Latest Interview About the SGM Child Sex Abuse Class Action Lawsuit

Posted by Christine Pack

[UPDATED: Former Sovereign Grace Ministries youth leader Nathaniel Morales has been sentenced to 40 years in prison, as of 8-14-14]

As we've documented in earlier articles, Sovereign Grace Ministries is currently embroiled in an ongoing class action lawsuit alleging child sex abuse dating back a number of years. Radio talk show host Janet Mefferd has been diligently reporting on the case by interviewing various attorneys involved in the lawsuit, as well as former Sovereign Grace Ministries leader, now turned whistle-blower, Brent Detwiler. From the latest interview with the attorney for the plaintiffs, Bill O'Neil:

Radio host Janet Mefferd: "Now, you have a lot of details in here, and obviously we can't go through them all, but for example, you talk about one pedophile who was convicted and jailed, and then came back to the church. I mean, to what extent did this sort of stuff happen, where somebody who was a known abuser of children, as you're alleging in this lawsuit, was allowed to be present among children and was not revealed to be a pedophile to people who didn't know any better?" 

Attorney Bill O'Neil: "And that's the real breach of trust that I think is at the heart of why these people came forward.....Someone who had already been convicted of molestation-related charges would be having sleepovers at his house with children where parents didn't know the details of what had happened." 

Mefferd: "Why, why in the world......" 

O'Neil: "The church officials definitely knew." 

Mefferd: "Yeah." 

O'Neil: "......and (the church officials) participated in defending him in the courts." 

Mefferd: "Just out of curiosity, when the sleepovers would occur, were they in conjunction with the children of the couple (at whose house the sleepover was held), or was it just, 'the leader of the church is gonna have a sleepover and a bunch of young kids come to my house'?" 

O'Neil: "(The sleepovers) were not always in conjunction with the couple's children. There were sleepovers at one pedophile's house, who― he didn't have any children."

Other interviews by Janet Mefferd documenting the progress of the SGM class action lawsuit:

10/18/2012 - Janet Mefferd Interviews Attorney Susan Burke About Lawsuit Against Sovereign Grace Ministries ("I don't know how long evangelicalism can ignore this problem.")

5/16/13 - Janet Mefferd Interviews Attorney Bill O’Neil Again About the Sovereign Grace Ministries Lawsuit

5/20/13 - Janet Mefferd Interviews Bill O'Neil Regarding Latest Details About the SGM Child Sex Abuse Class Action Lawsuit 

6/6/13 - Janet Mefferd Interviews Boz Tchividjian Regarding the Silence of Christian Leaders Over American Evangelicalism's Largest Sexual Scandal to Date

10/7/13 - Janet Mefferd Interviews Boz Tchividjian: Are Evangelical Christians Worse Than Catholics on Sexual Abuse Response? (References the SGM Child Sexual Abuse Scandal)

  Additional Resources  

Copy of Lawsuit Filed Against Sovereign Grace Ministries

SGM - Updated Statement on Reported Lawsuit

As Appeal Is Announced in Sovereign Grace Case, Joshua Harris Says He Was Abused As A Child

Lawsuit Claims Sovereign Grace Ministries Concealed Sex Abuse

Flagship Churches Prepare To Leave As Lawsuit Charges C.J. Mahaney's Sovereign Grace Ministries With Covering Up Child Sex Abuse

Sovereign Grace Ministries: In Sex Abuse Case, Courts Shouldn't "Second Guess" SGM's Pastoral Counseling

SGM's C.J. Mahaney Gets Support From John Piper

Former SGM Founder Brent Detwiler Interviewed About Class Action Sex Abuse Lawsuit

Posted by Christine Pack

As recently reported here, Brent Detwiler, one of the Sovereign Grace Ministries founders, has called for prominent Christian leaders to separate from Sovereign Grace Ministries pastor C.J. Mahaney due to an ongoing sex abuse class action lawsuit that has been brought against Sovereign Grace Ministries. Some of the leaders Detwiler has called upon to separate from Mahaney are John Piper, Voddie Baucham, Mark Driscoll, Al Mohler, Mark Dever, Paige Patterson and Ed Stetzer. John Piper, however, and perhaps in response to this exhortation from Detwiler, made a public show of his ongoing support for Mahaney by recently preaching at a Sovereign Grace Ministries plant, where he made this statement:

“I chose to be here. Nobody forced me.......(Mahaney's) a pretty persuasive guy, but I really, really wanted to be here, and therefore the opportunity arose and I snatched it, and I’m thankful for it.” (online source)

Former SGM leader Brent Detwiler was recently interviewed on the Janet Mefferd radio show regarding the class action suit against SGM. That interview can be listened to in its entirety here.

