A recent lawsuit claims leaders of Grace Community Church in Sun Valley, California, ignored repeated warnings about child sexual abuse and domestic violence and pressured a mother to keep her children in harm’s way. The suit’s allegations fit a pattern formerly reported by The Roys Report (TRR) that the church led by the late John MacArthur allegedly protected child abusers, while gaslighting and punishing their victims.
The 25-page complaint, filed in California’s Superior Court on Sept. 29, alleges the church went out of its way to protect a father who then abused his daughter during supervised visits.
It lists incident after incident where church leaders allegedly excused and explained away ongoing sexual molestation of the couple’s oldest daughter by the father, while gaslighting the mother’s efforts to stop it.
The new lawsuit is filed by one “Jane Doe” and her three children. It alleges her husband, Clinton Jung, sexually abused the couple’s toddler daughter and physically harmed all three children. Church leaders allegedly knew key details.
The complaint states church leaders failed to report child abuse, despite being mandated reporters. It says the leaders “purposefully concealed” the conduct and rebuked the mother for contacting police.
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The filing resembles earlier cases involving Grace Community Church, including the well-known situation with David and Eileen Gray. In that case, The Roys Report (TRR) found that then-senior pastor John MacArthur publicly excommunicated and shamed Eileen Gray, after she refused to return to her abusive husband.
Another TRR investigation found Grace Community Church supported David Gray even after he was convicted of sexual and physical child abuse. A former elder later said the harm to victims followed “awful patterns” inside the church.
MacArthur died on July 14, after leading the congregation for 56 years.
TRR has emailed Philip Johnson, a spokesman for the church and MacArthur’s Grace to You broadcast ministry, seeking comment. The church previously told The Christian Post it had no comment on the case.
Another recent lawsuit also claimed the church wrongly disciplined a woman who fled abuse. Separately, Christianity Today has reported many victims at the church faced systemic harm, reflecting a broader pattern of institutional protection for abusive men.
The new complaint states that Jane Doe discovered photos of her toddler posed between her father’s legs with his zipper down. It states the photos appeared “sexually suggestive.” But when she showed them to Grace’s Bible study leader Dave Bierhorst and his wife, they “brushed them off.” The church leaders allegedly added, “don’t worry about the pictures. Every guy is obsessed with his parts down there.”
The filing also says Jung later admitted to “tongue-kissing” his daughter. Church leaders allegedly learned of this disclosure but did not alert authorities.
In one short quotation from the complaint, an elder allegedly told the mother: “If you’re that concerned for your children’s safety, (Doe), just never leave him alone with the kids.”
Another elder allegedly said Doe lacked biblical grounds for separation because her husband’s affairs were “digital only.”
Church leaders allegedly advised her to “submit” to her husband, even after she reported physical violence.
According to the complaint, Jung “was emboldened to engage in such blatant abuse after multiple law enforcement investigations and court proceedings precisely because Church leadership had enabled his conduct to go unpunished.”
The lawsuit says Doe called 911 during a dangerous car incident when she believed her husband was trying to get her killed. Police officers told her not to return home. After the husband called a church elder, the complaint alleges that same elder called Doe that night and rebuked her for calling police.
“He accused Plaintiff of ‘overreacting’ by calling 911 and told Plaintiff that she should have ‘submitted’ to her husband instead of ‘escalating’ the situation,” the lawsuit read. “When Plaintiff questioned whether wives should submit to husbands when their safety or the safety of their children is threatened, she was accused of being resentful of God’s ordained roles in marriage.”
After that call, Doe allegedly feared church retaliation if she refused to obey.
The complaint claims leaders pushed her to return to the marital home despite multiple reports describing abuse, manipulation and coercion. It states she submitted a 10-page document describing threats, tracking, sexual misconduct and violence.
The church allegedly discouraged her from providing photos to leadership because viewing them “could be required to inform law enforcement.”
According to the complaint, church leaders supervised some visits between the father and the children and told the mother there had been “no child abuse.”
After months of pressure, the mother returned to the home with the children. Church leaders allegedly told her she would harm the children if she remained separated.
The filing alleges further abuse took place during supervised court-ordered visitation. It states Jung forced his daughter to touch his genitals during a visit at an ice cream store. The child disclosed this later.
Months later, the complaint says he forced his daughter to look at his genitals during a hotel visit. The child told her teacher and her mother, and both notified police.
A prosecutor later declined charges because investigators could not prove intent. According to the filing, the district attorney wrote that church interference “muddled” evidence that might have supported prosecution.
The lawsuit alleges childhood sexual abuse, negligence, domestic violence and aiding and abetting domestic violence. It seeks damages and a jury trial.
The new complaint asserts that the church placed “institutional interests” above safety. It states the church “emboldened” the father by refusing to report abuse.
