In June 1982, Albert Alegrete, a Sunday School teacher at John MacArthur’s Grace Community Church (GCC), confessed to a pastor at GCC that he had committed sex crimes against children.
But for two years, GCC did not report Alegrete’s crimes to police. And during that time, Alegrete kidnapped a girl, who “managed to escape only by jumping out of his moving car,” according to the Los Angeles Times.
In the spring of 1984, GCC discovered that police were looking for Alegrete. The church then pressured Alegrete to turn himself in, which he finally did in April 1984.
Alegrete was then convicted and sentenced to 44 years in prison for molesting five girls, aged 9 to 13 years old, and kidnapping a sixth in 1981 and 1982.
But his story, which first came to light nearly 40 years ago, touches on some of the egregious issues revealed in recent investigations by The Roys Report, namely the failure of GCC to report child abuse and molestation to police. According to multiple witnesses and documentation, GCC failed to report Paul Guay’s sexual abuse in 1979 and David Gray’s child abuse in 2001.
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The Alegrete story also highlights the issue of whether clergy are required to report confessions offered during pastoral counseling. As in David Gray’s case, Alegrete confessed his crimes to GCC during pastoral counseling. (With Gray, his wife, Eileen Gray, also reported Gray’s abuse to GCC outside of counseling.)
GCC fails to report abuse for two years
According to news reports, Alegrete first confessed some of his crimes during a June 1982 counseling session with then-GCC Pastor Richard Hines. Just four months earlier, in February, Alegrete had reportedly molested a preteen.
Alegrete initially told Hines in counseling that he was guilty of “sexual immorality,” the Los Angeles Times reported. But then, Alegrete admitted to having sex with girls—not grown women—and sometimes forcing them into it by pretending he had a gun, Hines told the newspaper.
Hines took Alegrete to see an attorney after that first counseling session, he told the LA Times. In testimony at Alegrete’s sentencing, Hines said Alegrete agreed after that meeting that he should turn himself in to police.
But Alegrete didn’t.
And Hines told the LA Times he lost track of Alegrete.
In the meantime, the mother of the victim of Alegrete’s February 1982 attack was doggedly searching for her daughter’s assailant. According to a report in UPI, the mother was looking not just for a man matching her daughter’s description, but also for the brown Volvo her daughter described.
Between 1982 and 1984, the woman’s family reported the license plates of 30 cars to police.
“It was something we just couldn’t let rest,” the mother told the media.
Then, in March 1984, the woman spotted Alegrete cruising outside a California elementary school and reported his license plate to police.
This tip led Los Angeles police to ramp up their investigation and begin looking for Alegrete.
Hines told the LA Times that at about the same time, he noticed Alegrete was on a list of potential GCC deacons. (During his sentencing, Alegrete testified that he had become a born-again Christian shortly after committing the last attack. He reportedly also taught a Sunday School class at GCC on “Fundamentals of Faith.”)
After making the discovery, Hines said he confronted Alegrete.
Hines also asked a former police detective, who reportedly attended GCC, to find out if police were looking for .Alegrete. The detective checked and then told Hines that police were seeking him, Associated Press reported.
According to John MacArthur, who spoke to the LA Times after Alegrete’s sentencing in 1986, Hines then took that information to Alegrete with an ultimatum: “You turn yourself in or we do.”
Alegrete turned himself in on April 11, 1984, according to AP, and eventually confessed to his crimes.
The Roys Report could not locate Alegrete, who would be in his 70s now. He is not currently listed as an inmate in California’s prison system and does not appear on the state’s sex offender registry.
Hines and another GCC member testified during the sentencing hearing on Alegrete’s behalf, according to the LA Times. They reportedly told the judge Alegrete turned himself in because it was God’s will for him to do so.
The Roys Report has repeatedly reached out to MacArthur and GCC to explain why the church didn’t immediately report Alegrete to police, but no one has replied.
We also reached out multiple times to Hines, who was on GCC’s pastoral staff for 17 years, but he did not respond. Hines currently is listed as the director of chaplain training for Only Hope Prison Ministries.
Are confessions revealed in counseling confidential?
