Porn again

Feature: XXX masters of duplicity preach purity in the pulpit while hiding prurient practices at the computer screen | Mark Bergin

CAUTION: This story concerns the graphic topic of pornography.

Jody Burgin drawls with melodious deliberation, littering conversations with first-name references as if every stranger were an old friend. “Hey John,” he might say in a first meeting. “Let me tell you something.”

Folks find Mr. Burgin’s accessible personality easy to trust, his counsel easy to revere, his authenticity easy to believe. For 20 years, churchgoers first in Birmingham, Ala., and then Cincinnati, Ohio, trusted, revered, and believed the impeccable reputation Mr. Burgin built from his pulpit. But beneath the thick varnish of smooth oration and doctrinally sound sermons, this conservative pastor secretly harbored a monster. “I was a master of duplicity,” he said.