Johnny Went Home: How Grace Community’s Reverend John MacArthur Is Not So Revered
Though I don’t have the time I used to contribute to social media whether it be on Twitter, Instagram or Youtube, I am a daily consumer of the content and what I see is hard to put into words. The irony.
Up until the Covid era, I had never been on Twitter. That was the firm domain of folks like Phil Johnson and Josh Buice, and to a lesser extent larger ministries, and what I believed to be where Donald Trump and his most ardent opponents fought. I really wanted no part of it. I actively eschewed it. Now, almost 5 years later, social media allows the world to come together on social issues, expose ministries and otherwise encourage someone we will never meet. You can fashion your experience however you want.
I wish that I could make a long video documenting the history of Grace to You alone on Youtube, Facebook and Twitter that would show the steady and sure decline of its principal, “Pastor John”. How the veneer started chipping away with every scandal presented and the moral outrage of everyday Christians began to sound louder than the blind supporters, even to the point of closing the comments on Youtube.
I mean, there will always be channels like “Idol Killer” and Leighton Flowers’ who have to “pole vault” over a mountain of scandal to discuss the “Theology” of John MacArthur, which to be perfectly blunt is a useless exercise and demonstrates that they need to get a sound occupation if their relevance (and income) are derived from talking about the theology of a man who should have never been in ministry to begin with.
To the Encouraging Bit — Times They Have Changed
Two things of note have happened in the last year or so.
- The Pro-MacArthur Brigade Social Media Army have stalled. They have not grown, nor have they managed to pivot or build credibility. Protestia, Wretched, BTWN News, Preaching for God’s Glory, Conversations that Matter, etc. All of this speaks volumes as these channels depended upon the viewing times and clicks of their MacArthurite hordes. Patreon numbers are dwindling, “giving” gone and the winds of change are turning towards a new era of authentic ministry and pastoral care. And we were here for it.
- The thing I never thought I would see. The above graphics represent all of what we are seeing when there is GCC and John MacArthur content. Presented with this, there is no MacArthurite that has the ability to counter these reasonable and fact-filled claims that the average person on Twitter and Youtube has at the ready. It is a shame that Grace’s leadership has threatened local news outlets to kill stories regarding the abuse at TMU, and later, during Covid, the stories of the real devastation which occurred there and at GCC. Whatever you think of Julie Roys and her reporting then, God used her during a time where no other news service dared.
— In our early days of Twitter, there was a handful of people talking about GCC and the lies they were purporting about Covid. The vast majority of people were stalwart defenders of John and had nothing but good things to say. Some were outright vicious (I will show the emails I was sent one day with a firm disclaimer). John is their god and they were on a mission from him.
And now, dear Reader, I am overwhelmed when I see the sheer number of comments, replies, posts, and videos from citizen journalists exposing what should have been exposed by our media. You have to wonder — why now? Why did it take Cindy Clemishire decades to get some justice? The local media (and a few national publications) have daily reporting on Gateway and Robert Morris. I know more about this church right now than any other. The information is there, but with GCC who has made a career out of protecting abusers and offering the worst biblical counsel imaginable, they don’t seem to be anywhere in the news (apart from the very public lawsuit from the County). There is a disturbing radio silence.
Let’s be clear, GCC is protected. They want you to believe that they are the most “persecuted” church in America and that the government (and Newsome) are the enemy, but that’s just optics. Probably the only thing that John got right is saying the thing that people’s itching ears wanted to hear. A very Colonel Jessup stance, and damnit, we were glad to have him on that wall. With one phone call, they could threaten the editor of major media to kill stories and it would happen. They use manipulation and guilt as their currency, prey on the weak and young. They use the Bible as a cruel parenting tool, not as intended. (Not just the Ezzo scandal, but people have told me that their parents would force them to write out Bible verses over and over again and make them go to bed without dinner.)
If you ever get Scientology vibes, you’re on the right lines.
Both pictures, look at them closely. The above picture is a recent interview. Same set on the campus of Grace Community church. New interviewer. I warned Josh Buice of G3 Ministries that his close association with Grace Community Church would one day, sooner than he realized, would disintegrate when he didn’t tow the line for John, or on any whim that John or Phil would have and alas, it did happen.
John is loyal to John. Eventually, he’ll discard you until he can’t use you anymore.