Indiana
Indiana woman whose pastor had sex with her at 16 describes years of ‘grooming,’ finally opening up to family
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EXCLUSIVE – Indiana native Bobi Gephart ascended the stage of a Warsaw church to which she had dedicated decades of her life, including her formative years.
Donning a t-shirt and ripped pants, the North Manchester resident is the first to admit the attire was not what she would usually consider church appropriate. But she never planned on being there that day in the first place.
“I had family members texting me … saying, ‘You need to get to the church. You should be there. They need to hear your story,’” she recalled to Fox News Digital. “I was not ready for church. I just threw my sandals on and told my niece that was here to take me.”
Gephart’s husband, Nate, had planned on confronting the New Life Christian Church and World Outreach’s beloved Pastor John B. Lowe II, himself about how the longtime clergyman had sex with Bobi when she was only 16.
Photo shows Bobi Gephart and her husband, Nate Gephart, who accused their former pastor, John Lowe, of having sex with her when she was 16
Instead, that Sunday, May 22, was the day Bobi revealed the truth with Nate by her side.
“What I wanted was for freedom,” she said during a Zoom call. “And for my husband to know my heart, and for people not to be lied to anymore.”
“We took it upon ourselves and went right to the stage without anybody’s permission and took the mic,” she recalled.
“Everything I knew was that church. My whole life was that church. I went to school at that church.”
Just moments before Gephart confronted the crowd about what had happened when she was a teenager, Lowe offered his own version of the events.
“I committed adultery. It was nearly 20 years ago, it continued far too long,” he said, according to video posted on Facebook by a congregant. “It involved one person and there’s been no other, nor any other situation of unbecoming conduct for the last 20 years. I will not use the Bible to defend, protect and deflect my past sin. I have no defense. I committed the adultery.”
He went on for several minutes as he described how he had “deeply hurt” his wife and family, to whom he had confessed.
Bobi and Nate are seen in the video standing and looking on as the pastor continues his speech. Lowe reveals he is stepping down from his role within the ministry and is greeted by applause as he moves away from the microphone, the video shows.
The Gepharts are then seen stepping on stage.
INDIANA PASTOR ADMITS ADULTERY, ALLEGED VICTIM SAYS SHE WAS JUST 16 YEARS OLD: ‘IT’S NOT JUST ADULTERY’
“If you love us, please let us talk,” Nate says. Bobi then begins: “For 27 years I lived in a prison. It was not 20 years. I’ve lived in a prison of lies and shame. Lying to protect the Lowe family. For years, I thought I was a horrible person, having suicidal thoughts. Not realizing what had been truly done to me: That I was a victim.”
Gephart tells the audience she “would still be in a prison” if her brother had not confronted her earlier in the month about “what he had seen as a teenager that bothered him all these years.”
Bobi Gephart
(Facebook)
“His pastor in bed with his younger sister, a t-shirt and underwear on,” she says, according to the video.
She tells the church others knew, but did not come forward out of fear. “They have now.”
“The lies and the manipulation have to stop,” she says. “I was a prisoner, and you kept me in your prison. I’m a prisoner no longer.”
Gephart appears to fight back tears as she continues to confront her pastor.
“You can’t just live your life trying to protect others. You also have to free yourself.”
NH PASTOR CHARGED WITH CHILD PORNOGRAPHY POSSESSION AFTER 5-YEAR INVESTIGATION
“I was just 16 when you took my virginity on your office floor. Do you remember that?” she asks. “You did things to my teenage body that have never and should have never been done. If you can’t admit the truth, you have to answer to God. You are not the victim here.”
Nate takes the microphone shortly thereafter, and tells the crowd the events between Lowe and Bobi “lasted until she met me, and we started dating.”
Pastor John B. Lowe II stepped down as pastor of New Life Christian Church and World Outreach after admitting he committed to having sex with a woman when she was a teenager.
(New Life Christian Church Photo)
“My wife, it’s not just adultery. It’s another level when it’s a teenager, and I will not let this man talk about my wife like that,” he says. “It happened for nine years, when she was 15, 16, the sexual grooming started.”
