Jon Uhler — I do not recommend him as an advocate or a mental health professional

Jon Uhler presents himself to the public as an expert on safeguarding women and children from predators. In fact, he is a very dangerous man. Here is evidence from multiple sources that points to Jon Uhler being untrustworthy. I believe he is a false advocate who uses victim’s stories for his own self-aggrandisement.

The counseling license of Jon Uhler, a self-styled expert on sex offenders, is under review by the Office of Investigative Enforcement in the South Carolina Department of Labor, Licensing, and Regulation. We now present the first part of our findings that raise questions about his suitability as a safeguarding expert. Although Uhler has publicly minimized the South Carolina investigation, it is consistent with the pattern of behavior we have found in his employment history. And that is the least-disturbing thing we have learned about the history of Jon Uhler.
— South Carolina Is Investigating Jon Uhler, And So Are We, by The Distance Mag, 15 July 2024.

The Distance Mag article discusses:

• The dark side of Jon Uhler
• What Jon Uhler’s “certifications” really mean
• Auditing Jon Uhler’s experience
• The areas of Jon Uhler’s expertise

If and when The Distance Mag publishes more articles about Jon Uhler, I will link to them, either in the body-text of this post, or at the end as Further Reading.

Jon Uhler’s daughter, Nicole, has gone on record about her father’s bad character.

Listen to Nicole Uhler’s interview.
The Red Flags Around Jon Uhler (Part 1).
The Red Flags Around Jon Uhler (Part 2).

In Part 1 of the interview, Nicole describes Jon’s evil behaviours and secret beliefs that he doesn’t share publicly. In the next few paragraphs, I’ve summarised what Nicole said in Part 1.

Both Jon and Patricia Uhler (Patricia was Nicole’s mother) verbally, emotionally, physically and spiritually abused Nicole and her two younger brothers. Nicole alleges that her mother also sexually abused her kids. (Nicole’s mother suicided some years ago.) Both of Nicole’s parents developed intensely paranoid beliefs, which led to them instilling terror in their kids and forcing them to act like fugitives.

From when Nicole was eight years old, Jon threatened to kill her with a gun, or put her on the streets, or put her in foster care. He browbeat and psychologically tortured his kids with worm theology. Jon would harangue his kids for hours with twisted interpretations of scripture. “Either you believe what we believe, or we’re praying that God hurts you, or causes you to die.”

Jon Uhler has immersed himself in the teachings of John MacArthur, Bill Gothard, the Pearl Method of Child Discipline, Dominionist ideologies, and the kind of Biblical Counseling which lays false guilt on people (especially females). He is obsessed with very cruel forms of punishment. He has extreme views about when the death penalty should be imposed. He has prideful megalomania, a terroristic mindset, and covert, snake-like, controlling behaviours. He relishes patriarchy and misogyny. He believes women are ‘less than’. He inflicts his beliefs on other people, and punishes those who disagree with or resist him.

He over-inflates his experience with sexual predators. He has had multiple licenses that have already been revoked. When employed as a counselor in prisons, he would surreptitiously take home the prison files notes of inmates, and share (read out, or publish) the contents — which is highly unethical. Nicole recounts how Jon told her that he had forged the signatures of prison inmates, which led to him being fired from his job at Somerset Prison. (To hear this go to 1:02:00 in Nicole’s interview Part 1; more on the forgery charge below.)

When it serves his purposes, Jon can come across as charming, self-assured, confident and charismatic. He uses this false front to target women, especially women who have been abused. He wants women to be hurt so that he can ‘help’ them by presenting himself as a saviour, prophet and miracle worker. He exploits women’s stories of abuse in order to build his own businesses.

Many of the beliefs that Jon Uhler holds will be deeply concerning to readers of my blog. Here Nicole Uhler describes some of his beliefs about divorce and marital abuse:

Jon told me many times if I ever got divorced for abuse, he would disown me and my children, as Jon teaches that divorce for abuse is the woman’s fault. He believes that parents are sinning, if they help their adult children after abusive marriages, as Jon teaches that it’s “natural consequences” for the person being abused, as “they chose the abuser & now have to stay and own the outcome.” He loves to watch women suffer and then need his help, as he ironically harbors sadomasochistic desires directed toward the weak and helpless, namely females.

Matt Osborne writes at The Distance Mag. Here is a screen shot of the above quote from Nicole Uhler.

I honour Nicole Uhler for her courage in going on the record. Nicole reached out to me a few years ago, saying she was ready to expose her father. At that stage, I didn’t have the time or energy to be a good conduit for Nicole’s story, and I’m very thankful that she has at last been able to give her testimony.

Jon Uhler charged with forgery

Jon Uhler was charged with forgery in 2016. I paid $3.95 to the Daily American archive to verify that the following news article was genuinely published by them. I cannot give a direct link to the article because it is only viewable if you pay to see it.

