American Evangelicals and the Epstein Files Calmly Considered

Elizabeth Glass Turner considers the evidence

Fellow Pilgrims,

In today’s guest piece, Elizabeth Glass Turner shares her research on evangelicals and the Epstein files, including ways that evangelical Christians were leveraged by Epstein, and ways that evangelicals have been encouraged to ignore the abuse of women.

by Elizabeth Glass Turner

In 2018, “evangelicals” showed up in Jeffrey Epstein’s inbox in a pivotal way. The wealthy financier had invested decades developing an expansive network of influence stretching across economic sectors, countries, religions, and at least three royal families. Over a decade had passed since the thorough investigation in Palm Beach. Dozens of young women, including minors, alleged consistent accusations. Despite significant evidence of continued sexual abuse, Epstein received a jaw-dropping plea deal in the late 2000s, facing only state solicitation charges. He endured a short period of lax confinement, allowed to work from his office, before registering as a sex offender.

Prominent US and British papers reported the grave allegations about Epstein and minors in 2008 and 2011. By 2012, Epstein worked to rehab his online reputation. PR specialists suppressed negative search results.

Does any of this matter in substantive ways to Christians amid the noise of algorithmic news? To pastors and Christian leaders especially? Each shepherd has sheep to tend. I propose that the investigative documents and evidence contained in the Epstein files do matter.

Christians are called to love and pursue the truth; to defend vulnerable people; to shun love of money, prestige, and power. Not every Christian tradition or individual will take identical courses of action. But these values exemplify the way of Christ.

A Note on Sifting Hundreds of Overturned Filing Cabinets

That the files matter is not to say that we all should delve into the archives. Survivors of abuse or exploitation are aware of the heaviness of the topic; some of the material is explicit or disturbing. At a practical level, the files are like a warehouse of filing cabinets dumped upside-down, some documents unlabeled or without context

The material requires careful parsing to make coherent sense of it without misreading or exceeding available evidence. Over three million pieces of material were dumped online; an estimated two million remain unreleased. Some duplicated content varies in formatting and redaction.

The scale of material ranges from incidental or “due diligence,” to coherent, consistent, or vetted and investigated. Some content shouldn’t be either dismissed out of hand or taken as irrefutable proof.

So let’s look at how it all matters – especially if you consider yourself in some sense “evangelical.”

Two Ways the Epstein Files Are Relevant for Pastors & Christians

Pastoral Care

Every time exploitation or assault stories drive headlines, any and all survivors are affected. Not only does this case affect assault survivors in the U.S. and globally, the seriousness with which faith leaders respond also affects survivors.

Whether about the Epstein files or other cases, many abuse survivors stay anonymous for practical reasons. The current moment calls for an intentional intercessory posture toward a sometimes silent portion of the Body of Christ. (Some young women in Epstein’s sphere had been churchgoers, attending mass or forwarding a Rick Warren devotional.)

How we preach matters, too. In a Florida court, a lawyer badgered one young woman, demanding she answer whether she knew she’d engaged in prostitution. He was so aggressive the stenographer noted yelling between attorneys. The girl came from a poor background. She was recruited by a friend as a teenager, told she could make money, taken to a wealthy man’s Palm Beach mansion, paid too well for “massages” that varied in activity – while under 18. (The initial Florida investigation included a 14-year-old. Some girls were threatened with harm to their families if they told.) Sometimes vulnerable girls have been coerced, or had parents’ medical bills paid – then shamed, branded as “prostitutes.”

How might we be mindful when preaching some biblical texts?

Cultural awareness and discernment

The phrase “conservative Christians” shows up alongside “evangelicals” in the 2018 message to Epstein. When and why they appear matters. I contend it is difficult for Christian leaders to grasp the significance of our current moment without reexamining that stretch of time

What Was at Stake

Jeffrey Epstein grew up in a working-class family. Without finishing college, he taught advanced math at a Manhattan school before managing investments on Wall Street. Depending on the story, he possibly made his early wealth recovering assets for wealthy people who’d been conned. By the 2000s, Epstein owned properties in Paris, New York, Palm Beach, and New Mexico. He also owned Little St. James in the U.S. Virgin Islands, a short flight from St. Bart’s, the popular luxury-yacht-docking island. He owned private helicopters, jets, and boats, cultivating relationships in academia, Silicon Valley, international politics, scientific research, Hollywood, the art world, and other sectors. He arranged to pay a scholar to take a year off teaching to write a book, funded studies, and donated strategically.

