An Open Letter to Mr. Dufresne on the State of Grace: What the Scandal at Gateway Has Taught Me
(*Mr. Dufresne, an amalgam of many real people and a writing prompt. He was a famous New Orleans detective in the 1980s who was a servant of the people; the Elliot Ness of “Nawlins” who had a beignet in one hand and a Bible in the other.)
Sir, it’s been a minute. How is retirement treating you? If you can tear yourself away from betting on the ponies or hiking the Himalayas, you’re going to want to hear what I have to say. I know that these are subjects you no longer want to hear being as you had spent decades in the church and walked away. You were wrong to do so. You see, despite all the time that you spent in faithful worship, tithing, leading, ministering only to find that your pastor was a fraud, or even worse, that he was able to minister well after he should have been exposed, God was there.
People don’t like to think that they worship men, but the proof is on display. And pastors like to think that their reputations are unimpeachable and that any attack on them is “satanic”, and therefore, confirmation of their post. It’s a delusion. Delusional people should not be pastor or teacher.
When they tell you there wasn’t a pandemic, that their son is innocent though he plead guilty and that their other sons were not arrested for a DUI, or embezzled money from his former church, and all of those things are true, then that’s a problem. You’re a fool to trust him.
I’ve thought long and hard about this idea of Deconstruction. I have read a lot of stories of how people have been clearly abused by leaders and others in the church, which is supposed to be where one can find solace and refuge in the words of Scripture and the love of God.
Churches can fail people. People can abuse. There are wolves throughout Christianity and pretending like these things don’t exist is not based in reality. The things that I’ve been told in confidence and the things that I continue to observe only reinforces my decision to leave Grace those many years ago. I cannot even recall my mindset at the time. I looked around the sanctuary and realized that church could not be “done” in such a large setting despite the theological differences I had with John, which grew wider and wider through each passing year.
I realized I didn’t know my own pastor. John was increasingly angry, suspicious, and would suck the life out of every room he went into. Most people are OK with that sort of atmosphere as they are content to be “useless” Christians, which fundamentally are no Christians at all. I can count on two hands, the elders that told me, “my hands are tied. That’s not what John wants.” Nathan Busenitz wrote that in an email regarding Covid regs and as John’s writer and lifelong Grace kid, he knows how things are.
I was asked on many occasions to talk about my “Deconstruction” story and I realized it was a short and bitter one. I grew up at Grace, went and served and left, and then found out that the stories that I was told were far worse than I could ever know. People are afraid. The ones that aren’t are happily ignorant. They don’t realize how much the leadership depends on them, yet thoroughly despises them. It's a toxic relationship and I hope they’ll be happy. When John passes away, they will scatter to the four winds (or some “lib” church where the pastor doesn’t wear a suit) and never be heard from again. It’s a big church after all; no one would notice.
To the Ugly Business at Hand: Gateway Church and Robert Morris
I know that you may not know who Robert Morris is, but he’s the pastor of a megachurch (100,000 attendees making GCC look like a kids’ party) in Southlake, Texas with several satellite churches which orbit around Morris’ church. It was started in 2000 by Morris and his meteoric rise to fame I have not been tracking, but clearly everything is bigger in Texas. These are numbers that Old Jimmy MacDonald would have been jealous of.
Grace and others in our camp would classify Gateway as “far less theologically rich” and “quasi-Charismatic”, so it was never really on our radar. “We” don’t go into that sort of topical preaching. No, sir, we want our jots and tittles and aorist pluperfect infralapsarianism served hot. We want to know what Huss, and Sproul, and some obscure church father who merely attended the Council of Nicea to vouch for the validity of any given doctrine. If you can’t draw out a single passage of Scripture into a 2-year series, then what kind of expositor are you really?
So, back to Morris. They’re calling it a “moral failure”. Morris admitted in a sermon to some kind of sin with a “young lady”. Evidently, Ms. Cindy Clemishire alleged that Robert Morris abused her from the ages of 12–16 in the early 1980s. There was an article in the Wartburg Watch and that week the story and the Internet broke. In the span of two weeks, the following happened.
- Gateway Church immediately issued a statement that there would be a third-party investigation. (Unfortunately, the firm that they hired Haynes and Boone handle crisis management and most do not believe an unbiased review will be conducted. A megafirm for a megachurch, what could go wrong?)
- TV preacher, James Robison, made a video with his hapless wife clearing the air about his association with Morris at the time or after the alleged molestation, but unfortunate for him, his memory betrayed him as HR confirmed that Morris was working with Robison during some of those years, if even for a short time.
- Bad week for Robison as his own affair at the time was put at the forefront. But he was “restored” and had had a hand in “restoring” Mark Driscoll later on.
3. Robert Morris resigns and accelerates his “succession” plan which installs his son in the Senior preaching position, who then takes leave in order to give the investigating firm a chance to do their job unhindered. Some elders were also told to take a compulsory leave.
(Optics)
It seems that their central problem is two-fold:
— how they respond now to something in the past;
— and the gravity of that response, the seriousness of it has to meet and exceed the anger and betrayal of the victim, which is impossible.
Morris has amassed millions, been protected by a few key elders and stated that he went through a “2-year restoration” (which later they found was also not true). This church has no answers for those who will ask how and why was this man allowed to continue in ministry despite so many people knowing what he had done.
4. That next Sunday, there were protestors with signs, a half empty church and many members cancelling their tithes. It was that quick.
I have never seen anything like it. The response and the outrage that this church and their leadership received was like a cold beer on a hot day.
Now, this is the new normal I can get behind.
GC v. GC: Battle of the Megachurches
This is an ongoing story and I’ll make sure you to keep you posted. From what I can ascertain, do you know what the statute of limitations was in Texas? Two Years. The law was amended to 30 years back in 2019 for violations which occur after it was enacted, which doesn’t help Cindy’s cause.
Of course, as this story hit, the Youtubers went to work to present this story as it unfolded. When I saw some of the same names who went to MacArthur’s aide time and time again during the Eileen Gray scandal feign interest and concern, I had to wretch.
Those absolute hypocrites.
Justin Peters has me blocked on “X” and I’d dare say that I’ll assume his account is not maintained by him because he seems like the kind of guy who would be OK with honest discourse. (Cue FacePalm Gif compilation) He interviewed John the week that the Roys Report published the Gray story at ShepCon in the esteemed MacArthur Center Trattoria and Jungle room. Trademark pending.
Keep the faith. Hold fast to what is true.
- Good news: we were able to piece together the elder board in 2001. I’d like to get a third witness, but I think two will suffice.
- Also, be ready to see the elders distance themselves from Macarthurism altogether and change the music, adding programs, and getting rid of the suits and stodginess. There is no one at Grace that would care enough to protest. Trust me. If they willingly go to a church that they know gives money to keep and silence abusers, they'll be too busy enjoying the scene than caring about say “legacy”. The ADD of GCC.