Lowe is facing the crowd of now-questioning congregants as Nate and Bobi Gephart descend from the stage.
“We did it,” Lowe then admits, according to the video. “At 16. She was 16 years old.”
In response to an unintelligible question from the crowd, he responds: “It’s not all true.”
“If I could go back and re-do it all, I would. I can’t, and all I can do is ask you to forgive me,” Lowe says. “It’s been 20 years. I know, I guess it doesn’t count for anything. We loved them, I deeply hurt them, I deeply hurt you. I ask you to forgive me, and that’s all I can do.”
Fox News Digital made multiple attempts to reach Lowe for comment regarding Gephart’s allegations, including through the New Life office, with no success.
A statement released by New Life after the revelations describes how Lowe’s alleged transgressions “first came to light when a woman in the church came forward and disclosed the relationship to various people within the church.”
“When confronted by others in church leadership concerning that report, Pastor Lowe confessed privately that the adultery did, in fact, occur,” the statement reads. On Sunday, “[t]he woman in question and her family did attend together and addressed the congregation, indicating that improper sexual conduct first occurred when she was 16 years of age and continued into her twenties. She tearfully described living with deep shame and pain over the ensuing years.”
New Life said it was “hurting and broken for a woman who has lovingly attended and served in the church for many years, as well as for her husband and family.”
The staff knew nothing of the events that transpired until they were recently revealed, the church said. Lowe tendered his resignation with New Life on May 23.
Speaking to Fox News Digital last week, Gephart said she had never considered herself “an actual victim.”
“And then realizing and opening up and just, when you step on the outside looking in, you realize what was really happening and just the prison of lies and deceit and the cover-ups,” she said.
Gephart described how her brother confronted her on May 9 about what he had seen when they were younger. That same day, Gephart said, she grew the strength to tell her husband.
“I asked my brother to help me tell Nate,” she said. “What I just wanted in my life was freedom, for him to know me and to know what I went through and just to be honest. And I partly believed that it was my fault.”
She later added: “You want to tell the truth, and you begin to realize what you lived through, but at the same time, you’re trying to protect the predator and his family and the church.”
Gephart described confronting her husband with the truth she had been hiding for years.
“All I ever wanted was for him to know me, because I lied to him. He thought I was a virgin when we got married,” she said, seated alongside Nate during the interview. “And so this whole time he has no clue that even the man he’s looking up to had done these horrendous things to me.”
Bobi Gephart and her husband, Nate Gephart
Gephart, who is now 43, said her family was “so intermingled” with the Lowes’ at a young age. Not only did Gephart’s mother work as a nanny for the Lowe family, but Bobi and her brother even lived with the family for a short time, she said.
“They were like a family to us,” she said. “And that is what was the hardest part … hard for people to realize that we were there all the time and heavily involved in our church. And this whole time, stuffing those secrets inside me.”
She described how she was kept “as a prisoner without bars in his life,” and was not freed from Lowe’s “grasp” until she met her husband.
“Everything I knew was that church. My whole life was that church. I went to school at that church,” she said.
When she spent a year attending Bible school in Texas, Gephart said, “he would continue to communicate, even come down and make a visit.”
Gephart would not speak to how the relations with Lowe initially began, but said they began “the way a lot of grooming starts.”
“Shoulder massages, lap sits, long hugs, things like that nature that would get longer and deeper,” she said. In one instance, he allegedly laid his head in Gephart’s lap while they were sitting on a couch, though she would not go into further detail.
The legal age of consent in Indiana is 16. Gephart told Fox News Digital the sexual aspect of their relations began when she was 16, but “molestation happened prior to that.”
New Life Christian Church and World Outreach in Warsaw, Indiana.
(Google Maps)
She said she did not currently have plans to take legal action, considering the legal age of consent and the existence of any statutes of limitation. Asked about their expectations for the future, Gephart said she and Nate “sit tight and we take care of our family and make sure that we’re healthy. “
Gephart has not spoken to Lowe since she came forward, but one family member reached out and had been “very kind.”
