Husbands have the right to complain about their wives: Sovereign Grace P/2

                                    Read Part One HERE

In this blog post I will continue to focus on C.J.Mahaney, pastor of Sovereign Grace Church, Louisville, Kentucky, USA. He was formerly president of Sovereign Grace Ministries, now known as Sovereign Grace Churches. Their culture incorporates a strong emphasis on homeschooling, patriarchy and corporal punishment. A civil suit was filed in 2012, accusing Mahaney and other Sovereign Grace pastors of covering up sexual abuse of children.

 Testimony of a survivor:

"Our family attended a Sovereign Grace Ministries church for 3 years. The people were very friendly - at first. We attended membership classes for a year before we were granted membership. Lots of classes (weekly) to make sure we were the type of members they wanted. We attended a Parent and Youth TaG We also attended a family TAG group As time progressed we were invited to attend a Marriage TAG group."

"The marriage TAG was odd. Couples would sit around together and the men would talk about how "non-submissive" their wives were! At the end of the class, several of the wives would be crying. It was very disturbing. When my husband voiced his concerns, he was told that women needed to submit to their husbands."

"There are many other things which happened during our time at this church. Most of it was awful! Our children were told  by leaders that they were not very smart, that they had anger issues, that they were full of pride, etc. One child was actually told that, "it was not their place to ask any questions about anything. Their job was to, "make the leadership look good."

"We were constantly being told that we were wretched sinners (which we are) but Christ, but God! The "bad news" was constantly repeated, but rarely was the "good news" -  we have freedom in Christ! He paid the debt! He has freed us!"

"We decided we would meet with the pastor and discussed our concerns with him. It was quite an emotional meeting, but in the end we had not made a final decision. "Maybe it was us," we thought. Maybe we were prideful. Maybe we were imagining being shunned, etc. We prayed and left the meeting."

"A few days later, we returned to church for an activity. No one spoke to us until we were leaving. A board member's wife said that she heard we had met with the pastor. I was surprised, but asked how she had heard that information. She replied that the pastor had sent out an email to the leadership saying that we were leaving the church."

"I was shocked. We had not even decided what we were going to do... My husband arranged for another meeting with the pastor to discuss the subject. When they met, the pastor said he was sure that we were going to leave, but if we'd like, he could send an email stating that we had changed our mind and were now going to stay"

"WOW! I'm not sure what he eventually did, but shortly after that meeting we left Sovereign Grace Ministries. We have been away for almost a year and have not heard from anyone."

Read Part Three HERE