Welcome to H&C,,, where I aggregate news of interest. Primary topics include abuse with "the church", LGBTQI+ issues, cults - including anti-vaxxers, and the Dominionist and Theocratic movements. Also of concern is the anti-science movement with interest in those that promote garbage like homeopathy, chiropractic and the like. I am an atheist and anti-theist who believes religious mythos must be die and a strong supporter of SOCAS.
C. J. Mahaney announced
today that he will back out of next month’s Together for the Gospel
(T4G) conference to keep the controversy over Sovereign Grace Churches
(SGC) away from the event.
“Given the recent, renewed controversy surrounding
Sovereign Grace Churches and me individually, I have decided to withdraw
from the 2018 T4G conference,” Mahaney wrote.
Over the past several weeks, Rachael Denhollander, the former gymnast whose Larry Nassar testimony went viral,
has used her platform to address abuse in the church, particularly
years-old allegations of abuse at Covenant Life Church, where
Mahaney—the former president of Sovereign Grace Ministries (SGM)—had
served as senior pastor.
Though the 2012 case against SGM was dismissed in court, Denhollander has repeatedly challenged the church network’s claims, most recently in a 7,800-word statement posted on Facebook last Thursday.
,,,Sovereign Grace Churches posted a lengthy and detailed response to Denhollander’s request for an investigation by GRACE. In addition to a denial of the bulk of Denhollander’s allegations, the church organization flatly rejected her request.
Comments by Larry Nassar accuser Rachael Denhollander in a Christianity Today interview have revived debate over a dismissed abuse lawsuit against Sovereign Grace Ministries (SGM) dating back to 2012.
Last week, Denhollander referred to the SGM saga as “one of the worst, if not the worst, instances of evangelical cover-up of sexual abuse” and “one of the most well-documented cases of institutional cover-up I have ever seen.”
The 33-year-old said her former church’s stance toward victims and involvement in restoring former SGM president C. J. Mahaney led her family to leave the congregation.
Sovereign Grace Churches (SGC) issued a statement dated February 2 calling her characterizations untrue, citing the 2014 dismissal of a civil case against SGM. (In a separate case, a former youth leader with SGM had been convicted of abuse.)
Not something I would normally post but it provides some food for thought. The intersection of Larry Nassar with CJ Mahaney. To borrow the Ed note,
Editor’s note: Denhollander clarified that she and her husband did not attend a SGM church, but a Louisville, Kentucky, church “directly involved in restoring” former SGM president C. J. Mahaney. She said that she and her husband “left because we were told by individual elders that it wasn’t the place for us.” CT previously reported how Mahaney and SGM were accused of covering up abuse within the church network in a 2012 lawsuit; they denied the allegations and argued that courts shouldn’t second-guess pastoral counseling decisions. A judge dismissed the suit in 2014, though a former SGM youth leader was convicted of abusing three boys in a separate case.
What I found to be a devastating statement on Denhollander's part,
That’s exactly right. When you support an organization that has been embroiled in a horrific 30-year cover-up of sexual assault, you know what that communicates to the world and what it communicates to other enablers and abusers within your own church. It’s very obvious that they are not going to speak out against sexual assault when it’s in their own community.
So that leaves me with the question: What happens when it’s a trusted person at this church? What happens when it’s a trusted person in these other evangelical organizations? The extent that one is willing to speak out against their own community is the bright line test for how much they care and how much they understand.
We have failed abhorrently as Christians when it comes to that test. We are very happy to use sexual assault as a convenient whipping block when it’s outside our community. When the Penn State scandal broke, prominent evangelical leaders were very, very quick to call for accountability, to call for change. But when it was within our own community, the immediate response was to vilify the victims or to say things that were at times blatantly and demonstratively untrue about the organization and the leader of the organization. There was a complete refusal to engage with the evidence. It did not even matter.
The ultimate reality that I live with is that if my abuser had been Nathaniel Morales instead of Larry Nassar, if my enabler had been [an SGM pastor] instead of [MSU gymnastics coach] Kathie Klages, if the organization I was speaking out against was Sovereign Grace under the leadership of [Mahaney] instead of MSU under the leadership of Lou Anna Simon, I would not only not have evangelical support, I would be actively vilified and lied about by every single evangelical leader out there. The only reason I am able to have the support of these leaders now is because I am speaking out against an organization not within their community. Had I been so unfortunate so as to have been victimized by someone in their community, someone in the Sovereign Grace network, I would not only not have their support, I would be massively shunned. That’s the reality.