As the case moves forward, lawyers argue the harm could have been prevented if leadership had followed mandated-reporting laws.
Lawsuit: Jane Doe et. al. v. Grace Community Church – filed Sept 29, 2025
JaneDoevsGCC_9_29_2025
Mark A. Kellner is a reporter based in Mesquite, Nevada. He most recently covered statewide elections for the New York Post and was for three years the Faith & Family Reporter for The Washington Times. Mark is a graduate of the University of the Cumberlands and also attended Boston University’s College of Communication.
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40 Responses
Anybody that still goes to this church or churches like them are de facto supporting these ilk of humans. Shame on you. You answer to God not some narcissistic humans who actually believe they speak for God.
At first glance, I thought this was merely a new lawsuit related to the David Gray case.
The fact that this keeps happening indicates systemic rot.
Sexual abuse of kids is always going to be present in any community. There’s nothing a church can do to prevent fathers, uncles, coaches and family friends from molesting kids.
What churches CAN do is to repent from past failures and refuse to repeat them. Grace Community seems unwilling to do so. Shame on them.
They can’t prevent it, but they can reduce the likelihood (of it happening within their own congregation, anyhow) by displaying zero tolerance for such reprehensible behavior and by instituting child protection policies that ensure anyone working with children understands how mandated reporting works and commits to carrying it out.
Oh, I agree. Churches, schools and NGOs can make their organizations less hospitable for child abusers. Or they can create an environment that attracts them.
That having been said, both of the cases I’ve referenced are ones where a father is abusing his own child. That kind of abuse — by far the most common — is impossible to prevent.
I learned years ago that the things declared in a lawsuit and usually exaggerated with contain falsehoods. The filing attorney is looking for money and must prove their case. If those things listed in the lawsuit were actually true it would be a tragedy and there would definitely need to be a lot of serious house cleaning.
Exaggerated? If they were actually true? This is a disgraceful and vile comment.
“must prove their case.” Well yes, that is after all how court cases work.
Unbelievable….this church should be shut down and those who knew and did not report should be held accountable by law. In the early 2000s my family and I went to a church that was very much a part of this church ( Believer’s Fellowship San Antonio Tx.). In a similar situation, they insisted that police did not need to be contacted because the church would handle anything that needed to be done. Which meant they did nothing! And a pregnant unwed young woman was required to stand in front of the congregation and confess that she was pregnant and to ask for forgiveness from the church. I can’t believe I used to believe this stuff. I absolutely believe in Jesus. But I no longer believe in the overreach of any of these churches.
What did the guy who got her pregnant have to do? Anything?
1 Samuel 2:17
[17]Wherefore the sin of the young men was very great before the LORD: for men abhorred the offering of the LORD.
If you believe in Christ, than you would be a member of a church.
Not all churches conduct themselves this way. And sin arising a the church, is not an excuse to abandon the church.
MacArthurs church had lots of issues, but find a good Reformed Presbyterian Church of North America congregation, or a Free Church Continiuing. These are solid churches with good doctrine and handles sin in the church Biblically.
How Grace to you handled these cases is awfully and unbiblical.
Unfortunately, we have many spiritual leaders in the church today that believe that John MacArthur ‘s behavior was above reproach. They believe that this is either exaggerated, completely untrue, or doesn’t really matter anyway. These are men, of course. Women, for the most part, don’t believe it’s right to abuse women and children, especially by church leadership. Unfortunately, it’s all to common. Personally, I am totally repulsed by it, and I believe the men who condone such behavior (encouraging it) are absolutely disgusting, and no nothing about the heart of God.
I know plenty of women who would also send a woman and her children back to the abuser. I used to BE one of them. I was blind to the level of abuse that happens in Christian families (stays show it’s at the same rate as in the rest of the culture). We all, both men and women in the church, need to do a lot better.
There seems to be a cult built around MacArthur that absolutely forbids questioning him. I think it will get worse, now that he’s dead.
What is wrong with the leadership of Grace Community. They are proving more and more they are a misogynistic church! Women, leave that church as soon as possible.
This is my question. I’m heartbroken tonight, confused and absolutely grief-stricken. Unlike most of the other commenters here, I have held GCC with the utmost respect for 50 years … not because they are perfect, but because of John MacArthur’s unwavering commitment to standing on the word of God. Many of his sermons have comforted me in times when the abuse I have suffered in the church was unbearable. Particularly in the last 4 months, I have listened to two or three GTY programs a day and they have kept me going through some horrific circumstances that originated in the church. I wanted so much to believe that the Eileen Gray incident was long in the past and could never happen again. I have cried all afternoon because I am so confused now. Is there anyone we can trust. GCC leaders owe a full and transparent explanation. Their reputation as one of the most doctrinally solid churches in America is on the line.
