the Excommunication of Michael Mahoney, Assistant to John MacArthur and Eileen Gray: Grace Community Church’s PR Nightmare(s)
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Staff Writer, Greg Fox
We have the various pastors and Youtube pastors to thank for their continued commentary on the Eileen Gray incident, demonstrating from Scripture what real church discipline is and how woefully wrong Grace Community Church applied this principle. There is much that can and will be said about what occurred at GCC after 2005 — their continued support of a convicted pedophile — but it got me to thinking about Michael Mahoney’s treatment last September 2020.
If you can recall that far back in the “age of Covid”, Grace Community Church was newly embroiled in a legal battle against the State and County authorities because they refused to be outside under a $42,000/mo. tent set up. (If you know the heat of the Valley, you could not blame them, but such as it was). It was a circus. They even had the balloons to show for.
At this time, from July 24th, 2020-August 26, 2020, Michael Mahoney was employed at Grace Community Church where he served in every role you could have there, except barista at Steeple House Cafe. Things were good. The legal battle was on. Mahoney was abusive to employees, assaulting those who wore masks and cracking skulls of those who didn’t tow the line with equal vigor.
The Declaration of Michael Mahoney
Between the Double-Doubles and seeing through carb-colored glasses, the documents exchanged at this time in the courts spilled a lot of ink of a church fighting the power. Mahoney’s declaration of August 14, 2020:
But, Mahoney would not go on to testify in this case, nor anyone else, but would be fired at the offices of Grace to You, on or around Wednesday, August 26, 2020. Forced to resign.
For those that did the math: how could the Matthew 18 principle be applied to Mahoney in 12 days? If one is going to lift up Grace Community Church as that bastion of biblical exposition and hermeneutical perfection (folks, for a small fee, you can have your sermons evaluated) and John MacArthur as that elder statesman of the evangelical world, then what could have Mahoney done?
He was white-scrubbed from the GCC website. Immediately, his picture was removed from the elders list. People asked around, but received no response. They stopped asking “publicly”. I recall receiving several emails from friends and former associates of his and I told them that their guess was as good as mine.
Now, the general conceit of this humble article is given what we have seen of Eileen Gray’s excommunication video and the ordeal she went through. As haphazard and misapplied the Scriptures were in this instance, it did demonstrate a process involved. MacArthurites believe that what they saw in that video was fair, proper, even God-honoring (the black-hearted lot they are). Regardless, my point is GCC wrote Ms. Gray letters, waited for her to do what they said (the woman stood proud on common sense principles in the protection of her children), then sent another letter and another, until the last letter where they stated that they were going to excommunicate her on September 18, 2002. She had the emotional wherewithal to film and hear those dreaded words, as MacArthur preened and organ music played. (Damnit, Sturz. That’s definitely on your ledger.)
Back to Mahoney, on September 20, 2020, also on a Communion service. MacArthur excommunicated Michael Mahoney and said that although he still loved Michael and that he is still in his life, he has “committed many, many crimes”. Mahoney was out of a job, a house, and a community. Now, that excommunication service was later edited; however, a reporter I knew was there and recalled it to me. “Ungodly reporters”, whippersnappers!
Now, I’m not saying that Mahoney was innocent as Eileen was. Oh, quite the opposite, the swift nature of Mahoney’s departure was so quick, relatively speaking, that he did not even receive the 5-letter treatment like Eileen. Mahoney’s misdeeds had been well known among the elders for over 10 years. He had received promotion after promotion and, dare I say, similar to Carey Hardy’s promotion to assistant before him after he “handled” an abuse case. Apparently, the Executive Pastor and personal assistant to “Dr.” MacArthur is the position to have. All the cool kids had it: Tom Pennington, Carey Hardy, Rick Holland and finally, Michael Mahoney who all have one particular thing in common — intimidation of abuse victims and gross counseling negligence causing harm and emotional damage. (“Legalese”)
An excerpt from Brent Detwiler’s Blog, see Jane Doe #2’s story at the hand of the TMU “Counselors”: http://abrentdetwiler.squarespace.com/brentdetwilercom/the-account-of-john-macarthur-rick-hollands-horrific-handlin.html
Jeremy Vuolo wasn’t “Counting On” This, Part 2: the Mahoneys on TLC’s hit show
(We’re pulling for you, Jeremy. There’s always time to Repent and Start Over.)
