This year, The Roys Report exposed one of evangelicalism’s top figures—John MacArthur, a man hailed by his own institutions as “the world’s premier expository preacher” and the “dominant voice” of the 21st Century. Yet, as we reported in exclusive exposés, MacArthur repeatedly shamed or ignored victims of abuse, while protecting their abusers.
Three of our investigative stories on MacArthur made the list of our Top 10 Stories of 2022. Another story reporting MacArthur’s withdrawal from the Ligonier Conference, days after our first story published, made the Top 10—as did our story on the resignation of an elder at MacArthur’s church.
Though many of MacArthur’s defenders have sought to discredit our articles, the facts, backed by first-hand accounts and primary documents, have withstood scrutiny.
Even so, MacArthur continues to enjoy widespread acceptance within evangelicalism, speaking at conferences and broadcasting on major Christian radio networks. But some are confronting the Christian community for refusing to hold one of their prized pastors to account. And, as the issue of sexual abuse and cover-up in the church continues to dominate headlines, perhaps this will change in 2023?
Also listed among our most-read stories is an article about Jeremy Foster—a pastor of an Association of Related Churches (ARC) megachurch in Houston, Texas, who resigned after admitting an adulterous affair. Though this is the only story about an ARC pastor to make our top 10, we reported many stories about scandals at ARC churches this year.
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Our other top stories revealed more scandals involving megachurch pastors, mega-mansions, and mega-worship leaders. Though our culture may say bigger is better, our investigations at The Roys Report (TRR) reveal otherwise. I pray the church returns to the practices encouraged by the prophet Micah—“to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with (our) God.”
The Roys Report Top 10 Stories in 2022
In 2001, the wife of child abuser, David Gray, went to the leaders of John MacArthur’s church for help. Instead, John MacArthur publicly shamed and excommunicated the wife for not taking Gray back into the family’s home. (Follow-up story is #5)
Jeremy Foster, pastor of Hope City Church in Houston, Texas, resigned from his ARC megachurch due to an adulterous affair with a woman outside the church.
Witnesses say Pastor Paul Guay confessed he sexually molested his daughter in front of John MacArthur. But MacArthur did nothing. And years later, when Guay’s daughter asked for MacArthur’s help exposing her father, who was still pastoring, MacArthur refused.
Five-time Grammy-nominated artist Dante Bowe posted an apology for behavior that caused a break in his relationship with the popular Christian band Maverick City Music. The apology then disappeared from Instagram without explanation.
Despite David Gray’s conviction for molesting and physically abusing his children, John MacArthur’s church continued to support Gray and spurn Gray’s wife for decades, records and testimony reveal.
After confessing an inappropriate online relationship with a woman other than his wife, a tearful Matt Chandler told his congregation he’ll be taking a leave of absence. (Chandler returned to ministry about three months later.)
Days after TRR published exposés revealing that MacArthur had protected child abuser David Gray and shamed his wife, John MacArthur pulls out of the Ligonier 2022 Conference. MacArthur claimed the cancelation was due to family health issues. A photo posted the week of the conference showed MacArthur golfing in Dallas with The Master’s Seminary Professor Steve Lawson.
Popular televangelist and megachurch pastor Creflo Dollar renounced his decades-long teaching on tithing. However, Dollar did not address questions about his lavish ministry and personal spending.
Parsonages are often thought to be modest homes that allow pastors to survive on a meager salary. However, in our multi-million-dollar budget, megachurch age, a parsonage can be a $7 million mansion stretched across 35 acres—and all of it tax-free!
A prominent elder at John MacArthur’s Grace Community Church resigns in the wake of TRR’s reporting on the David Gray debacle. In an email leaked to TRR, Elder Hohn Cho wrote that his “conscience and convictions” were not aligned with other elders at Grace.
As many of these investigations are ongoing, we encourage you to subscribe to The Roys Report e-mail list (see below) and follow us via Facebook, Twitter and Instagram to stay up-to-date on these and other important stories.
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13 Responses
This is called obsession and really is not something to be lauded. It would be like the DNC bragging that they ran 10 investigative committees on Trumps collusion with Russia.
We published more than 620 stories last year. Only a small fraction of them dealt with John MacArthur. The MacArthur stories just happened to be the most popular, likely because they were exclusives and had stunning revelations. I don’t believe that reflects an obsession on our part. It just shows our audience has a desire to see in-depth reporting on abuse and cover-up in the church.
JMac is also probably the most well known pastor among the 2022 articles, with a long history, especially in conservative streams of Christiandom…
Thank you Julie for the research and reporting you and your team did on these and all the other stories published this year!