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Speaking about Lowe, she said she hopes “his heart changes.”
When asked if she had any message for people who might be in similar situations, she said she hopes that they speak up, “no matter what.”
“Find someone you can talk to. Because that was the thing – I didn’t. I was trying to protect my family. I was trying to protect other people,” she said. “You can’t just live your life trying to protect others. You also have to free yourself.”
Fox News’ Ashley Papa and Lorraine Taylor contributed to this report.
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – Indiana’s football rise into the national elite has been such a dizzying, intoxicating ride that it felt like it might never end.
Alas, No. 2 Ohio State dealt the Hoosiers a reality check with a dominant 38-15 victory Saturday at Ohio Stadium.
Most Indiana observers understood that a splash of water in the metaphorical face of Indiana football was likely when the College Football Playoff rankings came out.
Once revealed? It was a pretty cold splash that hit the Hoosiers late Tuesday night.
Indiana (10-1) fell to the No. 10 spot in the rankings. Six one-loss teams (Ohio State, Texas, Penn State, Notre Dame, Miami, SMU) and two two-loss teams (Georgia, Tennessee) are ahead of the Hoosiers. Indiana is rated the worst of the one-loss Power Four conference teams.
Because of the way the College Football Playoff bracket is constructed, Indiana is the last team in the 12-team field. Two teams ranked lower than Indiana would make the field as projected conference champions.
It’s a precarious position for Indiana as its margin for error has been exhausted. Still, there are plenty of happy and heartbreaking outcomes to consider as the college football season gets closer to its pre-Playoff climax.
Here’s a few scenarios to consider after the College Football Playoff committee set the latest pecking order Tuesday.
The best-case scenario
• If Indiana wants to go for the glory? Apart from the obvious win Indiana needs over Purdue, Hoosiers fans can hope for a Michigan win over Ohio State and a Maryland victory at Penn State. That would put Indiana into the Big Ten championship game against Oregon. A win in that game would give Indiana a bye into the College Football Playoff quarterfinals.
However, the risk in that is that if the Hoosiers were to lose, they could be out of the CFP field altogether depending on what happens elsewhere. High reward, but high risk, too.
For Indiana to get back into the playoff hosting picture? The Hoosiers probably need at least two of the following results: Georgia loses at home to Georgia Tech on Friday night, Tennessee loses at Vanderbilt, Miami loses at Syracuse, SMU loses to California at home or Notre Dame loses at Southern California on Saturday.
After the upsets that took place in Week 13? Stranger things have happened.
The most realistic good scenario
• If your best-case scenario is to beat Purdue, but lose the risk of incurring a second loss by missing the Big Ten championship game? It’s as simple as beating the Boilermakers on Saturday night. Given that Indiana are currently 28.5 point favorites, that is a solid probability.
However, Indiana is looking over its shoulder, too. No. 12-ranked Clemson lurks behind the Hoosiers and has a chance at a quality win when the Tigers host rival South Carolina Saturday. Though the Gamecocks are also lurking in the No. 15 spot, it would do Indiana a world of good to have South Carolina get Clemson off Indiana’s rear bumper.
The worst-case scenario
• This is simple: Indiana loses to Purdue. Barring a litany of upsets elsewhere, a loss to the Boilermakers would be a mortal blow to the Hoosiers’ CFP hopes.
Another worst-case scenario would be if Indiana beat Purdue, but Texas A&M beat Texas to make it to the SEC championship game and then pulled a major upset in that contest against Georgia.
That would put the Aggies in the CFP field as a bid-stealer and knock every other team down a notch. If Indiana was still on the bubble, this would cause it to burst.
The most realistic bad scenario
• Indiana beats Purdue, but not convincingly. A two-touchdown win or less is going to reflect poorly on the Hoosiers. Like it or not, style points matter.
If Indiana squeaked by the Boilermakers, in combination with a Clemson win over South Carolina and no upsets in front of them, it would be high time for Hoosiers fans to start to sweat.
