I am totally gobsmacked?
Something is weird about this
Perhaps a form of Stockholm syndrome where the pastor took on some of the traits/habits/behaviors of his captors?
Perhaps he was reconditioned or 'brainwashed'?
When I was in Korea in ‘52 several guys got “Dear John” letters from their wives. It completely devastated them. One I knew personally had a total change in personality. One of them in another company kept volunteering for combat patrols. There was a saying in those days, “Absence makes the heart grow fonder .... for somebody else.”