Following allegations John MacArthur failed to protect victims of child abuse, publishers have declined to publish MacArthur’s new book, “The War on Children,” an employee at Grace to You (GTY) confirmed with The Roys Report (TRR).
According to a still-available post on Google Books, “The War on Children: Providing Refuge for Your Children in a Hostile World,” was set to be published in 2022 by Thomas Nelson.
However, MacArthur’s broadcast ministry GTY announced last week that the book would be published by the new MacArthur Publishing Group.
In April 2022, TRR received a tip that Thomas Nelson had canceled its release of “The War on Children.” So, TRR emailed Nelson about the planned release of the book but did not receive a response. We have sent additional emails since then, but have still not heard back from the company.
The tip came about a month after TRR published an exclusive story, revealing that MacArthur had publicly excommunicated a former member, Eileen Gray, for refusing to take back her child-abusing husband, David Gray.
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A follow-up story by TRR revealed that even after David Gray was convicted in 2005 of sexually molesting his children, MacArthur and Grace Community Church continued to shun Eileen and support David.
David Gray started a ministry while in prison, called Chains for Christ Ministries. In a 2012 ministry newsletter obtained by TRR, MacArthur praised David Gray for his “steadfast faithfulness in the midst of such a difficult trial” and called Gray “our missionary to Corcoran State Prison.”
Today, Gray is serving 21 years to life for aggravated child molestation, corporal injury to a child, and child abuse.
In April 2022, TRR also published an exclusive story about Paul Guay, a former pastor at Grace Community Church. According to an eyewitness, Guay confessed to MacArthur in 1979 that he had molested his daughter, Wendy Guay.
In response, MacArthur wrote a letter, obtained by TRR, urging Wendy Guay to forgive her father and telling her that her faither will remain a “faithful part of our staff.”
Decades later, Wendy Guay wrote to MacArthur, pleading with him to help her expose her father, who was still pastoring, as a serial pedophile. MacArthur refused and replied in an email, “I’m not sure why all this has become an obsession for you after so many years.”
MacArthur has not responded to repeated requests for comment by TRR about his handling of the Paul Guay or David Gray cases.
Today, TRR spoke with an employee at GTY, who said that because of the book’s strong stance on controversial issues, “a lot of publishers didn’t want to work with us.”
“The War on Children” counters the “unimaginably destructive” culture that calls “good evil and evil good,” GTY’s website states. It adds that in the book, MacArthur helps readers “see clearly the issues at hand so you can defend, protect, and joyfully raise your children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.”
The GTY employee gave only her first name, Morgan. When TRR asked for her last name, she declined to give it out and asked TRR to email GTY, which we did.
As of time of publication, no one from GTY has responded.
According to Morgan, “The War on Children” is the first book to be published by the MacArthur Publishing Group.
Trailer for “The War on Children”
Julie Roys is a veteran investigative reporter and founder of The Roys Report. She also previously hosted a national talk show on the Moody Radio Network, called Up for Debate, and has worked as a TV reporter for a CBS affiliate. Her articles have appeared in numerous periodicals.
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23 Responses
So THIS is why JM started going after MLK. Deflect, deflect, deflect.
Again, glass houses.
Yup. No different than a sleazy politician. And yet another reason why MacArthur is biblically disqualified from being a pastor by his own teachings on the topic (“Do as I say, and not as I do.” – AGAIN). Glad all my MacArthur (and ALL my other religious) books went into the dumpster a long time go.
i wasn’t aware of any of this.
Thank you so much, Iulie Roys and team, for continually revealing what is happening amongst mega church leadership. I don’t think I’ve ever been so heartbroken. In recent years, we’ve learned so much about worldwide corruption. And now, when the church should have been mature and able to take her stand on all of the issues, we’re being made aware of the rot and foundational instability of so many churches on an unprecedented scale. I’ve never been impressed with MacArthur, except when he fought to keep his church open during the ‘seige’ and won his case. This revelation of his supporting fathers who have abused their children is absolutely nuts. He’s always seemed so strait laced, religious, pompous and full of himself. It’s not surprising he’s created his own publishing house. Who in his right mind would do something so outlandish, and with everyone watching? This is another example of a person who has been elevated to celebrity status, is driven by pride and arrogance and is completely out of touch. His congregates need to snap out of it and send him packing.
https://julieroys.com/book-publishers-refuse-macarthurs-war-on-children/#comment-144255
Yes, it’s time McArthur be retired 👍
I hope this will get through if I don’t use the former mobile telephone service I had!
I find no heroism in behaving like Jehovah Witnesses when it comes to vaccination. 🤬
I am pleased that I never had Covid but then I have had my full series of shots too I am pleased to say!
The antivax until the last 5 years was unknown to Dispensationalists, so wanting to spread germs was one thing, but not wanting to stop illnesses through vaccinations has shown to be irrational and irresponsible💉👍
See
“Why L.A. County paid $400,000 to a church that violated coronavirus rules”
https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2021-09-02/why-l-a-county-paid-400-000-to-a-church-that-violated-coronavirus-rules
Or
https://julieroys.com/john-macarthur-church-covid-outbreak/
It’s ironic that a ministry that goes by the name Grace to You could show so little grace to the victims abused by their staff. I’m hard-pressed to see the moral difference between this and the Catholic Church’s enabling abusive priests at the expense of victims. It’s not a small thing is it, for a ministry to live according to this for decades.
