Renowned Christian writer Philip Yancey has announced that he’ll withdraw from public ministry, following the revelation of a long-term extramarital affair.
Yancey, the writer of What’s So Amazing About Grace? and The Jesus I Never Knew, has been married to his wife, Janet, for 55 years and has been a outstanding voice in evangelical publishing for a long time.
The disclosure was made in a press release to Christianity Today, the US magazine Yancey has contributed to for the reason that early days of Campus Life in 1971.
In his remarks, he admitted that “to my great shame, I confess that for eight years I wilfully engaged in a sinful affair with a married woman”, adding that he had “confessed my sin before God and my wife, and have committed myself to knowledgeable counselling and accountability programme”.
Yancey apologised to his readership and noted the conflict between his conduct and the moral convictions expressed throughout his work. He said that he had “failed morally and spiritually, and I grieve over the devastation I even have caused”, acknowledging that his actions “will disillusion readers who’ve previously trusted in my writing”.
He further reflected that “worst of all, my sin has brought dishonour to God”, describing himself as “stuffed with remorse and repentance” and declaring that he has “nothing to face on except God’s mercy and charm”.
As a part of his withdrawal from public life, Yancey has stepped down from speaking and ministry engagements and has also deleted his social media accounts. He concluded his statement by saying, “I would like to spend my remaining years living as much as the words I even have already written.”
Yancey’s wife, Janet, also released a press release to Christianity Today in response to the disclosure. She spoke of being “in a spot of trauma and devastation that only individuals who have lived through betrayal can understand”, yet affirmed that she had made “a sacred and binding marriage vow 55½ years ago, and I won’t break that promise”.
Janet, who has been acting as her husband’s carer since his Parkinson’s diagnosis in 2023, expressed her Christian belief in the potential for forgiveness, writing that she “accept and understand that God through Jesus has paid for and forgiven the sins of the world, including Philip’s”.
Nonetheless, she noted the non-public difficulty of processing the betrayal, saying, “God grant me the grace to forgive also, despite my unfathomable trauma,” and concluded with a request that readers and believers “please pray for us”.
