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Director of John MacArthur’s Broadcast Ministry Doxes Julie Roys & Defends It

By Julie Roys
Phil Johnson
Phil Johnson, executive director of John MacArthur's broadcast ministry, Grace to You. (Source: Facebook)

Phil Johnson, the director of John MacArthur’s broadcast ministry, Grace to You, doxed me yesterday in a document he posted online. When confronted, Johnson defended what he did.

To dox someone is to publish private or identifying information about that person, especially as a form of punishment or revenge. Doxing is  illegal in California and punishable up to one year in jail or a fine of $1,000.

In my case, Johnson published my home address. This was in response to an article I posted this week about the salaries, secrecy, and lifestyle of Johnson’s boss, John MacArthur. My article also noted that Grace to You (GTY) paid Johnson a $230K+ salary and a sizeable loan, which was fully forgiven. 

Johnson included my address in a letter he posted online and then linked to in a tweet. After I confronted Johnson publicly for what he had done, he blurred the address in the online letter, which still includes my city and zip code. Johnson did not comment about what he had done, but instead defended publishing my address in a tweet.

The tweet below shows both the original letter Johnson posted, which has been modified to obscure my address, beside the letter with the blurred address:

Your tax-deductible gift helps our journalists report the truth and hold Christian leaders and organizations accountable. Donate $75 or more to The Roys Report this month, and you can elect to receive the “Reimagine Church” 2-Book Bundle including ‘Invisible Jesus’ by Scot McKnight & Tommy Phillips and ‘Need to Know’ edited by Danielle Strickland. To donate, click here.

In Johnson’s initial tweet with a link to the letter (3 of 5 tweets Johnson posted Friday), Johnson complained that I had cherrypicked quotes in my story and “didn’t link to full versions” of certain documents. 

Yet Johnson later admitted in a tweet that he had never mailed the letter with my address that he posted online. He sent me an email instead. Plus, while the online letter is dated “23 March 2020,” the document’s embedded metadata shows the letter was created on February 3, 2021, at 5:14 p.m. CT (3:14 p.m. PST). That’s the same day I published my article on MacArthur. 

Dox Metadata

When asked on twitter about the creation of the letter, Johnson claimed that he had created a hardcopy of the letter in March “for his files.” He says he then scanned the letter to a pdf more recently.

However, the original PDF of the letter, which is no longer available online but I have in my possession, is editable and the font appears to be real and not a picture. Also, a link to the GTY website at the bottom of the letter is active, which would not be the case in a scanned document. (This link was also active in the revised letter with my address blurred at the time of publishing.)

Additionally, in the letter posted online, the name of GTY CFO David Fisk is removed and appears as “D_____ F_____.”

Yet, there would have been no reason to redact the name in a letter sent to me in March. The email Johnson sent me in March included Fisk’s name. 

Other than Fisk’s name and the letterhead and signature, the only difference between the email and the letter Johnson posted is the addition of my address.

I tweeted to Johnson about the issues with his story about the letter’s creation, but he did not respond.

There are similar issues with the second document Johnson posted, which was also linked in Johnson’s tweet about the letter. In his tweet, Johnson suggests that the document was available to me before I published. However, like the letter Johnson posted, the metadata for the second document shows it was created on February 3, 2021, as well—at 7:02 p.m.

Statement metadata

I reached out to Johnson on twitter to explain the discrepancy in dates concerning the second document, but as of time of publishing, he did not respond.

Content of Documents

The original email Johnson sent me on March 23, 2020, was a response to my request for information about MacArthur’s salary, the GTY board, and GTY contracts with MacArthur family members.

Johnson’s email was sent to me soon after I had reported that a person who had attended the 2020 Shepherds’ Conference at Grace Community Church had contracted COVID-19 and died.

In the email, Johnson accuses me of “making false accusations” and “scandalmongering”; likens my website to “the nests of busybodies”; and says I am “bent on destroying another’s reputation.”

Johnson closes by saying he will never correspond with me again, nor will anyone from GTY. (I included this information in my recent financial article about MacArthur.)

The second document Johnson posted appears to be an expanded version of the statement Johnson posted to the Sharper Iron website in 2014. (I linked to the statement at Sharper Iron in my recent article on MacArthur, as well.)

The expanded version Johnson posted today includes a paragraph defending GTY’s multi-million-dollar contracts with John MacArthur’s son-in-law, Kory Welch.

Johnson says GTY chose to use Welch because “his company’s work is excellent,” “his bid was competitive,” and “he has easier access to record John than any other videographers would.”

Johnson’s expanded version of his statement also calls critics of MacArthur “busybodies guilty of sinful scandal-mongering.”

Tweets Fail to Answer Questions

Johnson’s series of five tweets he posted Friday are the only responses from GTY, Grace Community Church (GCC), or The Master’s University and Seminary to the serious governance and financial issues I raised in my article on MacArthur.

