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.”
Im trying...really trying to give a shi’ite.
“From what I’ve read about the male/female ratio and the possibility of bogus female profiles, the pastor was probably doing more looking than doing.”
That’s what a local LA talk show host was saying.
Some journalists opened a couple of accounts to see how it worked and who they would meet. They found that Ashley Madison required them to buy “tokens” that they would need to text with any of the women members. The women needed tokens too so they would insist on getting paid tokens that they needed to chat back. Then the Ashley Madison system would suggest that the dudes buy “flowers” to send to the women to show how interested they were.
Anyway this went on long enough for the journalists to finally conclude that they never ever would actually meet a flesh and blood Ashley Madison woman. The whole thing was probably an elaborate scam, because who in the world was going to expose them? Some married guy is going to say “hey, I was looking to cheat on my wife and I got cheated out of money instead”? It would be amusing if it weren’t for people like this pastor who killed himself over it. Not so funny in the end.
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