I would like to point out that this is not a situation of one, two or three cases......this is a class action lawsuit, involving many different families. And also, the issue is not over insignificant matters (i.e., administrative issues). These are situations involving children alleged to have been sexually molested. Having watched, as an unbeliever, while the Roman Catholic Church attempted for decades to veil their in-house attempts to "handle" the rampant pedophilia within their ranks, it is my desire, at the very minimum, that leaders known to have close connections with Mahaney to at least publicly urge for transparency as this case moves forward. I'm not in any way asserting that Sovereign Grace is an organization filled with covered up cases of pedophilia, but at the same time, shouldn't SGM/Mahaney be seeking to be as transparent as possible? And giving more information, rather than less? One would think so, but in reality, SGM is claiming, according to Christianity Today, that the courts should not be "second-guessing" their in-house handling of these cases. In my opinion, SGM/Mahaney are being hurt, not helped, by their strategy to claim infringement of First Amendment rights in the handling of these sex abuse cases:

"SGM believes that allowing courts to second-guess pastoral guidance would represent a blow to the First Amendment that would hinder, not help, families seeking spiritual direction among other resources in dealing with the trauma related to any sin including child sexual abuse," Tommy Hill, SGM's director of administration, said in a November 14 statement. (online source)

It also seems clear to me that Mahaney's Christian brothers have an obligation to exhort their friend and brother in Christ to do the right thing in this matter. Perhaps they are doing this privately, but my wish is that this would be done publicly as well, as this is a public court case being played out for all the world to see. I certainly think that Mahaney's brothers in Christ could strike the right note of biblical hopefulness ("Love hopes all things" 1 Cor 13:7), while at the same time exhorting Mahaney and Sovereign Grace Ministries to biblical honesty and transparency.

I recognize that false accusers can form class action lawsuits. I also understand from Scripture that there will come a time when the whole world will turn against Christianity, and I suspect that there will likely be court cases involved in how that plays out. I do get that. For instance, I observe a growing hostility against Christians who won't accept the same sex marriage agenda or the push to normalize the LGBT community, with media reports that portray Christians as bigoted, homophobic, unloving, intolerant, etc., etc. I am also observing a growing hostility against homeschooling because the secular humanists seem to grasp that many of those holding out against the secular agenda are within that community. So I suspect that there will be lawsuits along those lines in the coming months and years as this world, and our country, spiral deeper and deeper into depravity (see Romans 1:18-32). With all this in mind, and knowing that the world is watching, I think this matter with Sovereign Grace Ministries/CJ Mahaney could and should be handled in such a way that we give the benefit of the doubt, and yet also give a clear call for transparency.


 Additional Resources 

Lawsuit Claims Sovereign Grace Ministries Concealed Sex Abuse

SGM - Updated Statement on Reported Lawsuit

Sovereign Grace Ministries: In Sex Abuse Case, Courts Shouldn't "Second Guess" SGM's Pastoral Counseling

Sovereign Grace Ministries: Courts Shouldn't 'Second-Guess' Pastoral Counseling of Sex Abuse Victims

SGM Leader Mark Prater Gives A Talk That Is Symptomatic of Unhealthy SGM Leadership

Mahaney Gets Support From John Piper

2/28/13 - Janet Mefferd Interviews Former SGM Founder Brent Detwiler About The Sovereign Grace Ministries Lawsuit

1/18/13 - Janet Mefferd Interviews Attorney Bill O’Neil About the Sovereign Grace Ministries Lawsuit

10/18/2012 - Janet Mefferd Interviews Attorney Susan Burke About Lawsuit Against Sovereign Grace Ministries ("I don't know how long evangelicalism can ignore this problem.")

