Paul's Passing Thoughts

“Mahaney has never repented of this documented criminal act.  But while Mark Dever excommunicated 256 people for non-attendance, which isn’t a biblical reason to bring anyone up on church discipline to begin with, he is giving Mahaney a pass on blackmail and coercion.”

When are Christians at large going to stop letting New Calvinists frame the discussions to their desirable outcomes? DA Carson et al have issued statements explaining their silence about the SGM pedophile class action lawsuit. See here: SGM Civil Case pdf  And no, I don’t have a “trigger alert” for its reading, suck it up and face the facts; it’s the American church in living color. The “unadjusted gospel,” the “scandalous gospel” [true that],  the “shocking gospel,” the “underestimated” gospel has inundated the American church for 43 years now—WHERE’S THE BEEF?

Instead of revival and “real lasting change” we have two Reformed organizations needed to keep Calvinists out of court, innumerable broken families and friendships, innumerable church splits, an unprecedented doctrinally dumbed down congregant, a massive exodus of people from the organized church known as “The Nones,” a Neo-Calvinist resurgence exclusive to upper income churches, and innumerable spiritual abuse blogs spawned by the New Calvinist movement which again has had 43 years to make its mark. When are Christians going to start asking the hard questions?

The statements clearly reveal the true character of these evil, wicked men. They falsely accused one blogger of issuing unsubstantiated information about the suit. How can you call the posting of the actual lawsuit unsubstantiated? The statements are blotted with hypocrisy and indications of how stupid they think people are. And frankly, I don’t have time to unravel it all, so let me cut to the quick. But first, let me mention that Mark Dever, who excommunicated 256 parishioners for non-attendance and was applauded for it, along with the others, vindicated Mahaney based on a ruling by a civil judge. In the statement, they also declare Mahaney innocent and fit for ministry based on what they know of him while rejecting the massive outcry against him. Who made them judge?

But let’s just zero in on one fact that they ignore and that Mahaney has never repented of. Oddly, this incident is widely reported as an attempt by Mahaney to force the cofounder of SGM out of the ministry—the opposite is true; Mahaney tried to blackmail the cofounder in order to force him into remaining a member of SGM. In most states, this is clearly a criminal act:

Transcript of Phone Conversation between C.J., Doris and Larry Tomczak on October 3, 1997 pp. 10-11:

C.J.: Doctrine is an unacceptable reason for leaving P.D.I.

Larry: C.J., I’m not in sync with any of the T.U.L.I.P., so whether you agree or not, doctrine is one of the major reasons I believe it is God’s will to leave P.D.I. and it does need to be included in any statement put forth.

C.J.: If you do that, then it will be necessary for us to give a more detailed explanation of your sins [ie, beyond the sin of leaving for doctrinal reasons].

Larry: Justin’s name has been floated out there when there’s statements like revealing more details about my sin. What are you getting at?

C.J.: Justin’s name isn’t just floated out there – I’m stating it!

Larry: C.J. how can you do that after you encouraged

Justin to confess everything; get it all out. Then when he did, you reassured him “You have my word, it will never leave this room. Even our wives won’t be told.”

I repeatedly reassured him, “C.J. is a man of his word. You needn’t worry.” Now you’re talking of publically sharing the sins of his youth?!

C.J.: My statement was made in the context of that evening. If I knew then what you were going to do, I would have re-evaluated what I communicated.

Doris: C.J., are you aware that you are blackmailing Larry? You’ll make no mention of Justin’s sins, which he confessed and was forgiven of months ago, if Larry agrees with your statement, but you feel you have to warn the folks and go national with Justin’s sins if Larry pushes the doctrinal button? C.J., you are blackmailing Larry to say what you want!―Shame on you, C.J.! As a man of God and a father, shame on you!

This will send shock waves throughout the teens in P.D.I. and make many pastors’ teens vow, “I‘ll never confess my secret sins to C.J. or any of the team, seeing that they‘ll go public with my sins if my dad doesn‘t toe the line.”―C.J., you will reap whatever judgment you make on Justin. You have a young son coming up. Another reason for my personally wanting to leave P.D.I. and never come back is this ungodly tactic of resorting to blackmail and intimidation of people!

C.J.: I can‘t speak for the team, but I want them to witness this. We’ll arrange a conference call next week with the team.

Doris: I want Justin to be part of that call. It’s his life that’s at stake.

C.J.: Fine.

(SGM Wikileaks, part 3, p.139. Online source: http://www.scribd.com/sgmwikileaks)

Ohio: 2905.12 Coercion.

(A) No person, with purpose to coerce another into taking or refraining from action concerning which the other person has a legal freedom of choice, shall do any of the following:

(1) Threaten to commit any offense;

(2) Utter or threaten any calumny against any person;

(3) Expose or threaten to expose any matter tending to subject any person to hatred, contempt, or ridicule, to damage any person’s personal or business repute, or to impair any person’s credit;

Mahaney has never repented of this documented criminal act. But while Mark Dever excommunicated 256 people for non-attendance, which isn’t a biblical reason to bring anyone up on church discipline to begin with, he is giving Mahaney a pass on blackmail and coercion.

paul