At the time of Alegrete’s sentencing, the LA Times noted that the case “illustrates a difficult question faced periodically by the clergy: What do they do when penitents, during confession or counseling, admit to transgressions that may constitute crimes?”
In 1982, clergy in California were not mandated by law to report child abuse. And the question of reporting concerned the ethical responsibility of clergy, not the law.
Hines told the Times after Alegrete’s sentencing that he strongly believed Alegrete should “face up to his responsibility.”
Similarly, MacArthur told the LA Times that “if we know of anyone who has committed any crime, we are obligated to report them to police.”
Yet neither MacArthur nor Hines explained why the church failed to report Alegrete for two years.
However, in the LA Times report, the prosecutor in the Alegrete case, Los Angeles County Deputy District Attorney Linda Greenberg, stated, “(Grace Community Church) followed their church discipline. Once they did find out the true facts, they acted to get (Alegrete) to turn himself in.”
This practice of trying to resolve abuse matters internally and going to police as a last resort, if at all, appears to be a pattern at GCC. In 2001, when GCC reportedly learned of David Gray’s child abuse, the church tried to handle the matter with church discipline and never reported the abuse to police.
According to court documents, the church deemed that David Gray was repentant for the child abuse and urged his wife, Eileen, to allow David back into the family’s home. When Eileen refused, GCC shamed and excommunicated her.
Then in 2003, when Eileen reported David Gray’s abuse to authorities, police charged GCC Pastor Carey Hardy with failing to report the abuse and intimidating a witness (Eileen Gray).
The court eventually dismissed Hardy’s case, likely because it was outside the one-year statute of limitations for most misdemeanors.
But at the time, GCC recruited Al Mohler, president of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, to argue that Hardy should be exempted from mandated reporting.
California has an exemption to its mandated reporter law for clergy who hear about abuse within the context of the confessional. And according to Mohler, who spoke with TRR, he argued that since Gray’s abuse was divulged within the context of biblical counseling, the exemption should apply.(Mohler said he no longer believes there should be any exemptions for clergy when it comes to reporting child abuse.)
TRR reached out to GCC for comment on its policy regarding reporting abuse confessed in counseling, but no one responded.
However, as TRR reported in a previous article, John Street, chair of the graduate program of biblical counseling at The Master’s University and Seminary, discouraged students from reporting spousal abuse to authorities in a 2012 lecture.
Street warned that biblical counselors “run some risk” in reporting to authorities “because secular people with secular minds are going to take over and they’re not going to handle things in a biblical way.”
Street also encouraged wives to stay with abusive husbands and endure abuse like a missionary endures persecution. Street added that “saving the body” is not the ultimate goal in abuse counseling. Instead, he said the goal is becoming like Jesus “in the midst of your trial.”
Timeline of Albert Alegrete’s Abuse
Timeline-Alegrete-AbuseSarah Einselen is an award-winning writer and editor based in Texas. Julie Roys is the founder and editor of The Roys Report.
53 Responses
Even bearing in mind a clear negative focus on this pastor, your stories are building up a credible picture of how GCC is managed, a picture confirmed by words and actions within church records. There isn’t an uncommon belief in churches that they get to manage everything in God’s name, but His Kingdom is not the kingdom of the world or of everything done in the world. These people inflate their power, authority and jurisdiction and they misuse challenges about Christians “not going to law”. Churches do have certain authority over members, but entirely in spiritual matters. Even that power should not be abused. Working for repentance, forgiveness and genuine changes in behaviour is right, supplanting secular law and authority is not. Any church, any leader in a church or religious setting has any right to decide not to report a crime. I am sure that many Christians would be horrified at what happens in the secret Muslim courts and punishments run across the world, within the Sharia system. In what sense is this kind of action different? Paul was not saying never to go to law, He was talking about relatively trivial financial and other disputes where Christians were parading their lack of love and harmony in what were civil not criminal setting, It amazes me that churches who rightly make a lot of proper understanding of context keep failing with this one, The Medieval Church actually had a better sense of this, where there were parallel courts for mainly church or secular matters, They often messed that up, as they would, but it is a clearer line, Shame on GCC for this if it is true, although their appropriation of authority is explicable in the context I suggest, just not excusable
Huw – Thoughtful response – thanks for providing.