The only way to introduce this print interview is by the authors own words:
Unlike the hierarchical Catholic Church, evangelical churches often
function independently. But their influence is widespread—as Stanley
points out, Wayne Grudem, an evangelical theologian at Phoenix Seminary,
once described Sovereign Grace Ministries “as an example of the way
churches ought to work.”
In response to the Washingtonian investigation, executive director of Sovereign Grace Churches Mark Prater pointed TIME to a lengthy statement he made in 2014
denying that Sovereign Grace leaders “conspired to cover up” sexual
abuse. “Yes, we have been the target of misinformed critique in both the
secular and Christian media, and more will likely come,” he stated. “I
pray that God gives us all grace to respond wisely and biblically. But
regardless of the public discourse, we are strongly committed to
ensuring a safe environment for the children in our churches.”
In a statement to TIME, Mark Mitchell, the executive pastor of
Covenant Life Church, said that along with the broader educational
community the church had learned much over the last few decades about
how to respond to reports of abuse and care for victims and families.
“Our interaction with civil authorities has been instrumental in shaping
our policies and procedures for the protection and care of children.
When a pastor, staff member or volunteer has reason to believe a child
is the victim of abuse or neglect, our policy requires those individuals
to report it immediately to civil authorities,” he said. “Every Sunday,
hundreds of families participate in our church services and entrust
their children to the care of our staff and volunteers. We will continue
to work hard to ensure our church is a place of safety for children and
a place of healing for victims.”
The point that, over the course of the past few years, has been driven home by the numerous postings made by this blog. Sexual abuse is not just a Catholic problem:
The Catholic Church has been taken to task over abuse for decades
now. Evangelical ministries are now facing their own abuse crises. In
the media, we’re hearing more about these stories. Some of these
allegations confront abuse that is decades old. From just the past year,
I’m thinking of reports about Josh Duggar of 19 Kids and Counting and Bill Gothard, a Christian homeschooling advocate. I’m also thinking about Buzzfeed’s recent story on Jesus People USA [posted here] and Kiera Feldman’s 2012 investigation of abuse in a Tulsa megachurch. (Of course, other religions are not immune from sexual abuse scandals either.)
The sad reality is that sexual abuse is widespread everywhere, not
just in religious communities. The statistics I saw were one-in-four
girls and one-in-six boys will be sexually abused before the age of 18.
The experts I spoke to didn’t say these statistics are worse in
evangelical churches, but they did say that abusers could prey on
trusting religious communities, which give them access to children.
That’s why churches need policies in place to protect children and
handle abuse when it happens. That means reporting suspected abuse to
authorities immediately, instead of handling it internally. Abuse is a
sin, but it’s also a serious crime.
A final point that caught my attention revolves around what Dias refers to as "sexual ethic" centering around the book I Kissed Dating Goodbye by Joshua Harris. The conclusions made by Stanley (the author of the preceding piece) mirror my initial thoughts concerning the Bill Gothard/Josh Duggar debacle.
I can’t speak to all of evangelicalism, but I can say there are
troubling messages sent to sex-abuse survivors in church cultures that
prize abstinence until heterosexual marriage. What does a young girl
make of her “purity” if her father molests her? What does a young boy
think if a male church member sexually assaults him? Churches that
advocate a conservative sexual ethic should address those messages.
Does this kind of circumscribed sexual environment give way to more
sexual abuse? Some people I talked to say, yes, this is repression and
it leads to abuse and acting out sexually. All the perpetrators from my
story were male—several were teenage boys—and they were members of a
ministry that advocated strict sexual mores. Books like I Kissed Dating Goodbye
promote courtship. Modesty is important. Abstinence is too.
Underpinning much of these teachings is a patriarchal understanding of
Christianity, where men are in charge. In a perfect world, those power
dynamics would not be abused, but as Christians teach: We’re not living
in a perfect world.
There are many scandals that are just so big I can not wrap my little pea brain around all that transpires. It seems that everyday a debacle comes along and I get lost in the details or become so overwhelmed, the true importance of it all is lost. The mess with Sovereign Grace Ministries is one of those narratives.
I have picked at itthrough the years but till - today - reading the following, I don't think I realized just how depraved this cult is.
Whether it’s the military, a school, or a church, there tend to be
some parallels: a culture that’s at least somewhat separate from the
outside world, a self-policing elite, a rank-and-file conditioned to
revere its leaders.
In the ministry Mahaney built, some of these features were readily
apparent. SGM represented a society unto itself, one that functioned
parallel to mainstream culture and that distrusted that wider, secular
world. “They believe God’s law comes before civil law,” as one former
member says.
