[imagesource: New York Post]

A 65-year-old Indiana church pastor really dug his own grave after admitting to an affair that he said he had almost 20 years ago.

After his half confession, a woman stood up and revealed the truth that he had covered up: she was the mistress and she was just 16 when the affair started.

“To say it plainly, I didn’t make a mistake, I didn’t have an issue, I didn’t have an affair, I didn’t make a misjudgment — I sinned. I need to say that, and you deserve to hear it,” Pastor John Lowe II confessed to his congregation during a service, per The New York Post.

Members of the New Life Christian Church and World Outreach in Warsaw, Indiana, stood and applauded Lowe who was willing to step down from the ministry, asking for forgiveness for the “deep wounds” he’d caused.

Then, the real drama unfolded.

The woman stepped up to the microphone with her husband in tow:

“For 27 years I lived in a prison. It was not 20 years … I was just 16 when you took my virginity on your office floor. Do you remember that? I know you do,” the woman, now in her 40s, told Lowe.

“I lived in a prison of lies and pain. Lying to protect the Lowe family. I thought I was a horrible person having suicidal thoughts, not realizing what had truly been done to me,” she said.

“The church deserves to know the truth. This church has been built on lies, but no more. The lies need to stop,” she said.

Some of her troubling revelations were caught on camera and shared across social media:

John Lowe II, an Indiana church pastor, told his congregation Sunday he had committed adultery about 20 years ago

A few moments later, a woman stepped forward from the audience and said he sexually assaulted her when she was 16 years old https://t.co/H7ms8LciJq pic.twitter.com/W220TXz34F

— philip lewis (@Phil_Lewis_) May 24, 2022

The sexual conduct had apparently continued well into her 20s:

“You did things to my teenage body that had never and should have never been done,” she said. “If you can’t admit to the truth, you have to answer to God. You are not the victim here. People knew but were too afraid to come forward.

“I was a prisoner, and you kept me in your prison. I’m a prisoner no longer,” the woman added before turning to Lowe’s adult son and saying, “Your dad is not the victim here — a partial truth is not true.”

HuffPost reported that the Lowe family is deeply involved in the church.

Lowe’s wife, Debra, is the co-pastor, while son Bryan is the associate pastor and daughter Brightie is the community pastor.

Image: New York Post

The woman’s husband took the mic to defend her, too, saying that people need to be held accountable because “it’s not just adultery. It’s another level when it’s a teenager and I will not let this man talk about my wife like that.”

The New Life Christian Church and World Outreach said that staff had no idea about the affair until this moment.

Pastor Lowe has since tendered his resignation.

[sources:nypost&huffpost]