They apparently got some attention when Sam tried convincing his 5-year-old daughter that gay marriage is bad. I don't remember that. But I do remember a few weeks ago when one of their videos went viral after Sam supposedly stole some of his wife's urine, performed a pregnancy test with it, and then revealed to her -- on camera -- that she was pregnant. Three days later, they posted another video revealing that she had a miscarriage. It's now looking like she was never pregnant in the first place.
The Rader family is in the news again this weekend after it was revealed that Sam Rader was one of the people busted for having an Ashley Madison account. Ashley Madison is a subscriber-based website for married people who want to cheat on their spouses. It turns out that Sam Rader was one of those subscribers two years ago -- though he denies that he had any affairs.
Sam Rader and his wife appeared in a video yesterday, confessing to the account. But they also say that Nia was already aware of the account, as were leaders within their church. Nia says "bygones" and Jesus apparently forgave Sam, but here is their written statement on the matter:
The bible tells us in James to confess our sins to one another and to pray for one another.You can watch the couple's video confession and response here.
I am a sinner, and a hopeless one at that. In no way do I meet the expectations of God for my life. I fall short of all his commands and I choose to disobey him repeatedly at my own consequences, which is why I am in such need of a savior like Jesus.
I feel ashamed of what I have to admit but I think it’s more than necessary for my dedicated followers, those who have entrusted their time and love in our family.
Over 2 years ago I did create the Ashely Madison account. To be clear this was only an account I used to navigate the site in my sinful curiosity and any messages or data pulled from that account would be evidence of that. I absolutely did not meet up or see another woman from the site. It was clearly a bad moment in my life and I acted on a sinful desire to be with another woman but never came close to going through with it.
It’s easy to watch our channel and think of us as a perfect family, but that’s simply far from actual reality. However, I am definitely not the man that I was then. I pursue my relationship with Christ on a daily basis and have since been involved in a weekly discipleship. We have our issues with sin like anyone else in the world. This is just one instance of my fallen self, one example of my imperfection and my fleshly desires. I will let you down, your friends and family will let you down, and yourself will let you down, just as I have let myself and family down. But Christ doesn’t let anyone down, which is why we are called to put our identity in Him and nothing and nobody else.
My wife and I plan to move forward as normal with our vlog, as we will not allow Satan any foothold in our lives. I have no doubts that we will continue to be attacked and shamed as we live our lives for Jesus in the public eye. It’s the reality of our humanness. You won’t see or witness any perfection from my family and especially not from myself.
I hope you are praying for one another and you pray for me. I do not plan to comment or say anything else about this situation. I am very sorry for my actions and regret it immensely. Our family would like to move on despite the hatred and criticism that will certainly ensue.
I'm torn about the whole Ashley Madison hacking and subsequent outings. I mean, it was delicious to learn that Josh Duggar continues to be a lech. On the other hand, I don't like the public shaming that came for thousands of other subscribers. And I don't like the public scab-pulling for couples like the Raders who had already resolved this issue and who now find themselves in the position to respond.
It would be great if people didn't cheat on their spouses. It would be great if they would talk with their wives or their husbands before sleeping with someone else. It would be great if they worked on their problems and talked about what was missing in their lives. Not only that, but there's a segment of people who are able to maintain their marriages only because they choose to be adulterous (i.e., sexless marriage, incapacitated spouse, whatever...).
Look back at my recent blog posts. You will see me firing my schadenfreude guns squarely at Josh Duggar and his hypocritical family. Otherwise, you (likely) won't see me cheering on these other Ashley Madison outings.