Pastors are above the law: Sovereign Grace P/6

 Read Part One HERE

 In this blog post I will continue to focus on C.J. Mahaney, pastor of Sovereign Grace Church, Louiseville, 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:

"I was part of PDI-turned SGM for a long time, and there were too many abuses to recount in a post. In a nutshell, leadership puts up an appearance of humility, while being absolutely unwilling to look at very serious cult-like tendencies. Basically, everyone was expected to be cookie-cutter families: Everyone is to home school, only let their children court, support the same hyper-Calvinist doctrines etc. When my spouse and I decided not to home school, you would have thought we had decided to sell our children into prostitution. We came under so much scrutiny and "evaluation" as to our motives, we ended up doing it out of a sense of shame."

"I also took issue with the fact that the leadership in our church refused to report very serious cases of child abuse to local officials - even one case of molestation and another of incest. I have a very good friend whose husband confessed to a pastor he had sexually abused their daughter and other heinous acts. One of the pastors met with the couple one time and then told my friend later - when she asked when they would meet again - that he thought the situation was pretty much dealt with."

Not only is not reporting these abuses against the law, I think it was indicative of their arrogant presumption that they can effectively take on situations that were way over their head..... Their methodologies are so fraught with inconsistencies  and dangerous error, they have hamstrung themselves in their effectiveness. And as much as they uphold the efficacies of biblical accountability, if anyone outside their tight little leadership circles dare to challenge anything in the movement, they are anathema and shunned altogether.Although there were many good things about PDI -SGM and I have many fond memories, unfortunately the harm I suffered far outweighs the good. I was so sipwrecked after leaving, I still have a difficult time walking into a church or trusting anyone who calls himself a Christian."

Read Part Seven HERE