What I discovered channel-surfing: Pastor Melissa Scott

Being an encourager of women in ministry...

(See:

• "I need some token women"..several women in ministry also commented there
  

• "Women in Leadershift: Rob Bell & Peruvian alpaca-herderettes")

..I was intrigued to channel surf (and any of my friends know how little I watch TV...so forgive me if this is all old news to all of you) onto a a female pastor teaching
behind a huge whiteboard with biblical Greek all over it.

She was not the typical, shout-it-out, televangelist(a), but remained calm as she taught a fairly balanced (the bit I saw) sermon (Typical YouTube sermon excerpt here).

Clerical collar even.

Quite intrigued.

Never would I guess what Googling would teach me:



She is the widow of the wildest televangelist I have ever seen:

Gene Scott.

Yeah, Gene Scott, whom we used to watch on an early version of cable TV when I was a kid.
(I might have guessed Melissa could be his great-granddaughter, not wife..That is not meant to be a judgement, or sarcastic...simply a true statement).

Yeah, the Gene Scott who used to smoke, swear, and show off his nude model friends (mostly clothed) in the front row as he taught about UFOs and griped about his ex-wife..

...in front of an almost identical whiteboard (uh, blackboard, in those days) to Melissa's,with tons of scribbles in the biblical languages.

Clearly, a few controversies swirl around the man, the Gene Scott who by some estimates was the wealthiest TV star in history..

the one who sometimes preached from a rocking chair, and dressed as a British admiral...Scott, the Stanford PhD (!), who would yell at the camera like a madman,"Give me your money!"

He was so weird he would even get kicked off TBN.

Freaked me out as a kid....I guess it only by grace I was eventually saved.



ANYWAY...Melissa Scott is now pastoring the church Gene pastored, but church attendance is reservation only and no cameras allowed. Not sure if parishoners can even greet their pastor after her sermon.
And as you can guess by the title of this article..

Pastor Melissa Scott, Porn Star (click)

..there is a bit of controversy about her, too.

Her website calls her "A natural linguist with command of twenty languages,"
with no evidence of education to back that up.
And apparently, nobody will speak about her background or family..

Though news stories are not hard to find:

The Preacher's Unholy Past

Pastor Melissa Scott presides over a televangelist empire. Hard to believe that she was once a triple-X plaything known as Barbie Bridges. Gretchen Voss uncovers the true story behind Scott's divine reinvention. (link)

I dunno..I guess I'll go back to watching Colbert.

LATER P.S:
In fairness, here are a couple rebuttals to the "expose" articles linked above:

http://www.mrsscott.com/Gretchen-Voss-HitPiece.html

http://truthaboutpastormelissascott.com/Gretchen-Voss.html

I have no problem with someone having been in porn of the past, repenting and then becoming a pastor...and the "official source" above says she neither confirms nor denies it. That is different than the Voss article which painted her denying it..

She is in a tough spot. It's easy for me (as a guy) to say "Just go ahead and admit it..your authenticity will work in your favor"