Absolutely. “Secular people with secular minds taking over….” vs Romans 13: “For the one in authority is God’s servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for rulers do not bear the sword for no reason. They are God’s servants, agents of wrath to bring punishment on the wrongdoer.” This is not particularly complicated.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WSpNCfqxM1s
John’s response is above…….Would have expected nothing less from him.
Over a 55+ year ministry at Grace Church…….you find 3 situations, which I have personal knowledge that 2 are not reported correctly………I knew Paul Guay…….I knew Jim Hines……both situations you report is one sided and half truth’s.
John’s response is the one I would expect from him after knowing him for 50 years. I have not been a member of Grace Church for over 25 years. I have not spoken with John for over 30 years…….So I am confident I am not captured by the “cult of personality” that I see thrown around on this site.
But this is true: There is no man, that I have met in my 66 years of life, who loves the Lord Jesus Christ, and His Word, more than John MacArthur. And no man has impacted so many, to a true understanding of the Word of God, than John has had in my lifetime that I have seen.
It is so sad that you can’t put your efforts more towards spreading the Gospel rather than spreading half truth’s and false information.
Would you please provide specifics and evidence for any errors in this piece or other “half” of stories involving Paul Guay and Jim Hines?
Several of us following this think more and more will continue to be exposed. Thank you Julie for staying on top of this.
When it rains it pours. It is established by these reports that this is a pattern. The Apostle Paul did not use silence as a defense in ministry, he boldly charged anyone to say he acted in a dishonest way with them.(2 Corinthians 10-11)
More and more it seems like GCC is a mecca for criminals and spiritual abusers. I am so glad I didn’t join the London branch.
GCC may have changed their policies on handling abuse since these cases date back years, but who knows since they are tight-lipped about it? Wouldn’t it be in GCC’s best interests if they acknowledged errors and demonstrated that changes have been put in place? What I can’t understand is their failure to apologize to victims even if they thought that what they did at the time was in step with church procedure.
Agreed. Seems like the best way to handle this is to get in front of it, assure people their policy has evolved and apologize to those who were harmed by their failure to act. I keep hearing MacArthur’s supposed comment to Guay’s daughter: why are you so obsessed with this? It is sooo something my dad would say/has said, and my dad is definitely guilty, so…gaslighting? (A reason abuse victims/survivors end up “obsessed” is that their ability to process info is messed up, which abusers count on, and abuse is the gift that keeps on giving. ????)
Agree. The catch22 of the pulpit appears to be the same as our doctors. In order to form biblical restitution (at least repentance and forgiveness) one must admit fault. And by admitting fault, perhaps there is concern of things ending up in court. Problem is that over time then, a new type of relationship forms that is based on legally protecting the “authority” figure, and less based on a truly biblical relationship. It hardly seems fair to hold harsh biblical discipline over a suffering wife while at the same time it seems the pastor might be meeting with lawyers? and his standard is not to admit fault? Its an unbalanced relationship. His supporters speak of “exoneration”…. that is a legal term which makes me feel as if there concern is being legally protected. Whereas the Body of Christ is looking for the truth and repentance. The two sides are out of sinc with each other.
What is to understand? They are an abusive cult of personality! This is what all of these do, all of the time. Just because they stick a label with “Church” on their front door does not mean that they have anything at all to do with the real Jesus Christ. Go back and look at what Jesus actually said to the religious leaders just like this in His day. Nothing has changed, He is still saying those things to “churches” that do not love.
How is GCC a cult of personality?
I believe that GCC should shut their doors all together as MacArthur and GCC are groomer enablers.
I find myself wondering if GCC has a reputation among abusers as being a safe haven for CSA activity–whether for providing character cover or access to victims?