Mahaney’s ministry wrote and licensed its own music, stocked its own
bookstores, and supported Christian education. “The top tier was
homeschooling. The second tier was Covenant Life School,” says Anne
Ehlers, a Montgomery County teacher who attended CLC for 21 years. “To
have kids in public school, that was like sending your kids to hell.”
,,,
Even for adults, questioning leaders was not always tolerated—it
meant you weren’t willing to submit to spiritual authority. Members were
held accountable for virtually all areas of their lives. And the
ministry’s increasingly Calvinist focus on sin at times became an excuse
for members to scrutinize one another’s behavior, calling fellow
congregants out if they were prideful, if their children were unruly, if
their house was unkempt.
These confrontations often happened during small-group meetings—“care
groups,” in church parlance. Although meant to be supportive circles,
care groups could morph into harsh examinations, in which followers were
goaded into confessing faults and transgressions. “It was coded in
positive language, as a growth thing,” says Hännah Ettinger, a Peace
Corps volunteer who grew up in an SGM church outside Richmond. “But it
actually was very nitpicking, negative, self-esteem-destroying kind of
stuff.”
,,,
It’s a troubling document. Upon hearing about a case of suspected
child sex abuse, ministers are advised to notify church elders
immediately. They should also call a lawyer, preferably one with “ethics
grounded in Scripture,” for legal advice. The document encourages
pastors to “establish fact” during a “time of investigation.” It notes
that pastors must notify authorities about suspected child molesters if
their state’s laws require it. (Not all do.) It also says it may be
necessary to call police if the accused is an immediate threat to
children—“but this is unlikely,” the memo says. Otherwise, it’s up to
the parents to report abuse.
“When Christians appear in a courtroom and they come from the same
church community that has fostered trust and spiritual unity,” the
guidelines state, “they will likely find the legal process to be highly
offensive.” Reconciliation between a repentant abuser and a victim is
presented as the ultimate goal.
,,,
The following morning, the church celebrated its third anniversary.
Mahaney’s congregation filled the ballroom of a suburban Marriott with
nearly 300 people, most of them good-looking adults under 35, singing
along with the worship band. Elementary-school-age children squirmed in
their seats until they were released to go to Sovereign Grace Kids. It
was as if Mahaney, now 62, had recreated an earlier time in his
ministry—once again assembling a new, makeshift church, an audience full
of idealistic young families.
He preached from the book of Job, about a man who loses nearly
everything he has. The part of the text that preoccupied him dealt with
Job’s tone-deaf friends. They came to Job during his suffering and
called him a sinner. Job was blameless, but his friends couldn’t see
that: They thought he must have deserved to have so much taken from him.
I have posted a small bit concerning Sovereign Grace Ministries here and here; about Sovereign Grace Church here and C.J. Mahaney here. I'm not quite sure where this is leading but definitely something to keep our eyes on.
Rick Patrick, senior pastor of First Baptist Church in Sylacauga, Ala., described a story in the February issue of the Washingtonian
titled the “The Fall of a Mega Church” as “heartbreaking” in a comment
on SBC Today, a blog he publishes in his capacity as executive director
of Connect316, a group of pastors formed to counter the growing
influence of Calvinism in the nation’s second-largest faith group.
SBC Today reprinted a blog by Brent Detwiler, a one-time colleague of
Sovereign Grace Ministries founder C.J. Mahaney who for the past three
years worked with victims, child abuse experts, lawyers and law
enforcement in pursuit of a book detailing what media have called the
largest evangelical sexual abuse scandal to date.
,,,
“Perhaps I am missing some pertinent piece of information here, but it would seem more appropriate for Southern Baptists to be distancing ourselves from Mahaney and SGM rather than joining hands in joint ministry ventures,” he said.
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.
,,,
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)."
,,,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.
__
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.
What is it with "religion" and sexual abuse against children?
Two pastors have left a Reformed evangelical group after a pastor from the Maryland megachurch they oversaw confessed to covering up sex abuse claims, the latest chapter in a public struggle over evangelicals coming to terms with abuse within their ranks.
Pastors Joshua Harris and C.J. Mahaney left the leadership council of The Gospel Coalition, a central hub for the Reformed evangelical movement, after a trial involving child abuse at Covenant Life Church in Gaithersburg, Md., which both men have overseen.
A criminal trial that concluded last week raised questions about what pastors at Covenant Life knew about the abuse and why steps weren’t taken to stop it.
[,,,]
The allegations of abuse cover-up that have dogged Mahaney’s leadership — he was never personally accused of abuse — in recent years have also cast unwanted attention on the Reformed network he helped start and have sent leading Reformed pastors rushing to his defense.