Flagship Churches Prepare To Leave As Lawsuit Charges C.J. Mahaney's Sovereign Grace Ministries With Covering Up Child Sex Abuse

Copy of Lawsuit Filed Against Sovereign Grace Ministries

Former Sovereign Grace Ministries Founder Calls For Christian Leaders To Separate From CJ Mahaney Due To Class Action Sex Abuse Case

Posted by Christine Pack

[UPDATED: Former Sovereign Grace Ministries youth leader Nathaniel Morales has been sentenced to 40 years in prison, as of 8-14-14]

Brent Detwiler, one of the Sovereign Grace Ministries founders, has called for prominent Christian leaders to separate from Sovereign Grace Ministries pastor C.J. Mahaney due to an ongoing sex abuse class action lawsuit that has been brought against Sovereign Grace Ministries. Mahaney, who is currently a member of the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals and The Gospel Coalition, is a well-known speaker at Christian conferences, and is scheduled to speak at the upcoming Gospel Coalition National Conference, scheduled for April 8-10 in Orlando, Fl.

Some of the leaders Detwiler has called upon  to separate from Mahaney are John Piper, Voddie Baucham, Mark Driscoll, Al Mohler, Mark Dever, Paige Patterson and Ed Stetzer.

 Janet Mefferd Interviews About the SGM Class Action Lawsuit 

10/18/2012 - Janet Mefferd Interviews Attorney Susan Burke About Lawsuit Against Sovereign Grace Ministries ("I don't know how long evangelicalism can ignore this problem.")

5/16/13 - Janet Mefferd Interviews Attorney Bill O’Neil Again About the Sovereign Grace Ministries Lawsuit

5/20/13 - Janet Mefferd Interviews Bill O'Neil Regarding Latest Details About the SGM Child Sex Abuse Class Action Lawsuit

6/6/13 - Janet Mefferd Interviews Boz Tchividjian Regarding the Silence of Christian Leaders Over American Evangelicalism's Largest Sexual Scandal to Date

10/7/13 - Janet Mefferd Interviews Boz Tchividjian: Are Evangelical Christians Worse Than Catholics on Sexual Abuse Response? (References the SGM Child Sexual Abuse Scandal)

 Additional Resources 

Former respected SGM youth leader Nathaniel Morales accused of abusing boys for decades in Montgomery Co. (ABC affiliate, WJLA) [UPDATE: Morales convicted]

Sovereign Grace Ministries and Abuse: Time to Speak Out (Patheos)

Lawsuit Claims Sovereign Grace Ministries Concealed Sex Abuse

Sovereign Grace Ministries: In Sex Abuse Case, Courts Shouldn't "Second Guess" SGM's Pastoral Counseling

Flagship Churches Prepare To Leave As Lawsuit Charges C.J. Mahaney's Sovereign Grace Ministries With Covering Up Child Sex Abuse

Copy of Lawsuit Filed Against Sovereign Grace Ministries

Attorney Susan Burke On the Child Sexual Abuse Lawsuit Against Sovereign Grace: SGM Church Leaders Told Parents "Not To Call The Police"

Posted by Christine Pack

[UPDATED: Former Sovereign Grace Ministries youth leader Nathaniel Morales has been sentenced to 40 years in prison, as of 8-14-14]

Attorney Susan Burke

Talk show host Janet Mefferd recently interviewed Susan Burke, the attorney heading up the lawsuit against Sovereign Grace Ministries. The allegations in this lawsuit are that Sovereign Grace Ministries concealed sex abuse allegations in Maryland and Virginia. Sovereign Grace Ministries is headed by popular pastor/author/speaker C.J. Mahaney. Mahaney is currently a member of The Gospel Coalition, and has also been very influential in the Charismatic Calvinists/New Calvinists/Young-Restless-Reformed movement.

During the interview, Susan Burke who filed on behalf of the plaintiffs in this case had this to say about a potential class action suit:

"We have three families, three families have kind of stepped forward and are willing to serve as representative plaintiffs. I've heard from and been in touch with many other victims as well. So we decided that this would be, because of the subject matter and how traumatic it is for people to come forward, we thought that the most protective device here would be a class action. And even just since we've filed, we've had a few more folks reach out to us as well. So, sadly, it's not just the three."

Burke also made the following allegations:

· The Sovereign Grace pastors protected the perpetrators. 

· They kept the incidents quiet and did not alert others in the church. 

· They used intimidation to enforce the silence. 

· It appears they were more concerned about the reputation and the finances of the church. 

· They portrayed the civil authorities as untrustworthy. 

· They portrayed the pastors as being trustworthy to handle the situation. 