Not all connections were explicitly linked to the girls present at his properties. But within his wide-ranging influence-brokering, a steady stream of girls and young women were recruited into his sphere. British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein’s ex-girlfriend, was a co-conspirator in recruiting, abusing, and producing explicit material of minors. Young women consistently testified they performed acts for certain men but also were to collect information about them.

Girls were not just fodder.

They were fuel.

They provided information potentially leveraged against individuals later. Besides the overwhelming number of girls – over 1,000 – a few things are notable:

· Girls were not present for Epstein’s enjoyment alone, evident in correspondence like Elon Musk’s email asking about upcoming parties.

· Despite differing decades and locations, there is extraordinary consistency throughout allegations made across a variety of reporting mechanisms – from anonymous FBI tip line complaints in 90s New York to investigator interviews in 2000s Palm Beach.

· Epstein’s network included powerful people – and their lawyers, crisis PR teams, and other “fixers.”

Yet he and they later scrambled to contain fallout that exceeded top PR teams.

Leveraging “Evangelicals”: Strategy & Self-Preservation

In 2018, Jeffrey Epstein sought medical treatment for an abdominal complaint – notable for someone who consulted top doctors in typo-ridden emails. He was examined, no emergency identified, and prescribed antacids.

It’s a wonder he didn’t have ulcers

The Me Too movement had arrived – for Epstein, with all the serenity of the four horsemen of the Apocalypse. Two years earlier in October 2016, the Access Hollywood tape had not gone unnoticed. It prompted response from evangelical teacher Beth Moore and others. Kelly Oxford’s NotOkay Tweet went viral. Gymnast Rachael Denhollander spoke out about Dr. Larry Nassar. But it didn’t herald existential crisis for Epstein.

Then in October 2017, reports revealed investigation into abuses by Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein. Alyssa Milano’s social media post went viral: a tsunami of women shared their MeToo experiences across social media.

Epstein sent a terse query to an associate; maybe the energy around MeToo was a momentary blip. But early Twitter had become an organizing tool during the 2011 Arab Spring; now social media surged with energy again.

MeToo did not go away.

It built.

Epstein was worried for good reason. The sheer volume of girls he coerced with threats, financial resources, or manipulation might not hold against the emboldening tide. An opinion piece appeared: “Weinstein Accusations Prove Women’s Courage is Contagious.”

By November, ChurchToo appeared, confronting abuse in the church. By January, the storm hadn’t dissipated: Hollywood’s Time’s Up initiative launched; Pastor Andy Savage confessed to assaulting a minor years before; headlines announced Stormy Daniels had been paid to keep quiet about an encounter with the president years earlier.

Epstein didn’t face these woes alone, though. After advisor Steve Bannon left the White House in 2017, Bannon and Epstein messaged frequently, strategizing, quoting movies, and giving back-channel insights into the news. As MeToo refused to let up, Epstein and Bannon collaborated on neutralizing the threat – because that’s what survivors coming forward posed.

A new coalition would be needed to outmaneuver the MeToo political fallout that, alongside the family separation immigration policy, was splintering “the evangelical vote.” They ping-ponged ideas to salvage the situation. On February 24, 2018, Epstein wrote:

A few minutes later, Bannon laid out his chess pieces to Epstein:

Steve Bannon’s big-picture political strategy to “stave off” MeToo and Time’s Up? Establish a new coalition leveraging conservative Christians to block accountability and justice for exploitation, assault, harassment, or trafficking. (“Reverse Alabama” may refer to JFK’s enforced integration of Alabama schools or the Roy Moore debacle.)

After February 24, 2018:

· 2018: Beth Moore published an open letter, writing, “being any part of shaping misogynistic attitudes, whether or not they result in criminal behaviors, is sinful and harmful and produces terrible fruit.”

· 2018-19: Steve Bannon traveled extensively in Europe, promoting populist nationalism and furthering his organization The Movement. He also visited Epstein.

· 2018: Paige Patterson was removed as president of Southwest Baptist Theological Seminary for mishandling of rape allegations.

· February 2019: A Houston Chronicle investigation exposed 20 years of Southern Baptist abuse of over 700 victims.