Add in an Alabama win over Auburn and/or an Ole Miss victory over Mississippi State? The Hoosiers might survive it all, but the conference championship games and the reveal of final rankings on Dec. 8 would be a white-knuckle experience for Indiana.
The most ambiguous scenario
• Indiana beats Purdue, but once again, not convincingly. However, some of the teams ahead of Indiana also lose.
Any loss by either Georgia or Tennessee would be trouble for either team as it would be their third defeat. SMU has had a great season, but the Mustangs would take a hit if they lost at home to California. Similarly, Miami has just one loss, but the Hurricanes have won their share of close shootouts during the season.
Add in wins by Clemson, Alabama and Ole Miss? Perhaps toss in a Texas A&M victory over Texas that would put the potential bid-stealing Aggies in the SEC championship game? The CFP committee would have one heckuva Gordian knot to untangle going into the conference championship games.
Indiana
Warde Manuel reveals how College Football Playoff committee views outcome of Indiana vs Ohio State
A Top-5 showdown highlighted the Week 13 slate as Indiana and Ohio State squared off at The Horseshoe. Ultimately, the Buckeyes got a blowout victory over the Hoosiers, and all eyes turned toward Tuesday’s College Football Playoff rankings to see how the committee viewed that outcome.
Of course, Indiana wasn’t the only top-ranked team to fall last week. Multiple others did, as well, which likely helped the Hoosiers stay in the Top 10. According to committee chair Warde Manuel, IU has the resume to be the No. 10 team in the country.
Manuel pointed out it wasn’t all bad for Indiana in last week’s matchup. The Hoosiers had some good moments, notably the opening drive. Although they dropped five spots, Manuel said IU still did enough to be in the Top 10.
“We viewed Indiana – they played well at times against Ohio State,” Manuel said on the CFP rankings reveal show on ESPN. “And Ohio State pulled out a victory and really came on in the second half of that game. But we were impressed with some of the things that Indiana did. And they dropped five, but we still felt that their body of work was strong enough to remain in the Top 10.”
Indiana’s strength of schedule was a key point of conversation entering last week’s game. The Hoosiers’ schedule ranked No. 106 in the country through Week 12, according to ESPN, which was the second-weakest of the College Football Playoff Top 25. After the Ohio State game, though, IU’s schedule now ranks No. 51.
Of course, the numbers also back up Indiana’s case to be one of the top teams. The Hoosiers rank No. 9 in the nation in scoring defense and No. 2 in scoring offense. That’s why, after Saturday’s game, Curt Cignetti scoffed at a question about whether they should still be in the 12-team field before answering with a wink and smile.
“Is that a serious question?” Cignetti said in his postgame press conference, with a smirk. “I’m not even gonna answer that one. The answer’s so obvious.”
PARADISE ISLAND, The Bahamas – The slate of marquee nonconference games surrounding Thanksgiving has become known as Feast Week.
Tournaments in Maui, the Bahamas, Las Vegas and elsewhere generate top-25 matchups on a daily basis. Monday, Memphis upset back-to-back national champion No. 2 UConn. No. 4 Auburn erased a 16-point halftime deficit to take down No. 5 Iowa State. And No. 12 North Carolina came back from 21 points down to defeat Dayton.
That was just the start of a week that makes November feel a bit like March. No. 14 Indiana will compete in the eight-team Battle 4 Atlantis tournament in the Bahamas, along with No. 3 Gonzaga, No. 24 Arizona, West Virginia, Oklahoma, Providence and Davidson.
Indiana is off to a 4-0 start and rose two spots in the latest AP Top 25 poll. Three wins have come against mid-major foes Southern Illlinois-Edwardsville, Eastern Illinois and UNC Greensboro. Indiana also handled South Carolina in a 16-point win, but the Gamecocks have taken a step back from last year’s second-place SEC finish.
And with a nonconference slate that features just one high-major opponent outside its three opportunities in the Bahamas, the Hoosiers must eat up all the opportunities Feast Week offers.
