Posted on 09/09/2015 12:09:14 PM PDT by nickcarraway
John Gibson was a pastor and seminary professor. When he wasn’t teaching at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary, one of his favorite pastimes was fixing cars.
He was married with two children. His daughter, Callie, was teaching in front of 250 college students when she got the call. Her father had killed himself.
It was August 24, six days after hackers exposed the names of millions of people who had signed up for Ashley Madison, the notorious site for those seeking affairs. Gibson’s name was on the list.
His wife, Christi, discovered her husband’s body.
“It was a moment that life doesn’t prepare you for,” she told CNNMoney. “I had to call my kids. How do you tell your kids that their dad is gone and that he took his own life?”
In his suicide note, Gibson chronicled his demons. He also mentioned Ashley Madison.
“He talked about depression. He talked about having his name on there, and he said he was just very, very sorry,” Christi said. “What we know about him is that he poured his life into other people, and he offered grace and mercy and forgiveness to everyone else, but somehow he couldn’t extend that to himself.”
Ashley Madison was hacked in July, and hackers released users’ personal information in August. Since then, authorities in Toronto have said they’re investigating suicides that could be linked to the data dump. Hackers have also sent extortion emails to people who were on the list.
Gibson said her husband was likely worried he’d lose his job.
From Gibson Family From Gibson Family “It wasn’t so bad that we wouldn’t have forgiven it, and so many people have said that to us, but for John, it carried such a shame,” she said.
Gibson, 56, was known as a great teacher with a “quirky laugh,” but he had struggled with depression and addiction in the past, his family said.
Ashley Madison did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Since his death, his family has made a pact to be more transparent with one another about their struggles.
Christi Gibson has a message for the 32 million people exposed and their communities.
“These were real people with real families, real pain and real loss,” she says. But “don’t underestimate the power of love. Nothing is worth the loss of a father and a husband and a friend. It just didn’t merit it. It didn’t merit it at all.”
Especially female people.
5.56mm
The guy who’s already dead?
No, the other one.
Committed the ultimate sin?
Pastor?
God forgives?
Man can be renewed?
Irony?
His silly story is that the Russians set him up. I doubt many believe it.
Possibly but if he was visiting a site that's designated for people having affairs and he wasn't getting a bite, he probably went elsewhere. If all he wanted to do was look, there are plenty of porn sites for that.
Sheesh. We seem to have quite a number of sinless Freepers responding to this thread.
You guys are better men than me, that's for sure.
I didn’t write what you seem to be criticizing as self-righteousness. However, the point is a simple one and has nothing to do with self-righteousness: The man just made his wife’s and children’s lives enormously worse by committing suicide.
Having dealt with suicide survivors more than once, I know this is certainly going to be true. So, call it what you want. But he did no one a favor by killing himself.
It is just tragic on so many levels.
True
It’s surprising the dark secrets apparently “normal” people have.
There was a guy in my office in his early 60’s who talked about his wife, kids, grandkids and church all the time.
He was laid off and the day he left I had to use his computer to continue with an account he had worked.
He had left open his personal google email inbox in a separate window. The subject lines were all from escort services and craigslist personals—disgusting in text.
Would have been the last thing to come to mind about this guy from all appearances.
Let’s revel in the fall of another spiritual brother so we can all feel like the only true saints and faithful servants.
I do at least try (most of the time) to be a faithful servant, but being human, I usually fall short.
No, the other one.
I dunno. Maybe he just had an overpowering feeling of shame and did not have the strength to live with it. This sort of thing used to happen more before the 20th century rolled around and we did away with the concept of shame. Too bad. If he'd been a libtard his affair(s) would have been a resume enhancer.
Because everyone expects it and it isn’t a big deal for a lefty to be on a cheating site?
There are more women named Ashley Madison than actual women on Ashley Madison.
I still don’t know how this guy - or anybody else - figured out what names were on that site. Apart from a handful of Christian conservatives, I don’t know of anyone whose name has been circulated. And the list is apparently not available for examination on the Internet.
I didn’t look at the list, but I thought it was searchable somewhere.
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