The people who cover up and enable abusers of any kind are three times as guilty as the ones who actually commit the crime. And when the abuser is finally caught and brought to trial the enablers or even the ones who knew should be charged and prosecuted as well because they knew the right thing to do but refused to do it. I’m still of the opinion that once abusers are discovered, they should be reported to the police immediately. The church, even in the most sincere fashion, has no authority to prosecute or punish such heinous crimes. That being said, what other crimes does John MacArthur know about that occurred in his congregation, and he did nothing? I think this is a legitimate question. And yet his royal Imperial highness, John MacArthur remains in the pulpit. Go figure.
John MacArthur is morally and ought to be legally culpable for the spiritual, physical, sexual, and emotional abuse of women and girls as reported on through the hands of the church he created and has governed without interference for decades. But he is not alone in being responsible. It has been a group effort – unwittingly or not – of his parishioners, church staff, donors, seminary faculty, students and graduates, and MacArthur idolizers near and far. Repentance for their complicity, indifference, volition in withholding information, idol worship, and void of neighborly love has now come due.
No less culpable are organizations claiming agency for Christ who have given MacArthur affirmation and a wider platform. Ligonier Ministries for one has for a long-time embraced him as a Teaching Fellow featuring him regularly in national conferences. Steven Lawson – also a Teaching Fellow at Ligoinier Ministries – and also a Board Member and Professor of Preaching and Dean of D. Min. at MacArthur’s The Master’s Seminary is a strident sychophant-like promoter of all things MacArthur.
But these Teaching Fellows with their Christian warrior training resulting in even more stridency (including allowance for harm to women and girls) in the fundamentalist American church, they are unlikely to pull back from adoration and support of their reigning warrior king battling culture – no matter MacArthur’s offensives or spiritual deprivation. Moreover, he just doesn’t appear to them as a deviant in the fundamentalist midst.
Sadly, the non-Catholic side of Christianity is devolving into the catholic church up until the nineties. Too many stories of pastors in greed or adultery or hiding crimes or self-love via clothes or star power. The list goes on and on. I am not the most sprit filled person, however, I can see things as they are and avoid these evil people. Yet many of these churches fill thousands of seats every week. WHY???? WHY can’t these Christians see this and go “yuck” I am still convinced Christianity was never meant to be mega anything or rock star anything. Very sad. Growing up my church never had any more than a few hundred. And there were various denominations all over the place. How can Joel Osteen with 25k per Sunday, minister to anyone? It’s all become show. Like the days of Rome. Bread and circus.
I remember the late R.C Sproul saying, he doesn’t know how John MacArthur just keeps on preaching with all the criticism against him. Is it possible to love preaching and the glory that comes with it more than Christ? Does he not care for his Christian testimony? Who is he preaching to? The light as gone out.
Stop doing the devil’s bidding. He is the accuser of the brethren. There are no perfect churches nor pastors. We are all sinners as the scriptures say. A church is a hospital for sinners and God is a God of mercy and grace. Stop attacking churches!
Paul,
I hope you agree by now that GCC has been a protector of sinners. And it has NOT been a hospital for their victims.
These aren’t isolated events. The problem is systemic.
wow Paul the devils bidding!!! So, to you if someone is an ongoing wife beater or child molester, once in the church all bets are off on prosecution? isn’t that abuse of scripture at all levels. SO, if your child is being hurt and the church blames her or ignores her vs the abuser, you’re ok with that????? I cannot imagine the terror in a child being hurt and nowhere to turn. Maybe if we men MAN UP and say no, I don’t care if the pastor actually thinks HE sits on the right side of our father in heaven, your wrong and we are going to take action. ACTION ONE: STOP going to that church. How we have devolved into making pastors above the law is beyond me.