· They emphasized homeschooling and created fear and distrust of secular authorities. 

· The pastors had little training for their position, either in seminary or otherwise. 

· The parents were led to believe that they were the only ones that had had this happen, due to the culture of silence. 

· Various blogs helped people to find one another and realize that they were not the only ones who experienced these events. 

· These incidents fall well within the statute of limitations. 

· More people are coming forward so the class action suit is the most logical way to help those coming forward. 

· She emphasized the story of a 3 year old child who was made to meet with and "forgive" her abuser. The poor child was so afraid she hid under a chair. 

· The son of a high level church official was involved in some form of predation.

(Thank you to The Wartburg Watch for compiling the above list)

More interviews by Janet Mefferd documenting the progress of the SGM class action lawsuit:

10/18/2012 - Janet Mefferd Interviews Attorney Susan Burke About Lawsuit Against Sovereign Grace Ministries ("I don't know how long evangelicalism can ignore this problem.")

5/16/13 - Janet Mefferd Interviews Attorney Bill O’Neil Again About the Sovereign Grace Ministries Lawsuit

5/20/13 - Janet Mefferd Interviews Bill O'Neil Regarding Latest Details About the SGM Child Sex Abuse Class Action Lawsuit

6/6/13 - Janet Mefferd Interviews Boz Tchividjian Regarding the Silence of Christian Leaders Over American Evangelicalism's Largest Sexual Scandal to Date

10/7/13 - Janet Mefferd Interviews Boz Tchividjian: Are Evangelical Christians Worse Than Catholics on Sexual Abuse Response? (References the SGM Child Sexual Abuse Scandal)

 Additional Resources 

The Sex-Abuse Scandal That Devastated a Suburban Megachurch (The Washingtonian)

Flagship Churches Prepare To Leave As Lawsuit Charges C.J. Mahaney's Sovereign Grace Ministries With Coveirng Up Child Sex Abuse

Copy of Lawsuit Filed Against Sovereign Grace Ministries

Lawsuit Claims Sovereign Grace Ministries Concealed Sex Abuse

Posted by Christine Pack

The Washington Post is reporting that a lawsuit claims that Sovereign Grace Ministries concealed sex abuse allegations in Maryland and Virginia. This is a horrible story, and one I have heard rumblings about for several years. Sovereign Grace Ministries is headed by popular pastor/author/speaker C.J. Mahaney. Mahaney is currently a member of The Gospel Coalition, and has also been very influential in the Charismatic Calvinists/New Calvinists/Young-Restless-Reformed movement.

In an interview with Janet Mefferd, Attorney Susan Burke who filed on behalf of the plaintiffs had this to say about a potential class action suit:

"We have three families, three families have kind of stepped forward and are willing to serve as representative plaintiffs. I've heard from and been in touch with many other victims as well. So we decided that this would be, because of the subject matter and how traumatic it is for people to come forward, we thought that the most protective device here would be a class action. And even just since we've filed, we've had a few more folks reach out to us as well. So, sadly, it's not just the three."

More interviews by Janet Mefferd documenting the progress of the SGM class action lawsuit:

10/18/2012 - Janet Mefferd Interviews Attorney Susan Burke About Lawsuit Against Sovereign Grace Ministries ("I don't know how long evangelicalism can ignore this problem.")

5/16/13 - Janet Mefferd Interviews Attorney Bill O’Neil Again About the Sovereign Grace Ministries Lawsuit

5/20/13 - Janet Mefferd Interviews Bill O'Neil Regarding Latest Details About the SGM Child Sex Abuse Class Action Lawsuit

6/6/13 - Janet Mefferd Interviews Boz Tchividjian Regarding the Silence of Christian Leaders Over American Evangelicalism's Largest Sexual Scandal to Date

10/7/13 - Janet Mefferd Interviews Boz Tchividjian: Are Evangelical Christians Worse Than Catholics on Sexual Abuse Response? (References the SGM Child Sexual Abuse Scandal)

 Additional Resources 

UPDATE: 1/18/13 Attorney Bill O’Neil Interviewed on the Janet Mefferd Show About the Sovereign Grace Ministries Lawsuit

Flagship Churches Prepare To Leave As Lawsuit Charges C.J. Mahaney's Sovereign Grace Ministries With Covering Up Child Sex Abuse

Copy of Lawsuit Filed Against Sovereign Grace Ministries