He started a cult that is high control, which is obvious here. He stepped all over Jesus and made the people to revere himself. He spread a lie of false doctrine with his own version of Neo-Stoicism mixing the 7th century B.C. philosophy of Determinism with Christianity. He abused Jesus Christ as a child for Jesus plainly stated that what you do these least of these you do onto me! A wealthy man has scratched ears for many decades and made millions off of that. This is the idolatry that is bringing severe punishment on God’s people soon. Jesus is the King. Our celebrities are all self-serving trash. Jesus saves, not Johnny or Calvinistic Modern Stoicism.
It’s not the “Calvinistic Modern Stoicism” that stands out to me.
It’s MacArthur’s combination of Calvinism and Dispensationalism, which strikes me as the WORST possible combination. i.e. The unholy spawn of More Calvinist than Calvin and Hal Lindsay.
I used to listen to GTY and read MacArthur’s books, too. I think a lot of churches that are doctrinally precise would have treated abuse cases this way in the past. The critical point here is that when you know better, you do better. The church is facing a reckoning. The Lord is cleaning house. Abuse cases within the church are being exposed. The question is, will churches like GCC own up, apologize, and make changes? Or will they double down? I think we already have our answer about GCC.
Sister, there are other leaders who are more solid than MacArthur. He was a Calvinist. Plenty missing from that doctrine. You will be blessed by better teachers soon, by questioning the idea that GCC is solid. It’s not even solidly Calvinist. There is hope, seek and you will find.
Our church went through a John MacArthur phase in the early 2000s because of the pastor that we hired, but I was part of the leadership. I wish I could say that I spoke up about my misgivings because I felt the overreach and imbalance in MacArthur’s theology because I’ve had plenty of prior theological influences (such as those from Dallas Theological Seminary, which one might not consider so wildly different), but I was fully bought-in. I am not aware of any severe abuses that happened as a result, but there was damage to the health of the church and betrayal of the congregation’s trust.
In retrospect, the biggest problem in MacArthur’s theology was that it made no room for humility. They had an answer for everything. Not that God will answer all, or that all answers can be found in the Bible if we seek carefully or earnestly enough, but “we have all the right answers” and “you can’t push back unless you can prove you know your stuff better than someone in authority above you.”
And that had the most lasting damage upon my walk with Jesus: my delight in discovering daily from God’s Word was replaced with a fear of getting something wrong, and shame in speaking up about what I felt God was teaching me at the moment, especially to the pastor, because I knew I would get a “well, actually…”
One older member of the leadership stepped down after our first Shepherd’s Conference we attended, traveling as the whole team each year like a pilgrimage. I remember being puzzled by MacArthur’s Q&A time answer asking what his prayer life was like: “well, my time in the Bible, preparing sermons is like prayer time.”
Joshua, thanks for insightful comments. You’re truly humble to admit regret about past choices. I, too, was in a church that became cerebral in its culture– all about cognitive understanding of the Bible rather than loving God Himself. Eventually I observed, with dark sarcasm, that a large denomination in the area “does everything big, but we do everything right.”
Paul addresses such error in I Corinthians 8:1 with “knowledge puffs up, but love edifies.” Obsession about theological interpretation leads to venerating the Bible over God and His character, and it’s not long before we care more about correct doctrine than the image bearers around us. Another poster described the priority as “principles over people,” and this attitude explains why a church would tolerate child abuse.
Luke 6:9 records Jesus asking “Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do evil, to save life or to destroy it?” The Pharisees refused to answer. Today’s legalists behave likewise.
To your question on “Is there anyone we can trust?” I too have wondered this as I have seen so many leaders fall. Ezekiel 34:1-16 has brought me much comfort throughout repeated experiences of pastoral failure and abuse, and I pray it does you as well. Jesus is our Good Shepherd.
The first church I ever attended did exactly the same thing to one of my closest friends at the time. She was a single parent and he abused 3 of her 4 children. the leadership in the church absolutely vilified her for reporting it to the police. What was worse, they had known he had offended previously, but now “He was now saved” and therefore needed “Grace”. When she pressed charges and the court had him incarcerated for 18 months, the church supported him, and vilified her, a few brave souls not in leadership gave her some support. One of her closest friends who was engaged to him, went ahead and married him, and he would later go on to abuse the daughter they had together. He and his wife were at another church by then, as were several others who no longer attended the church in which it happened. However, several years later I worked with some one whose son had been groomed and violated by this same man. He should never have been let out of jail. And that first church leadership should have been held accountable for their negligence. There would be subsequent infractions at this same church, with the same outcomes as the first. They did not bother to learn and continued to give the same council and make similar remarks as does GCC. It is beyond disgusting, it is evil.
Just curious but what denomination and doctrine did that church teach?
The damage that church and those men have caused to countless women and children is disgusting!