The tweets fail to answer why MacArthur appears to make three full-time salaries from his ministries when he seemingly works part-time for at least two of them. They also give no explanation for MacArthur’s expensive lifestyle, which includes three luxury homes. Nor do the tweets address why MacArthur’s sons and Johnson, a key employee, served on the GTY board for decades.

However, in two tweets Johnson offered an explanation for why Grace Community Church (GCC) withdrew from the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability (ECFA) on April 2. This was less than two weeks after ECFA contacted GCC, urging the church to release their financial statements to me in compliance with ECFA standards.

In one tweet, Johnson said Grace Church dropped its membership “since the church doesn’t solicit donations from the general public.”

In a tweet to someone else, Johnson stated that GCC left ECFA because of “a disagreement over how much information needs to be made public, even for non-church members and non-donors.

Johnson GCC ECFA

Other tweets of Johnson’s were mainly ad hominem arguments, calling my work “scandalmongering twaddle” and “shoddy,” and alleging I’m not a “legitimate journalist” and likening me to “relentless busybodies and gossipmongers.”

Below is Johnson’s initial thread of five tweets:

I am not posting the original PDF of Johnson’s letter including my address because I do not wish to dox myself. However, the tweet below gives more detailed metadata information on the original PDF Johnson posted of my letter.

 

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100 Responses

  1. Julie, Phil was pissed because you broke the sacred image that they have been projecting all these time: that John is not a lover of money and lives simply which grants him the moral ascendancy to call out others to account. This all came crashing down when you exposed them. I would like to hear why they need to keep the houses and money a secret and what other surprises will we see in time.

  2. I never heard of you until I started hearing and seeing your name in YouTube videos and the comment sections. I already had my suspicions about these YouTube stars and because the anger at you was so over the top I needed to hear what you had to say.

    The first thing I noticed was the difference in tone. The YouTube stars are very sarcastic and mocking, not just about the issues, but about other’s appearance. They come off as amateur comedians and when 2 or more are together they are even worse. One very popular video star that has made a name for himself exposing false prophets even has a mocking “Holy Spirit” impersonation he uses to make fun of people. That impersonation set off alarms that I could no longer ignore.

    These men have very loyal followers and once some of the stars turned their focus on you out came the knives. There was a new video put up yesterday. Justin Peters had Phil Johnson on his show. To be honest I can no longer stand to listen to any of their voices but their new videos pop up in my YouTube feed because I used to listen to them. I did not listen to the new video but read some of the comments. I even had to stop that, I was becoming angry…again.

    I used to try to engage some of them and their followers but there is no reasoning with the majority. One of the favorite ways to counter a reasoned comment was to accuse me of being a follower of Satan and to tell me they would pray for my salvation and I found myself becoming sarcastic myself. One John MacArthur apologist will even resort to gaslighting. He will deny what he said or wrote when questioned in rebukes dripping with sarcasm. I was amazed at the number that will actually back down and apologize to him. We truly are living in a post truth time of alternative facts.

    One very sad consequence of MacArthur’s preachings about COVID is found in the comments section. Some of his followers actually believe the vaccine is the mark of the beast.

    You on the other hand speak your truth without all of the sarcasm and showmanship. The more I read and listen the more I believe you are telling the truth.

    Because they do not believe the gifts of the Holy Spirit are active today I don’t believe they understand that although many Christians do not believe in the far out false prophets and teachers we do believe the gifts are active. In my opinion this leads them to not understand that there are many Christians that have the gift of discerning of spirits, that little alarm. And because it is a Spiritual gift it is a slow and measured awakening not an impulsive judgement.

    Since COVID restrictions and pre existing health issues I have had a lot of time for reading, listening and searching. At this time my opinion is that Jesus is cleansing the Church of the stain of rampant idol worship of Pastors, Preachers, Teachers and Prophets.

    1. “Doxing” to some extent connotes ill intent. We don’t know for sure what Johnson’s intent was. We do know that he was angry at Roys and that he lied about the pdf he posted It was, at the very least, irresponsible and careless of him to publish her address.

  3. I suggest reading this for a critique of Johnson’s slanderous “defence” : https://bewareofthewolves.blogspot.com/2021/02/john-macarthurs-lavish-lifestyle.html?m=1
    The snide criticism by the blogger on Reformation Charlotte re Ms Roys soliciting donations is grossly hypocritical as he does the same himself as well as littering his site with obtrusive advertising. Ms. Roys has an issue with disclosure and transparency, not the soliciting of donations by churches and organisations.

  4. Phil J has certainly revealed what he and the ministries are like. People, get with it. Stop supporting the whole MacArthur mega-millions “ministry”.

  5. Years ago I inherited the church treasurer position by attrition. I would record the deposits and expenditures in a spreadsheet, post a copy of the month’s finances on the church bulletin board along with copies placed in the vestibule of the church for whomever may be interested. If someone wanted to see the spreadsheet contents from a previous month, they would have to ask me and I would show them with nothing to hide. My motivation was complete transparency down to the penny. My second biggest nightmare was someone even questioning the financial integrity of the ministry. My biggest nightmare was to run afoul of an IRS rule by ignorance.

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