Paul, let’s see how you would like to be sexually, physically, or emotionally/spiritually abused and then go to the governance of the church you belong to, ask for help and then be treated like it was your fault or worse, ignored. Bashing churches is not the issue of any of these posts or even the excellent journalism job being done by Julie Roys. What is at issue is the churches complete failure to help and protect those who have been attacked by their own church family. Your very blasé attitude and explanation of what the church is and what God is does not hold up to what is being reported by Julie or what is being posted by those who have commented. As far as I’m able to determine you are the only one who has missed the boat here. Again, I am of the opinion that even if the church were to offer counseling and help, of some sort, to someone who has suffered abuse, it is still a matter for the police to be fully involved in because the church, no matter how well-meaning it may be, does not have the authority to arrest and prosecute criminals who have perpetrated their perversion on innocent victims.
amen Sam and Greg amen.
churches are not being attacked. just the wolves in sheep’s clothing that we are warned about. Please open your eyes. Do all these “churches” need expensive homes and airplanes and suits that cost, what would feed a family for a year? DO they really need to assume that the “godly man” is to be believed more than a wife or child? This is the 21st century not the 3rd century. John Street at the “alleged” Masters University of Christian Counseling says woman should endure abuse. I tell Ya what. I will self-identify as a woman and become your wife. Now John using your teaching, go ahead an abuse me and see how unbiblical (per you) I will become. Use discernment and be not afraid to look with God’s discernment. Think of your brothers and sisters in the ME or Africa who live in dirt floored homes and go to schools with no roofs and no plumbing. DO you think the excess cash flow diverted to them would be a good idea?? Just what JM got on his lawsuit (400k) can do wonders for the Christians and homeless just INSIDE America. They live way to large and remember Jesus had a donkey (aka VW BUG) and a stall and not a golden steed (AKA Lamborghini) and castle. JM also attended to BOB JONES UNI and until the seventies it was a one-color kind of place to go.
Paul Hovan,
1 Corinthians 5: 9-12
9 I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people— 10 not at all meaning the sexually immoral of this world, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters, since then you would need to go out of the world. 11 But now I am writing to you not to associate with anyone who bears the name of brother if he is guilty of sexual immorality or greed, or is an idolater, reviler, drunkard, or swindler—not even to eat with such a one. 12 For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Is it not those inside the church whom you are to judge? 13 God judges those outside. “Purge the evil person from among you.”
Wow—a serial rapist of female minors confesses to a pastor at GCC in 1982 and that pastor takes the rapist to see a lawyer?!? What the heck?!? In the three articles on abuse published by the Roy’s Report, there appears to be a complete and utter lack of any common sense or wisdom on the part of various members of the GCC pastoral staff. Did GCC have any policies in place when the church first started regarding what to do when any molestation or abuse of minors was discovered? If they did, then what did they do to ensure the policies were consistently followed? It appears that at least through the early 2000s, their responses were all over the place; and did not include ensuring the police were notified. GCC miserably failed to protect the most vulnerable members of both the church and society.
I believe that the church should care for the soul of the victims and also the abuser. In this case, the crime was hedious. Pastor Hines went to see the lawyer about this as he thought appropriate at the time. Today’s rule and law might be different than back then concerning confession of sin. But I guess the man was repentance with his confession and he was going to the police to confess his crime (he didn’t and even tried another failed molesting attempt), so Pastor Hines let it go at that. If the man was willing to go to the police by his own, that meant that the man was taking responsibility of his sin and ready to bear the punishment of his crime. That’s that.
However, pastor Hines did not keep track with the abuser and caught up with the man 2 years later. This time Hines gave the ultimatum : “you go to the police or we do”. The abuser did and got 44 years prison time.
So what is the issue here?
Perhaps pastor Hines should not trust the repentance abuser with his confession to willingly go to the police by his own. Perhaps. The fact that this pastor might misjudge the sincerety of the abuser is the only issue here. Not sure how many churches out there never made this kind of mistakes and always made perfect decision every time. You tell me.
You only need to place yourself in the victims shoe. If someone has knowledge in this case Hines and waited for two years to tell the guy to report to the police, and the subsequent delay of two years led to further abuse, rape of the victim and others. Would you be that gracious and forgiving of Hines? Its not a mistake to be taken lightly, Hines should have reported it to the police…thats the issue. You know of a crime, you report it to the authorities. It was the same 20 years back. The church is not a place to care for the soul of victims but also to provide a refuge and fight off wolves when necessary.
The problem is that they had a serial targeter of children on their hands and they didn’t alert the police….. two reasons to do so….. to protect future victims and so that the crimes could be solved for the victims’ sake, justice served.
So what is the issue here?
Mie, the problem with churches that hide abuse is the victim’s that it creates.
In this case, Grace’s concealment of one crime led to another crime.
Imagine if the man confessed to the church that he murdered his first wife and the church decided not to report him to authorities. Then two years later he killed his current wife. Wouldn’t the church have blood on its hands for hushing up the first murder?
A long time ago I worked for the Department of Social Services investigating reports of abuse with children. Abuse of children is a legal matter and should be investigated by the police or Social Services. Church staff are not government employees and are not trained to investigate abuse. I know churches, in general, resist government interference. This is very different. A crime is being committed. If someone stole money from the church, would that be dealt with by church discipline? What if someone physically attacked a staff member, still church discipline only?
One other comment. I continue to see a pattern in churches like this where no women are on staff or involved in any church decisions. So, this rapist could teach Sunday School, but I as a female could not teach men and women in Sunday School. As long as women are left out of the equation, this will continue. Women have a different skill in spiritual discernment in this area.
Kimberly you are so right. My previous church, saddleback church in OC, ordained three woman. The SBC went nuts. Folks. Please look at a calendar. It’s the 21st century. Things have changed. Yes we should adhere to the Bible. But in many instances we pick and choose based on our denomination. For example the death penalty. Most Christians are against it. Read Gen 9:6 per the Bible apparently god is completely for the death penalty. Maybe if we had more women the inherent masculinity would be lowered. Also. I’m curious. If JM actually read all that Julie has written about GCC, ya think he might be humble or hard hearted.
I just want women’s voices heard. In most churches women don’t have a voice at all. If this does not change, the next generation of women will abandon the church. Women’s voices are welcomed everywhere except for the church.
Only God knows JM’s heart, but I don’t think he cares anything about what Julie Roys says. What does she know?
I’m very thankful for Julie Roys’ work and her faithfulness to speak truth.
What I have been reading in this forum and the many other courageous expose by Julie of the cancer in evangelical churches today is pain and sorrow for the church. Churches today have become a platform for profit. Pastors are more interested to sell books and reap hefty royalties to buy big mansions. Some hide that motive pretty well like John. When profit is the obsession, then the sheep suffer. The shepherd is fleecing the flock for his own gain. The pastor will always protect the institution and project a clean image. That includes dismissing, covering up any scandalous sin that may affect book sales. Isn’t this the root of the problem ?
Perfectly said and the flocks are noticing
Hines heart was for the abuser or because he is a sunday school teacher? A child molester teaching sunday school would make the headlines and a scandal for the establishment: church and of course the pastor …Macarthur. For a matter as serious as this, did he reach out to the victims? Did he raised this with the other elders and his superior? John always claims that he is a pastor first, so what did the pastor say on the reported abuse?
The verse on going to authorities refers to disagreements between those who desire to occupy leadership positions in the church. Hence the admonition why go to the unbelievers to decide who should lead the church. But for any other matters where the law provides a remedy to any aggrieved party, the authorities (even if they are unbelievers) are the first place to go. The bible never taught about the church adjudicating criminal actions. Isn’t that right John?
I remember listening to John McArthur in a sermon where he claimed a pedophile came to his house and was at the door to kidnap his daughter and John told him if he came through the door he would knock his head off with his baseball bat. That’s what makes these articles confusing because John MacArthur has personal experience with a pedophile trying to kidnap his child. That’s just one reason you’re probably not going to get a lot of traction with people at Grace Community Church with these articles.
Bob, that story doesn’t even sound true. I wouldn’t put a lot of stock in it.
Besides, how can he recognize pedophiles who knock on his front door but can’t see them in his congregation even after they confess?
it wasn’t until Julie exposed John’s three mansions that members of GCC knew where he lives. It was a well kept secret known only to a few elders and it was an unspoken rule that we GCC members are never to ask.
Now, how could a pedophile know which of the three mansions to go to ?
this is not true, John lives in a gated community.
I think John Macarthur said this happened in the 1980’s. Has he always lived in a gated community?
That sounds like a completely bizarre and probably highly colored sermon illustration.
MacArthur has told some stories that surprised me. I remember him saying in either elementary or middle school he had a friend who wore glasses and fat. Some bully was harassing them every day. Then his friends older brother who was a football player came to school and threw the bully over some bushes. He said the older brother was so tough he crashed a bread truck into a wall without getting hurt. MacArthur doesn’t seem to be the turn the other cheek type of guy.
For such a skilled Bible expositor as John MacArthur and his counselor in residence, John Street, to not entrust known criminals to “secular” law enforcement, makes no sense since, according to Romans 13, God has ordained these officers to keep order!!!!! But, John has mis-applied Romans 13 with other issues, hasn’t he?
Hohn Cho, elder at GCC’s resignation speaks tons about John’s past, present and future view of women and children abuse in the church. If it was a mistake of the past, he would have stayed to helped correct it having written extensively on the subject. If its a present matter he has more reason to stay to help John and the elders to move the church in the right direction. Obviously, he doesn’t see any future with John admitting, correcting and allowing or soliciting help in improving abuse in the church especially by leaders and pastors. which is why he had to resign.
what’s strange is that some of the woman of GCC must be reading some if not all of what is being said. Is the GCC the non-fictional version of the Handmaids tale? I moved out of orange county CA a few months ago and went to a well-known large church in Orange County CA. That church had some very strict rules including do not ride an elevator if only a man and woman are in it. I found that a bit much, but they want to make sure there is no ability for any impropriety, and I commend them for that. BUT, if I got even a hint at what GCC has done I, like most would be gone. What are the women of GCCs problem? RUN. God is on your side and FYI: the elders, and JM are NOT GOD. Again, very creepy at the things these non-men of God are saying, and nobody reacts. Especially the woman. Ladies lead the way, and no GOD won’t get you for not submitting to your (whatever you are supposed to submit to make the GCC elders happy)
All these cases sound like people acting consistently, but consistently on wrong beliefs. Anti-government extremist sentiment, + “church discipline is 100% an internal matter.”
As a public school administrator, I have received (and provided) a great deal of training in mandated reporting. The emphasis on this took on a sharper focus as we moved through the 1990’s into the present. Even so, in public education I witnessed those who disregarded mandated reporting, often to their own professional peril. In terms of Christian ministry, I have two observations. One, there is not nearly enough training in churches. Two, Christian ministries often have a desire to deal with things “in house.” Both of these things must change.
Having been in the public arena myself, can say that I have experienced corruption there as well. This is an untouched subject and reason for why there is sometimes skepticism from the religious community regarding public circles. That being said, we must hold our Christian ministries to the highest of standards because they are meant to be a witness for Christ. If churches today are experiencing a growing awareness of corruption in the public sphere, it does not serve them well to become sectarian, circle the wagons when there is conflict from within. Younger pastors and ministry leaders might take heed of these situations and ask themselves if they want to be associating themselves, or defending situations that are clearly wrong because the ministry is on the same team as them. Rather, we would hold to ourselves a higher standard. There are times for ministries to be skeptical. There are over reaches in a very secular world. At the same time, the magistrate has gotten many of these situations right when the churches were failing and worthy of our notice for doing so.
when a pastor exhibits control on how it members should deal with matters that criminal in nature, seeks to cover up the crime, refuses police reporting and intervention then it is a CULT. The comments that you see here or in the other articles are not meant for GCC members as they are so deep in this cult they can’t, won’t leave the cult even if kool-aid is serve during communion. The comments are meant to warn outsiders to see GCC and Macarthur for what they are: a cult that protects women and child abusers. For outsiders to stay away and protect their churches from infiltration and the evil influence from this cult.
When abuse happens in a church, you can say it was a bad apple or a mistake was made. When stories of abuse that were mishandled keep coming in over and over and over again, you can say that protecting abusers is a feature of that church’s system.
I’m curious as to the confession in 1982. Did he confess to current abuses? Or was he confessing he had abuse in the past without there being knowledge of his current abuse at the time? Did this confession include lies that the penalty was paid?
There isn’t bough information to build a real argument. I still believe the biblical way to handle this is innocent until proven guilty.