This is a prophetic calling! thank you Julie & team, for helping edify the Ekklesia in this way… painful, but profound process of exposing abuses of power/spiritual abuse, that is necessary for the Bride of Christ to be who we are meant to be! I will continue to pray for the prophetic voices to speak up & believe 2023 is about the priesthood of all believers SPEAKING!
One of first reasons I became unhappy with MacArthur when he started to mix politics with religion When did pastor John MacArthur start going political? Did it start with this sermon?
“Homosexuality and the Campaign for Immorality”
https://www.gty.org/library/sermons-library/90-449
However, when does MacArthur attack the Republicans for lying?
1 Corinthians 5
9 I wrote you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people.
10 In no way did I mean the immoral people of this world, or the greedy and swindlers and idolaters, since you would then have to go out of the world.
11 But now I am writing to you not to associate with anyone who calls himself a Christian who is sexually immoral, or greedy, or an idolater, or verbally abusive, or a drunkard, or a swindler. Do not even eat with such a person.—NET
Mark Dever’s Church Sues D.C. over COVID-19 Worship Limits
https://julieroys.com/dever-sues-d-c/
Some of the problems of John MacArthur and others could be directly connected to the pandemic. See the above article, but especially the comments to it.No doubt,The greed of pastors was better concealed before the pandemic than after, but it is now for all to see. So, in spite of the il-treatment of women or at least the sanctioning of it in MacArthur’s Church- -which I will add as a side note has nothing to do with the doctrine of Dispensationalism that some people want to blame also–Is really related to greed. Greed, I would think helps the growth of many sins!
Lea had an excellent comment here.
https://julieroys.com/dever-sues-d-c/#comment-78970
I found the following article to be good.
Further Reflections on Recent Conversations about Christian Freedom
https://www.9marks.org/article/further-reflections-on-recent-conversations-about-christian-freedom/
Dear Jim:
I have to respectfully disagree with you about MacArthur Preaching “politics” when he addressed the issue of Homosexuality. That is not political, that is Biblical, and it addresses a Moral issue, not a political one. Further, even if one were to address things in the Political arena, what is wrong with that…if it addresses the issues that impact the people that you are called to teach?
The Old Testament Prophets all addressed Politicians and Politics when they were calling wicked Kings and other Leaders to repentance. Jesus addressed Religious and Political Leaders of His day, and so did the apostle Paul. I find nothing wrong with addressing Political matters as long as the Pastor is doing so to prepare his People to address the issues that impact their lives from a Biblical perspective. In my Preaching now, I’m addressing issues like the evils of Abortion, Transgenderism, the indoctrination of Children through the “Drag Queen Story Hour”, and other Satanic lies that are being propagated by evil and wicked Politicians. These are Moral issues and must be addressed!
Respectfully Yours,
Wayne
Thank you Julie for all you have done.
The MacArthur posts were so important in understanding the view of some of these churches regarding. sex abuse and domestic violence. Keep doing what you’re doing.
The FDA protects the public from dangers unknown. The Christian community has no such protection. Without any oversight, those representing themselves as authorities on the will of God, can inflict harm. They can manipulate God’s word to control behavior based on “their” preferences, ego, and or for personal gain.
The role of journalism is to inform so that readers can make decisions. While I appreciate all the work of “The Roy’s Report,” I am one who is/was “most” interested in the ministry of John MacArthur. He has been on the radio for decades, written over 150 books, commentaries, and has a bible named after himself. His influence is enormous. It isn’t about an obsession. It is about his enormous capacity to do damage.
“For it is time for judgment to begin with God’s household; and if it begins with us, what will the
outcome be for those who do not obey the gospel of God?” (1 Peter 4:17)
Thank you Julie.
One example of JMac’s enormous capacity to do damage is his video sermon on the Ending of Mark, which he asserts should not be in the Bible. Were he just giving his learned opinion, that would be one thing. But the video is riddled with information, and in the decade that it has been up–despite repeated calls for correction–nothing has been changed. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1-xBwFISCc
I appreciate the tenacity of the Roys Report for integrity in ministry. It is vital.
Would there ever be an interest in revealing access to Survivor Care that is designed specifically for the local church?
Certainly we need to expose it when Sex Abuse is mishandled by leaders in the church. Perhaps it would be helpful to give an alternative.
I would welcome an opportunity to speak to someone.
James Reeves, DMin.
FS4Women.com
It does seem that re-iterating what has already been written about John MacArthur is almost an extra jab, just for good measure. Regardless of his mistakes in dealing with these issues, God has used him mightily.
John MacArthur is responsible for driving people away from God. He condemns those of us who reject Trinity. Being non trinitarian I can tell you that I intensely dislike this man. He has nothing good to say about anybody or anything. He’s a hypocrite. I say that because people like Ken Copeland, Jesse Duplantis, and the like etc. readily admit they are prosperity preachers. MacArthur – well he’s just a piece of junk.