Let’s just say that for years Grace Community Church has made frequent appearances on several church corruption whistleblower blogs. Last one I remember was something about them going Anti-Vaxx; before that, something about COVID Conspiracy TRUTHers.
But then it’s a Personality Cult MegaChurch. What else do you expect?
A church that demands a married woman take a subordinate role in a situation where children are being abused has no business claiming to teach the Bible and knows nothing about Christian marriage. GCC ought to stop serving Communion, too: they are only storing up judgement for themselves. A group of elders who cannot firmly confront a man who is sinning against his family in such extreme ways should all resign.
This article attempts to make a Mashup of multiple different situations, each with their own distinct details. Ultimately, when it comes down to it I wonder if the Roy’s report views the church as having any say whatsoever on the subject of divorce and remarriage. It sounds like the site leans toward the church always assuming a woman wanting a divorce is justified. Yes, im sure grace community made mistakes in how they handled certain cases, but how come the roy’s report doesn’t report the cases where women get unbiblical divorces and the church doesn’t try to obey Christ’s direction on the matter?
The common denominator in these cases is child abuse mishandled by church leadership. This purpose of this website is not to take theological positions on subjects like divorce and remarriage; instead TRR exposes corruption within churches so that misconduct can be addressed properly and avoided in the future.
And people wonder why women tend to bristle at the mention of submission. Unfortunately, in the experience of many of us, MacArthur’s version of submission is what’s being taught. The assumption is that women need to be taught how to be good wives, while men don’t need to be taught how to be good husbands because they already know. The emphasis is on male headship (power), and not on protecting and respecting wives. Personally, I’ve never heard a sermon based on 1 Peter 3:7.
This is profoundly upsetting.
Unfortunately also completely unsurprising.
These are the inevitable outcomes of churches that place male headship and preservation of a “marriage” above the well being of women and children.
The disappointing thing is GCC has never issued an apology for their actions that have put women and children in danger.
They could apologize and make the promise they will do better next time.
So far they have only criticized those who have brought these issues to light.
Legally an apology is an admission of guilt.Thus GCC will never apologize.
We can thank religious fundamentalism, the patriarchy, and legalism for what’s happening. This is not intended in any way to blame shift or excuse the personal responsibility of leaders in the church. This is what happens when people exalt rules and doctrine, specifically their interpretation of them, above the person in misery. Look no further than the Pharisees…
“The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath. 28 Therefore the Son of Man is also Lord of the Sabbath.” ~Jesus
“You pay tithe of mint and anise and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faith. These you ought to have done, without leaving the others undone. Blind guides, who strain out a gnat and swallow a camel!” ~Jesus
What if a church staff person goes to a home of a family that attends that church and steals some valuable things – how should that family respond? Not go to the police but instead ask the church to decide what should be done? Criminal behavior by church employees should be left to the church to deal with?
If someone had punched John MacArthur in the face, would someone have called the police? What if the assailant had been a church staff member?
Could it be that GCC is so committed to the separation of church and state that they refused to comply with mandatory reporting laws? Are they merely protecting their own interests and reputation, while calling it the reputation of Christ? Or is it a mixture of both? Regardless, I hope Jane Doe prevails and that GCC has to pay out big. This seems to be the only way incorporated churches such as GCC learn that member care goes way beyond preaching an expositional sermon on Sunday.
IMO I would say it’s a bit of both although GCC seems to embrace a ‘soft’ form of Christian Nationalism.
They also hold to a strict version of Principle over Person. GCC is so blindly committed to their interpretation of the role of women and children in marriage they can make no exceptions even when abuse takes place.
I don’t understand why conservative churches try to sweep these issues under the rug while preaching that sexual sin (adultery) is a biblical reason for divorce. If Jung was molesting his daughter, this is CLEARLY sexual sin – it’s as much adultery as Jung having an affair with a consenting adult. I would argue it’s worse but in the very least this would/could be viewed as adultery by GCC. So, when his wife left him (fled), why is this treated as an offense that warranted church discipline. What am I missing here?
That is because in the eyes of these fundagelical churches, children (especially females) are not considered person for all intents and purposes, but rather property to be owned and used. Besides, only the male is to be believed and whose statements carry weight. So obviously the women and the kids are lying.
Supporting GCC will be directly supporting GCC’s representation in court against the minor children victims.We are all so grateful men like JM/Epstein& High Hefner are all evaporated & no longer on this planet.they all turned a blind eye to sexual abuse of minors & participated in children being sexually abused.the time is now to put our energies in supporting these victims in their healing process.Education is key & there’s enough info out there now to realize men like JM wrongfully harmed many & ruined their lives. I know, he ruined my life w/spiritual & financial abuse.he took my & my moms time together away from us & stole everything from us.JM had zero to do w/supporting families in his congregations well being spiritually &/or financially. I’m so relieved & happy he’s dead.& pray everyday for his victims .