Grace Community Church Releases Response to Recent Scandal, UPDATE: Not a Response from GCC
As one can imagine, Roys is torqued to no end
UPDATE: The statement below was sent by an individual close to the situation in response to personal emails asking questions. The statement was and is not a form or canned response from Grace Community Church (as stated in the first sentence of the emailer’s statement). The official image below was not released by GCC and is instead a screengrab from the PowerPoint slides John Harris used in his first video discussing the case. We reached out to Phil Johnson of GCC/GTY and confirmed that yes, the church will be issuing no official response.
While John MacArthur and Grace Community Church have not released a public statement regarding the recent scandal that ax-grinders and faith-bad journalists have been lobbying against them- one that started off as questioning the proprietary of the church discipline against a member 20 years ago and has since devolved into wild claims that anyone who doesn’t see the situation their way is guilty of harboring and defending child abuse,- the church has sent out a form email to anyone requesting more information about their position.
The response explains that their church is not likely to issue a public statement about it, citing the pledge of privacy and confidentiality of pastoral counseling sessions, while taking shots at muckraking journalists like Julie Roys and others who have been the main drivers of this non-story.
Grace Community Church Response
Thanks for your email. The elders of GCC are not likely to issue a public statement on the David Gray
case. Here’s why:Objective viewers who examine the facts on record without prejudice should be able to see that this
case is complex, and there’s more to the story of this couple’s marital strife and their interaction with
counselors than the evidence contained in public court records. The main exculpatory facts in this case
pertain to things that were said in the privacy of confidential pastoral counseling—in sessions Mrs. Gray
herself requested when she was saying she wanted to seek reconciliation with her husband.In other words, recently-published stories about the case are missing vital details. In almost every
counseling or discipline case, statements are made and issues arise that cannot and should not be
made public. Counselors promise confidentiality. Having made that promise, the elders of Grace Church
intend to honor it, even if it is to their own hurt (Psalm 15:4). They are not going to breach the bounds
of propriety or fuel the tabloid appeal of this story by feeding details from private counseling sessions
into the press or social media.It is also the elders’ position that noisy, angry, sideline critics who have already judged the matter do
not need to be answered (Proverbs 26:4; see also Proverbs 17:4). The chief gossip-mongers who are
fueling this story have already violated every biblical principle that governs how matters like this should
be dealt with. A case such as this cannot fairly be re-litigated twenty years after the fact–especially on
social media or other online forums. Given the way all the recent narratives have been slanted and the
timelines deliberately compacted, it is clear that those most aggressively pushing this story are not
genuinely interested in truth anyway.Those who personally know and trust the leadership at Grace Community Church do stand with John
MacArthur and the elders. Our encouragement for people on all sides is to pray for everyone involved
in this case. Pray also that the Word of the Lord will continue to spread. And pray that Christ will be
glorified (2 Thessalonians 3:1).
As one can imagine, Roys is torqued to no end by the response because her concept of what church discipline is and does is vastly underdeveloped (Julie, if you’re reading this, you need to become a member of a church. Staying out in the wilderness isn’t good for you, and a good church will help you understand this):
We’re sure she’ll have a response about it soon enough.
For a robust response that carefully goes over the timeline and does some deep discussion confirming and referencing our articles here and here, check out the video below: