PASADENA (CA)
The Roys Report [Chicago IL]
October 28, 2024
By Liz Lykins
The Meachum board recently posted a statement on its website announcing that it is investigating Bantu.
“We, the Meachum community, have been disheartened by these allegations, yet we take them seriously,” the board said. “As promised, investigations are underway. Dr. Bantu has been put on leave.”
The board assured that the school is “even more committed to the theological proliferation of orthodoxy and Black flourishing as we proclaim Jesus to the nations.”
It added that it hopes to have reports to share from the investigation in “the coming weeks.”
TRR reached out to Beloved Community Church and Meachum for further comment but did not hear back prior to publication.
Pastor, author, and scholar, Vince Bantu, has been fired as a professor at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, California, following allegations of polygamy that first surfaced five months ago.
“Fuller Seminary terminated the employment of Professor Vince Bantu this morning following the conclusion of a comprehensive and deliberate review of alleged misconduct,” wrote Fuller President David Goatley in an email last week to students.
Goatley added that “Fuller Seminary has high expectations and standards of conduct for all members of our community.” And he stated that the school has “significantly enhanced its hiring process and policies since Dr. Bantu’s hiring six years ago.”
The announcement came after a group of whistleblower pastors sent the school a letter in June alleging Bantu had secretly married a second wife. It also comes about a month after Christianity Today published a detailed investigation on Bantu.
The pastors, who were a part of an accountability group with Bantu, claim Bantu engaged in polygamy to justify a history of infidelity. They also said Bantu, an assistant professor of Black church studies, argued a scriptural case for polygamy.
Various texts, emails, and call records released to The Roys Report back up the pastors’ claims.
Bantu, 42, denied the accusations and claimed the pastors lied out of jealousy.
President Goatley, who became Fuller’s president in 2023, provided little information as to what led to Fuller’s decision.
Fuller had been using a third-party firm to investigate Bantu, who had been placed on administrative leave.
TRR reached out to Fuller for further comment and for more details regarding the investigation but did not hear back.
On its website, Fuller includes in its community standards that faculty must “abstain from what it holds to be unbiblical sexual practices.” This includes “explicit sexual conduct” outside of marriage. Additionally, faculty must agree that marriage is a “covenant union between one man and one woman.”
Fuller knew Bantu had a prior inappropriate relationship
Previously, Bantu resigned from two ministry roles in 2018 after confessing to what he called an “emotional affair” with a student he mentored, TRR reported.
According to abuse experts, sexual contact between pastors and someone under their care constitutes clergy sexual abuse because of the power differential between them.
Bantu’s “moral failure” led him to step down from his role as co-pastor of Outpour Evangelical Covenant Church in St. Louis and from his visiting position at Covenant Theological Seminary.
Fuller was fully aware of this inappropriate relationship when they hired him, officials from Covenant told the publication byFaith.
Covenant said that Fuller “contacted us to ask about the nature of his departure from Covenant. In the interest of full disclosure, we shared with Fuller Seminary all the details of what had happened in 2018. Our goal was to be as open as possible for the sake of all involved.”
Despite this, Bantu was hired at Fuller in 2019, according to an archived webpage.
Fuller has since taken down any information regarding Bantu from its website.
It’s difficult to see how long it has taken accountability to occur for Bantu, Darren Young, a YoungLife area director a part of the whistleblower group, told TRR.
“While the outcome is necessary and right, and we praise God for His goodness, many of us are still processing the hurt and pain brought by this season,” Young said. “It’s painful to see it reach this point and to know how long it has taken for accountability to come to Vince.”
Young and the other pastors in the accountability group have been working to hold Bantu accountable for more than nine months.
Bantu put on leave at Meachum
Bantu also serves as the pastor at the nondenominational Beloved Community Church in St. Louis and as the president of Meachum School of Haymanot.
The whistleblower pastors informed Bantu’s church of the allegations last spring.
Bantu is still listed on the church’s website as pastor. The website also includes videos of Bantu preaching at the church as recent as this September.
The group initially informed Meachum School officials in May of the allegations. Then on June 6, the pastors sent letters detailing the allegations to both the board of Meachum and Fuller Seminary, TRR reported.
The Meachum board recently posted a statement on its website announcing that it is investigating Bantu.
“We, the Meachum community, have been disheartened by these allegations, yet we take them seriously,” the board said. “As promised, investigations are underway. Dr. Bantu has been put on leave.”
The board assured that the school is “even more committed to the theological proliferation of orthodoxy and Black flourishing as we proclaim Jesus to the nations.”
It added that it hopes to have reports to share from the investigation in “the coming weeks.”
TRR reached out to Beloved Community Church and Meachum for further comment but did not hear back prior to publication.