There is no difference between these scandals, and that of the Catholic Church. I can’t remember who said this, but, “power, corrupts, and absolute(ish) power corrupts absolutely.”
Jane,
That would be Lord Acton.
“Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men, even when they exercise influence and not authority; still more when you superadd the tendency of the certainty of corruption by authority.”
There is a difference, when there was light on the abuse in the Catholic Church, they admitted it and expressed sorrow. As far as I can tell, JM hasn’t.
For anyone who knows of MacArthur, this is not news.
I’m so glad your reporting brought awareness regarding John MacArthur & its impacted his ability to publish with Nelson.
Thomas Nelson Publishers should be commended for its decision and the significant financial implications of it.
Every time I hear of these pastors who encourage women and children to remain with abusive and violent men, I wonder if they would do the same to an animal. I mean if a man is known to abuse his dog, would they call animal welfare? Would they chastise the man for abusing his beast? Would they try to get the animal away from someone that repeatedly attacks it? I ask, because it seems that in many congregations, an animal has more standing women.
These men hide behind piety and their supposed fidelity to scripture-as the Pharisees did. And yet, Jesus exposed their staggering hypocrisy and contempt for women when he showed them that they had no such zeal to maintain doctrinal purity when the life of their beast was in peril. They would provide relief for their beast on the Sabbath, but objected to giving relief to a daughter of Abraham on the Sabbath. All law, no grace. Justice and mercy are still the weightier matters of the law.
I do not know Pastor McArthur’s goal for publishing this book. God knows. But given this appalling account of his refusal to protect the most vulnerable in his congregation, perhaps the pastor should look closer to home to win the war against children.
The old “stay and pray” advice given to abused women by male pastors and priests is a recipe for disaster. It doesn’t end well for women. The extreme prejudice shown against divorce by the church through the years left untold numbers of believing women trapped in abusive relationships. Or they were made pariahs if they did leave an abusive marriage and later remarry. Not only that, but incarcerated women are usually victims of abuse. Their lives were wrecked and the criminal justice system makes it worse, especially for women of color. I know, I’ve saw it first-hand when I worked in the female pod of a county jail. “Experiences of physical or sexual violence in childhood are reported by approximately 60-70% of incarcerated women or girls. Experiences of adulthood intimate partner violence are reported by approximately 70-80% of incarcerated women.” https://vawnet.org/material/womens-experiences-abuse-risk-factor-incarceration-research-update#:~:text=Experiences%20of%20physical%20or%20sexual,%2D80%25%20of%20incarcerated%20women.
In MacArthur’s other business ventures he (and his handlers) hide the grift behind spiritually sounding names: Grace Community Church, Grace to You, Master’s Seminary. This time they just openly attached his name to it. Will anyone else be publishing under “MacArthur Publishing Group” or is his ghost writer the only one?
None of this suprises me much, unfortunately. MacArthur and his crowd always circle the wagons and I have never heard any of them apologize or repent for the harm they have caused people.
It may be only a matter of time until a civil suit is brought against his organization for their failure to protect the vulnerable. California recently retroactively lifted the statute of limitations for some abuse cases, and schools and other agencies have already seen large judgments against them in civil cases — some in tens of millions of dollars. It would take a lot of work to dig out the details of such cases, given the insular nature of MacArthur’s group, but it would not be impossible and there is the potential for huge payouts. If I were MacArthur’s crowd, or anyone else in an organization that shoved abuse under the rug, I’d be very worried.
AH darn, another book of his I won’t be getting.
When in doubt many Evangelical leaders will use children as a means to promote their agenda and a world of fear. Yes they need our love and attention and need to be protected but to imply that there is a war against them in order to promote a book is going too far not to mention JM has failed to protect many of them.
It reminds me of Mrs. Lovejoy (The wife of the Rev. Lovejoy in the Simpsons) who would often exclaim “Won’t somebody please think of the children!”.
Am I right to assume JMac has a ghostwriter? If so, is the identity known?
I wonder if the actual question is how many ghostwriters does JMac have? It is impossible to fathom an 84 year old man writing a weekly sermon, books, managing a university, seminary, and radio ministry, and *gasp* still having time to actually shepherd real people in the church he supposedly pastors without there being many, many handlers involved. Oh, and now he has a publishing group to manage. In reality, he’s probably not much more than the ambassador for the “John MacArthur” brand.
I believe that Phil Johnson is the editor of most of MacArthur’s books, taking JM’s sermon material and putting it into book form. For books that are not from a sermon series, it would probably involve recording JM’s thoughts in an interview format, then turning those points into a manuscript that JM would then approve for publication.
Jmac is a great teacher. Perhaps the best Bible teacher over the past 50+ years. He has helped thousands, but more likely millions of people, gain a clear understanding of the truth of God and the eternal creator, the Lord Jesus Christ.