Phil Ryken, President of Wheaton College, faced this question back in 2001. But before we get into that, I'd like to thank you again for signing the petition. We recently passed a milestone: 1,000 petition forwards. However, signatures have slowed and we need new eyes to see what you've seen: that things need to change at Wheaton College. Please keep forwarding these updates!
Back to our question. The answer, of course, is never, and no college should ever keep an employee guilty of this crime. Unsurprisingly, Philadelphia Bible University (now Cairn University) immediately dismissed an employee, Paul Jones, in 2001 after he confessed to beating a student in this fashion.
What's surprising—and very disturbing—is that Senior Pastor Phil Ryken kept Paul Jones on staff as music minister at Tenth Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia for more than ten years after Jones informed him not only that he had been fired from the university but also the reason for his dismissal.
You didn't read that wrong
Shortly after his dismissal, Jones met with Ryken and explained that the student in question had been homeschooled, was used to corporal punishment, and had requested the "spanking."
Ryken accepted that story. (As I write these words, I am at a loss for words.) The whole sordid tale is well documented in this Roys Report podcast, and this brief update can't cover all the details. But before I sign off, I'd like to take just one incident from this horrific situation and unpack how President Ryken and Wheaton College have been (in my opinion) lying to us about it.
How it started
Both Ryken and Wheaton College would, of course, want you to believe that the whole thing ended well. To that end, Wheaton College released a statement on July 15th, 2026 that included these words:
In 2017, following the Philadelphia Presbytery's investigation, Dr. Ryken accepted the Presbytery's admonition. He stood with the elders and the victims before the Tenth congregation to ask for and receive forgiveness by apologizing publicly for failing to take additional necessary steps of pastoral oversight when he first learned of the abuse.
The aforementioned podcast addressed this very statement, but before we go on, let's make sure we're all on the same page.
When I hear the words, "He stood with the elders and the victims before the Tenth congregation to ask for and receive forgiveness", this is what I picture:
- Pastor Ryken with the victims and elders
- at his home church
- on Sunday morning
- facing the entire congregation
- requesting and receiving forgiveness
Where else might we encounter the "Tenth congregation" if not on a Sunday morning at that church? I believe that's the interpretation Wheaton intended readers to draw.
But that's not what happened, and Wheaton College knows it.
How it changed
After the Roys Report podcast went public, Wheaton sent out a damage-control email to staff on July 20th. Interestingly, the description of this event changed (bolding mine):
In 2017, following the Philadelphia Presbytery's investigation, Dr. Ryken accepted the Presbytery's admonition of Tenth's pastors and elders. This took place at a public meeting on February 27 of that same year at New Life Glenside Church (PCA). All Tenth congregants were invited to that public meeting, where yada yada yada (same words)....
So it didn't happen at the home church. And February 27, 2017 is a Monday.
I've attended a few of those sparsely populated Monday night meetings in unfamiliar locations. Nobody comes except a handful of diehards with a serious reason to make the trek.
That means only two of the original bullet points remain:
- Pastor Ryken with the victims and elders
- requesting and receiving forgiveness
And they're about to go, too.
But it gets worse
As explained in the podcast, one victim panned the whole story as a lie. He never stood with Ryken on a podium offering him forgiveness publicly. "This didn't happen."
The reporter went on to observe, "I have Ryken saying I did these things, and I have a victim saying, 'Where was I? I don't remember this at all. I've been deeply involved in this process...'"
What I think happened
Until we see video or hear from a victim who remembers things as President Ryken does, I'm assuming Ryken read his statement requesting forgiveness to a small crowd of people that included church elders. On a Monday night. Somewhere.
As for any victims who might have been present at that meeting, I'd guess they'd have been there for the same reason we're now here: Looking for justice.
To my thinking, that makes the first version of the story a lie.
What you can do
In this update we addressed the fact that the current president of Wheaton College kept on staff a music minister who admitted to having beaten a naked college student. To Ryken's credit, he clearly came to regret his horrifying lapse in judgment. But that doesn't mean he learned anything from it.
I say that because it was in 2014 that Ryken met with one of the victims and realized the consequences of his silence and inaction. Yet it was later in that very same year that he refused Kathy (Massaro) Gallagher's request that he do something about Dennis Massaro. To make matters worse, in 2015 he remained silent about what he knew after hearing that Massaro was pastoring a church in Turkey.
Let that sink in.
Then let others know that President Phil Ryken and Wheaton College are misrepresenting the past and still trying to ride this scandal out without taking appropriate action.
PS - I try to keep these updates from getting too long, so I just addressed on of the numerous falsehoods and misrepresentations. For those who want to know more, here's an open letter (well worth the read) that unpacks the sheer deceitfulness, end-to-end, of that email Wheaton College recently sent out.