· May 2019: The president’s lawyer Michael Cohen revealed that before 2016, he helped fundamentalist leader Jerry Falwell, Jr with incriminating photos used for blackmail. Falwell, Jr subsequently endorsed Trump in 2016.

· July 2019: Jeffrey Epstein was arrested. That August, he died by reported suicide while incarcerated.

· October 2019: Preacher John Macarthur told Beth Moore to “go home.”

· November 2019: Prince Andrew announced he would withdraw from public duties.

· 2020: Jerry Falwell, Jr, was forced to resign from Liberty University over the sex scandal.

· 2022: A study found Southern Baptist Convention cover-up of sexual abuse. By August, the Justice Department was investigating the cover-up.

· 2022: Elon Musk, backed by Saudi stakeholders, purchased Twitter, which had amplified MeToo. The platform is now under investigation in Europe due to problematic programming of its AI product which allows users to request generation of violent, explicit video using images of real women and minors.

· 2022: Prince Andrew settled out of court with Virginia Giuffre, a young woman trafficked by Epstein and Maxwell.

· Fall 2022: Dr. Karen Swallow Prior was abruptly invited to leave her teaching position at SEBTS; Prior had been a vocal advocate for SBC transparency.

· 2023: Late Father Richard John Neuhaus’ previously serious First Things ran a “longhouse theory” essay critical of women written by a publisher of white supremacists. Peter Thiel, Alan Dershowitz, and anti-feminist SACR member Scott Yenor have been guests on FT’s podcast. Thiel, the gay, patriarchal mentor to JD Vance, lamented “the extension of the franchise to women” in a 2009 essay describing democracy and freedom as “incompatible.” Dershowitz was one of the attorneys to secure Epstein’s Florida plea deal. Magazine donors of $50,000+ receive “personal editorial briefings.”

· 2024: Megachurch pastor Robert Morris confessed to “inappropriate sexual behavior with a young lady” decades earlier. She was 12. He is serving six months in jail. Morris was on the president’s 2016 evangelical advisory board.

· 2024: The RNC dropped the pro-life plank from its platform behind closed doors.

· 2024: Writer Jenny Cohn addressed the funding link between “theobros” and “techbros.” Tech figures Marc Andreesson, Curtis Yarvin, and Peter Thiel promote establishing tiny, sovereign nation-states. Andreeson backed SACR member Nate Fischer’s New Founding, which “built a Christian enclave.” Thiel, who invested in “seasteading,” messaged and made social plans with Epstein, who would’ve benefited from living on an island free of constraining national or international law.

· 2024: The Christian “Society for American Civic Renewal (SACR)…men-only fraternal order which aims to replace the US government with an authoritarian ‘aligned regime’” was investigated by The Guardian.

· 2025: Moscow, Idaho preacher Doug Wilson’s mentee Joe Rigney published The Sin of Empathy. Wilson and Rigney support repealing women’s right to vote.

· March 2025: The DOJ ended the SBC abuse investigation one month after influencers were presented with slim binders labeled “Epstein Files Phase 1.”

· 2025: Epstein survivor Virginia Roberts Giuffre died by suicide.

· 2025: Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor was stripped of royal titles .

· August 2025: Christianity Today published an interview with Michelle Stephens, Acts 17 associate of Peter Thiel, shortly before his “antichrist” lectures. The Acts 17 website promoting the lectures teased insights from Carl Schmitt. Schmitt was a Nazi legal scholar. Stephens’ husband is a backer of SACR-adjacent New Founding. It’s unclear if CT has received funding from Thiel affiliates.

· 2025: U.S. Congress passed a bipartisan bill to force release of the Epstein files.

· 2026: A Texas businessman purchased Epstein’s New Mexico ranch to use as a Christian retreat center.

· 2026: CREC preacher Doug Wilson was invited to preach at the Pentagon. Wilson, a “paleo-Confederate” theocrat, wrote the erotic sci-fi novel Ride, Sally, Ride: Sex Rules.

· February 2026: Ten years after the “Access Hollywood” tape was called “locker room talk,” publications including The Wall Street Journal are running pieces buffering Epstein revelations:

Newspapers have covered Andrew’s connections with Epstein since the early 2000s.

In October 2016, at the outset of MeToo, Beth Moore posted:

In 2016, Beth Moore knew something about being exploited.

Maybe in 2026, American evangelicals do too.

Thank you to Elizabeth for doing this reserach and sharing it here at Church Blogmatics.

Grace & peace,

BFJ

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