When mainstream media does documentaries on Christian scandals, there is a great deal of suspicion about whether the documentary will advance an angle that is antithetical to the teachings on Scripture. The Netflix Documentary “Death of the Pastor’s Wife” thankfully does not advance a theology. Instead, it exposes bad theology and seeker-sensitive Christianity.
Seeker-Sensitive For Chuds
Solid Rock Church was a seeker-sensitive charismatic church in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. This is not exactly a classy area. Mica and her family moved there in 2007 following a divorce. Mica was 13 when she started going to Solid Rock and was quickly plugged into their music ministry. By 16, she was leading worship because of her musical giftedness.
The church is shown performing Justin Bieber and Adele parodies for worship, which reflects their liturgy. John-Paul Miller also began as a gifted musician in the church whose talent for playing the piano was confused for a call to preach.
John-Paul, who was 15 years older than Mica, would get too familiar with her, since they worked together. Both were married at the time, and both divorced. Death of the Pastor’s Wife implies that Mica divorced her husband after she cheated on him, while Miller’s wife divorced him, sending him into an emotional spiral.
John-Paul confessed his moral failing to the church but continued preaching because he was “anointed.” Mica’s involvement appeared not to have been made public. Both were allowed to continue in their ministry roles, betraying a glaring lack of character standards at Solid Rock. In charismatic churches, the word “anointed” is used by sordid individuals to justify habitual sin in ministry. John-Paul Miller is no exception.
The women who joined the church afterward, interviewed by Netflix, appear to take comfort in Mica’s transparency and relatability. The church that had more football jerseys than suits cared not about divorced or female pastors.
Cycle of Adultery And Worse
A relationship that started out as adultery was likely to also deal with that. But prior to getting engaged, Mica would tattoo “John-Paul Miller” on her thigh, and before their marriage, she would get a boob job. Netflix implies that this, her reaction to anesthesia, was the start of her bipolar disorder.
Once married, John-Paul Miller’s sex drive is unusually high, demanding sex 4 times a day. And from the pulpit, John-Paul Miller had no qualms about preaching that wives needed to put out for their husbands, claiming that if they didn’t, they would be bombarded with temptation before lunch.
John-Paul was not loyal. He cheated on Mica before they were married and then after. Mica always felt the need to put out in order to assuage his desires for outside the marriage, but to no avail. Mica would, to her physical detriment, take testosterone to improve sex drive.
As the marriage got more abusive, so too did the sex. Mica would be pimped out by John-Paul to be groped and molested by homeless men, with the implication that she was even forced into a (devil’s) threesome.
John-Paul Miller sounds like a potential homosexual and appears to have done homosexual acts. This repeats the cycle that his father, also a pastor, lived out. This pastor Miller was addicted to prostitutes and was a homosexual as well, and thus John-Paul’s upbringing is traumatic. But many villains have tragic backstories that make them no more sympathetic in their actions once they have victimized others.
The Savage Death Before Mica
There was a disabled man on a scooter who, during rehabilitation from an accident, fell in love with Suzie, and they got married. They started going to Solid Rock, and John-Paul took an interest in Suzie Skinner and they would commit adultery together.
This wrecked his life to the point where he drowned in a pool, and the Millers were alerted before any other family members, despite his opposition to attending Solid Rock. The death is implied to be a suicide by drowning after, Suzie’s affair was confirmed.
John-Paul would preach the funeral for the man who’s wife he slept with, in a savage move. It was truly a David taking Uriah’s wife scenario. John-Paul and Suzie would get married in June 2025, confirming all suspicions.
Escalating Abuse
There is no shortage of detailing the abuse of John-Paul. In every way, he was abusive towards Mica, taking advantage of her lack of wisdom to see that he was a worthless man. He took advantage of her desire to maintain the health of the church and the fact that he was her employer.
When Mica attempts to leave, John-Paul becomes a menacing presence, and when she finally leaves, John-Paul engages in cyberstalking, planting trackers and razors on her vehicle, and other undue spying activity. He has her institutionalized and steals her stuff while she was in the hospital in order to hack her social media. He made it a threat about posting nude images of Mica and followed through.
True Crime Slop
The death of Mica Miller inspired all sorts of internet theories about John-Paul Miller’s role in her death. The family believes that she was murdered, which is not unreasonable, as the suicide was out of nowhere to all parties involved. Death of the Pastor’s Wife leans into the true-crime slop tropes that have proliferated in female social media circles, even showing a montage of them, but then it subverts this by bringing on an investigative journalist who ultimately concludes that Mica’s death was “murder by suicide,” as the evidence that the wounds were self-inflicted was so overwhelming, but the menacing presence of John-Paul is clearly a contributing factor.
Resolution
Mica is dead, and the law did not protect her from John-Paul. Solid Rock would sell its building for $2 million and severely downsize back to around 15 people, according to Netflix. This figure is likely bankrolling the Millers. Suzie, the new pastor’s wife, is leading worship. And the families of those affected by John-Paul are left without recourse. Shining the light to expose the wolf that is John-Paul Miller of Solid Rock Church appears to be their only recourse in this life, even though he was indicted by the Feds on cyberstalking charges, a charge prompted by the high-profile nature of the case.
Unanswered Questions
One hanging chad in the story is that John-Paul and Mica did not have children together, a question completely unexplored. Was John-Paul’s sperm count so low from copious attempts at sex? Was birth control mixed in with the other cocktail that Mica was prescribed or was infertility an issue in their marriage? It’s odd that Mica’s journaling about wanting to be a better wife, and even stepmother, never mentioned children.
Additionally, Mica’s first marriage is never really discussed after the divorce. It is never a question of what could have been, had she not thrown away her first marriage. This detail made me less sympathetic towards Mica, in an otherwise heartbreaking story. The grass was not greener on the other side of the hypergamous affair. The ex-husband is not interviewed, and the marriage is only revisited as a footnote about how Mica wanted to avoid living out the divorces she grew up with.
Conclusion
Netflix presented a transparent and surprisingly agenda-free coverage of the Mica Miller death. Death of the Pastor’s Wife exposed the shortcomings of seeker-sensitive aspiring megachurches while letting the viewer come to their own conclusion. The documentary hardly critiques what Scripture teaches on marriage, stopping at how John-Paul twisted Scripture and preached to justify his own eroticism.
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