Jimmy Hinton does not trust Jon Uhler

I admire and recommend Jimmy Hinton for his advocacy. In 2009, Jimmy’s dad, John Hinton, was discovered to have sexually molested and raped multiple young girls. For decades, Jimmy’s dad had been preaching at a small church in Somerset, PA, USA. When Jimmy heard about his father’s crimes, he immediately reported his father to the police. Jimmy’s dad is now serving consecutive life sentences for sexual crimes against children. Jimmy has become a staunch advocate for victims of sexual abuse.

Jimmy Hinton has publicised both The Distance Mag article and Nicole Uhler’s interview:

Jimmy Hinton and Jon Uhler co-founded Church Protect in (I think) 2015, but in 2017 Jimmy resigned from Church Protect:

I stood with Jimmy Hinton when he resigned from Church Protect, and I still do.

Jon Uhler has a track record of manipulating and bullying victims of abuse, while simultaneous posing as ‘safe-guarding’ expert.

Jon Uhler has a long track record of disrespecting victims of abuse, while simultaneously posing as an expert on assessing and treating pedophiles, providing counseling to survivors of abuse, and pretending to safeguard women and children from predators.

In more recent years he has inserted himself into the transgender debate, and is trying to portray himself as an expert in that area too. (His activism in the transgender controversy are discussed in The Distance Mag article.)

I think that every time a new ‘wave’ hits the abuse discourse, especially when Christians are vocal in that wave, Jon Uhler inserts himself into the heat of the debate, enlists survivors to ‘lead support groups’ for him, and tries to make money from the new wave. The transgender debate is only the latest in a long line of such things. Wherever the fight is hottest, Jon seems to think he can jump right in and manipulate the fight to magnify his reputation as an ‘expert’ and thereby build his platform.

In a church I went to years ago, I saw the Christian grandparents of a sexually abused preschooler praising Jon Uhler for his knowledge of pedophiles. It grieved my heart, seeing how those well-meaning grandparents were deceived; but I knew they didn’t respect me enough to heed my warning about Jon Uhler. The grandparents had already suspected and dismissed me because of what I say about the mistranslation of Malachi 2:16.

In September, 2017, Marci Preheim published the story of “Jane” [Internet Archive link]. “Jane” (her pseudonym) was gravely mistreated by The Master’s College after she reported having been drugged and sexually abused.

When that story broke, Jon Uhler got quite vociferous on Facebook, repeatedly calling for Jane to go public by naming the man who sexually abused her. Nicole Uhler describes this episode in The Red Flags Around Jon Uhler, Part 1.

Note: Jane did report the assault to the police soon after it happened; the police investigated Jane’s report but decided not to lay charges. (It is quite common for law enforcement to investigate reports of sexual crime but not lay charges, and there are many reasons why no charges are laid. The fact that no charges are laid does not prove that the person making the report was making false allegations.)

Abuse survivors and victim-advocates (including myself) pushed back against Jon Uhler, because he was bullying Jane and not respecting her boundaries. We were defending Jane’s right to not disclose the name of the abuser if she chose not to. The more we pushed back at Jon, the more belligerent he became. He revealed himself during that interchange as someone who was not respecting the choices of victims, and was trying to bully victims into doing what HE thought they should do.

Most if not all of that Facebook discussion took place on Jon Uhler’s Facebook page. I saved permalinks, but he must have removed those posts (see this comment I made in February, 2018). I have screen shots of the Facebook interchange, but I won’t show them here as this post is already long!

From what I’ve observed of Jon Uhler over the years, he seems to have many of the traits of a Persistent Predatory Personality (PPP). For more info on PPPs, check out Dr Karen Mitchell’s work: her website, her PhD thesis [Internet Archive link], and her tweets where she is educating the community about the traits and tactics of PPPs.

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Further reading and listening

South Carolina Is Investigating Jon Uhler, And So Are We [Internet Archive link] — by The Distance Mag, 15 July 2024.

How Jon Uhler Put His Family Behind Him [Internet Archive link] — by The Distance Mag, 29 July, 2024.

Seven Red Flags That Detransitioners Cannot Unsee In Jon Uhler [Internet Archive link] — by The Distance Mag, August 15, 2024.

The Red Flags Around Jon Uhler — Part 3 — An interview with Jon Uhler’s former business partner, Jimmy Hinton, by The Distance Mag, 1 August 2024.

Uhlergate: Nicole Uhler in Live X Space — 26 July 2024.

The Jon Uhler Demolition Zone: More People Come Forward With Their Stories — 22 July 2024.

Note: I do not endorse everything published by The Distance Mag. For example, on same-sex practices I hold to the traditional Christian position. But I think The Distance Mag and Nicole Uhler have formed a correct assessment of Jon Uhler’s character.