That starts with a matchup against Louisville, a team Indiana defeated 74-66 last year in the Empire Classic. But the new-look Cardinals are a completely different unit now, led by former College of Charleston head coach Pat Kelsey, 13 new transfers and one freshman. Louisville failed its biggest test of the season so far, a 77-55 home loss to Tennessee, but it’s shaping up to be a far more competitive team than those that went 12-52 in two years under former head coach Kenny Payne.
Analytics site Bart Torvik favors the Hoosiers by 3.6 points and ranks them 30th nationally, compared to the No. 57 Cardinals. With a win, Indiana would likely advance to face Gonzaga, which moved up to No. 3 in the latest AP Top 25 poll and is ranked No. 4 by Torvik.
That’s when the big challenge could come, one that Indiana vitally needs to meet as it builds an NCAA Tournament resume. Its best win so far is South Carolina, currently a bubble team at best. The Hoosiers may end up with wins against mid-major teams that reach the NCAA Tournament, but none that they can hang their hats on come Selection Sunday.
And once they return to Bloomington, they won’t get another chance to pick up a quality win until Big Ten play. That’s part of the risk that came with Indiana scheduling lighter than normal in the nonconference and relying so much on what it can gain in the Bahamas.
The other factor is that beyond Louisville, Indiana doesn’t know exactly who it’ll play this week. Upsets happen in college basketball all the time, and Indiana could end up facing a lighter slate this week by no fault of its own. Or it could lose to a capable Louisville team Wednesday and head to the loser’s bracket, where wins over certain opponents may not significantly strengthen its profile.
This Indiana team has enough talent that reaching the NCAA Tournament shouldn’t be in question, but its schedule lacks frequent opportunities at resume-boosting wins.
The other question going into the Battle 4 Atlantis is, how much do we really know about the Hoosiers so far? In terms of its Big Ten and national title aspirations, almost nothing. We can speculate how Indiana might fare against premier programs, but this tournament in the Bahamas represents the first time we’ll actually see it.
Indiana’s 4-0 start has mostly provided optimism, as the Hoosiers have defeated each team by 11 points or more. But there have been several moments of concern, or ones that at least reveal a team with six transfers and one freshman still getting to know each other. That was expected going into the season, but Indiana can’t afford it to last much longer.
The clear difference between the 2024-25 Hoosiers and last year’s group that missed the NCAA Tournament is guard play. Point guard Myles Rice is averaging 14.8 points and shooting 46.2% from 3-point range so far, a dynamic Indiana simply didn’t have last season. Sophomore wing Mackenzie Mgbako appears to have taken another step in his game, leading Indiana with 18.8 points per game and connecting on 8-of-15 3-point attempts.
Woodson also has much more capable depth to work with, with veterans like Trey Galloway and Luke Goode, along with budding freshman Bryson Tucker, coming off the bench. That’s all said without mentioning Malik Reneau and Oumar Ballo, who could comprise the Big Ten’s best front court.
So where does the hesitation come from? Woodson has been unhappy with several aspects of the Hoosiers’ play this season. After a 90-55 win over Eastern Illinois, which featured a 37-36 halftime deficit, Woodson called out his team’s readiness.
“I thought we were still home in bed asleep,” Woodson said. “It was awful.”
Indiana jumped out to a 21-5 win over UNC Greensboro, only to be tied 40-40 with 15:57 left in the second half. Indiana shot just 41.7% from the field and 26.3% from 3-point range, allowed 13 offensive rebounds and committed 13 turnovers in the win. That left a lot to be desired from Woodson, and some of the frustration stems from knowing how much talent he has on this team.
“As a team we had 16 assists. That’s awful. I mean, it’s awful. With this team, we should average between 20 and 30 assists. So the play tonight, the way we played offensively tonight was selfish as hell to me,” Woodson said.
“That’s something that just can’t be because we have enough guys on this team that can make basketball plays,” Woodson continued. “We’ve just got to be unselfish and sacrifice the ball for the sake of the team and good things will happen.”
Woodson and the Hoosiers have a chance to ease those concerns and pick up several quality wins. Good, bad or somewhere in between, this week will reveal a lot about this Indiana team, which needs to return to Bloomington with something to show for this trip.
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