also thinking about the potential impact on the rest of the students.”
Perry said he and Hardiman immediately told Joyner, who said they shouldn’t “sweep anything under the rug” but rather should pray to see what God wanted them to do. A week later, Joyner, Hardiman, and Perry decided to bring the matter to the board for the board to decide what to do. The board came up with a restoration plan that wouldn’t be made public, Perry said.
“From what I understand, the discussion was had that this relationship had ended months before, and there was ownership on the part of Chris, and there seemed to be genuine repentance,” Perry said. “So that was why the decision was made—rather than to go to the public immediately, to deal with it behind the scenes.”
Joyner praised the MorningStar board’s thoroughness in his statement Sunday. But Joyner told TRR last week that the board only interviewed Reed and his wife, Missy, but not Kathryn.
“We’ve got one of the strongest boards of any organization I know of, of people who are on a world-class level in many fields,” Joyner stated Sunday. “They’ve seen almost everything. . . . They’re not going to shove anything under the rug. They’re not going to not examine everything.”
Perry, who was involved in Reed’s “restoration plan” said on Saturday that the ministry allowed Reed to become acting president only a couple months after learning of Reed’s misconduct. The arrangement made it difficult for Perry and Hardiman to hold their new boss accountable, Perry said, so that’s why Perry resigned.
“We were now—Tom and I—under Chris’s leadership and that made it very difficult to address the things that were a concern to me moving forward,” Perry said. “I knew it was going to be time for my family and I to leave.”
Perry didn’t respond to multiple attempts by TRR for further comment on what his concerns were about the restoration and whether Perry knew of the alleged physical aspect of Reed’s misconduct. Perry also said in his statement Saturday that TRR had not contacted him for comment in TRR’s previous reporting that mentioned Perry’s role. However, last Wednesday, TRR had attempted to contact him through Facebook messenger, and the message appeared to be seen. TRR also called his current employer and left a message for Perry with a female employee.
The timeline of Reed’s acting presidency apparently contradicts what Reed said in a public statement last week. Reed claimed he became president of MorningStar 15 months after the ministry learned of his misconduct.
“So, that was put on hold for, I think it was 15 months later, when I finally assumed the presidency after this came open,” Reed said.
Joyner also didn’t mention Reed’s acting presidency happening at the same time as Reed’s restoration process last week to TRR when TRR asked for details. Rather, Joyner said then the restoration process needed to happen to determine if Reed could become president.
Joyner explained Sunday that Reed was made acting president as part of the restoration process to see how Reed would “behave.”
“I honestly wanted to see how he’s going to behave when he gets the authority,” Joyner said. “Is he going to do another stupid thing like this?”
Joyner said he’s seen “tremendous results” in other situations when leaders who have fallen are put back in ministry during their restoration phase.
“I’ve seen people put in ministry as part of their restoration process—true ministry, ministry which is sacrifice, taking up your cross, learning to serve others,” Joyner said. “And it really helps them to get through that. And we’ve seen tremendous results in a restoration process by doing that at times.”
Reed resigned suddenly last week with no notice, stating reasons unrelated to his misconduct. Instead, Reed told TRR that he didn’t want to be the face of MorningStar while it defends itself in a lawsuit alleging it mishandled reports of child sexual abuse by a former volunteer.
Joyner, who resumed the presidency last week, said that Reed wasn’t acting as a “shepherd” by resigning suddenly.
“A shepherd lays down their life for the sheep and certainly has regard for—I didn’t feel like there was regard for me, for our board,” Joyner said. “We had entrusted a lot to him, and I don’t think to just quit like that is what we ever need to do with anyone, with no notice.”
Joyner said he thought “something wasn’t right” with the Reed’s sudden resignation and thought something else was “behind this.”
“Now I can say with confidence, there was,” Joyner said.
On Sunday, Joyner also likened the betrayal by human leaders to Jesus’ disciples’ betrayal of Jesus who then became church leaders. So, people should trust the Holy Spirit, not fully trust people, Joyner said. And they shouldn’t condemn leaders who fail, Joyner said.
“We need the Holy Spirit to lead us,” Joyner said. “We’re not going to condemn people. That’s not going to be in our heart. The Lord, when he saw what was wrong with the world, he didn’t condemn it. He laid down his life for it.”