ADDENDUM::Controversial preacher returning to T4G stage

For those that may not remember, Mahaney was one of several officials of Sovereign Grace Ministries named as defendants in a class-action lawsuit for allegedly not reporting alleged sexual and physical abuse of kids. To be included in this church conference once again shows the utter lack of understanding within the church (whether Catholic or Protestant).

The problem is that pedophilia is seen as merely another flavor of “sexual immorality”. In the eyes of most purity teaching adherents, lust is lust, period. It doesn’t matter if a person’s lust is directed toward a child, because there is no concept of consent-based sexual ethics.
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But this would explain why if a predator expresses appropriate contrition for any kind of past “moral failure”, he becomes a living testimony of god’s redemptive power. The apostle Paul was a murderer after all, so anyone can be used of God. [Regretfully the original cite for this article appears to have been lost as I believe Gerencser's blog site was hacked and postings were lost.]

It is also a point echoed by Basyle “Boz” Tchividjian, grandson of Billy Graham and a Liberty University law professor focused on sexual abuse in the church.  But it's this whole idea of, how did I put it in response to Badash's article on Tchividian, "Criminality is suppressed and restoration of the 'guilty' party back into leadership is the typical modus operandi of the evangelical crowd as recent headlines have shown (ie. Dino Rizzo and Sam Hinn)."

This point is also noted by Amy Smith, Dallas co-leader of SNAP, 

,,,it encourages wrongdoing. Giving roles of prominence, prestige or power to those accused of hiding possible crimes encourages others to hide possible crimes.

Men like Mahaney should be ostracized, not elevated, by church colleagues and in church circles.

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A speaker sidelined two years ago by a sexual abuse scandal at his former church is back at center stage for an upcoming conference featuring prominent leaders in the Southern Baptist Convention.

C.J. Mahaney, senior pastor of Sovereign Grace Church of Louisville, Ky., joins Southern Baptist Theological Seminary President Albert Mohler and International Mission Board President David Platt as scheduled speakers at the biennial Together for the Gospel conference scheduled April 12-14 in Louisville, Ky.

Mahaney, who in 2006 along with Mohler and two others founded the confab popular among young Calvinists, sat out the last conference in 2014, saying he didn’t want publicity over a high-profile lawsuit alleging a cover-up of child abuse at his former church to subject the other founders to unfair criticism. Criticism nevertheless followed, after a photo taken at the gathering showed Mahaney seated alongside conference headliners on the front row.


Mahaney was one of numerous leaders of Sovereign Grace Ministries, a church-planting network he helped start in the 1980s, named in a class-action lawsuit for allegedly failing to report alleged sexual and physical abuse of children. The lawsuit was dismissed due to statute of limitations, but in 2014 a volunteer at Mahaney’s former church was convicted on criminal charges similar to acts alleged in the civil suit.

Problems at Covenant Life Church in Gaithersburg, Md., originally the mother church of Sovereign Grace Ministries, prompted Mahaney to move the organization to Louisville, Ky., in part to strengthen informal ties to Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.

Controversial preacher returning to T4G stage