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Much of the lawsuit against Sovereign Grace Ministries tossed on a technicality

According to Christianity Today, much of the pending lawsuit against Sovereign Grace Ministries (SGM) was tossed out due to a technicality:

A judge has dismissed most of the civil lawsuit against Sovereign Grace Ministries (SGM), days after it was amended to add names and charges... The judge ruled that victims didn't sue in time before the statute of limitations had expired" (//link)

Below is ABC's Greta Kreuz's report:

What's not clear is the way forward for the plaintiffs. According to Susan Burke, the lead attorney for the plaintiffs, they knew in advance the legal hurdles they faced in getting around the statute of limitations applicable to most of their clients. While it was possible, it apparently had a high probability of failure: 

We (the victims and the lawyers) all knew about the statute issue at the outset. But fighting for justice means doing so even against known obstacles. We had a conspiracy theory to overcome the statute but the Court rejected it. The victims are all brave and courageous people whose willingness to fight against evil has already made a difference in the world. Also, please realize going forward with a civil lawsuit does not in any way prevent criminal actions – perhaps may even make it more likely. And please keep praying, as we think the Court erred, and will be appealing her ruling" (//link)

In addition, since two of the plaintiffs are reportedly still well within the borders of an expired statute of limitations, the suit is not dead in the legal waters. Not yet, anyways. An extra complication for the plaintiffs exists, however, because the two remaining plaintiffs live in Virgina while the lawsuit is filed in Maryland. All the technical legalities makes this case extremely complicated. Burke has already committed to filing an appeal since the judge may but not must dismiss the case based upon the expired statute of limitations alone. Also, as Kreuz mentioned above, a criminal investigation may be underway, hardly a sign for rejoicing so far as the defense is concerned. 

A few observations, if I may.

First, to have the large majority of the plaintiffs dismissed in a class action lawsuit cannot be viewed as anything other than legally troubling. This really is a huge setback for the plaintiffs. While Burke is appealing the judge's ruling, surely the plaintiffs are presently struggling to find encouragement to believe they might succeed in their lawful suit.

Second, while this setback may be viewed as an initial success for the defense, at best it only exists as a legal success not a moral one. The fact is, when it comes to the sinful nature of the criminal acts and/or civil breaches alleged by the plaintiffs, the question for us is not when the alleged actions took place, but whether the alleged actions took place. While legally, SGM and many of the alleged defendants may ultimately be considered neither legally guilty nor civilly liable because of a statute of limitations written into our law codes, there is no such statute of limitations written into God's. The bottom line is, we want to know if these immoral acts took place not necessarily when they took place.

Again, when criminal acts and civil breaches took place may have legitimate legal stipulations such as were argued by SGM's defense and accepted by the court. However, if these men either performed these atrocious acts on little children, or saw to it in some way the alleged perpetrators were concealed from public justice, then we're unmoved whether a statute of limitations is expired or not. They remain morally culpable even if they are not legally chargeable.

Third, I intend to present the Resolution on Sexual Abuse of Children to the 2013 Southern Baptist Convention meeting in Houston, Texas, June 11-12 as planned. Nothing is changed. We must dig our ecclesial heels into the dirt and say "No more. Not on our watch!" when it comes to the physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual health of our little children.

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C.J. Mahaney, The Victims, and Depths of Darkness

I got about two-thirds of the way through the Second Amended Class Action Complaint and Jury Demand filed by attorneys representing the plaintiffs in a class action lawsuit against young, restless, and reformed icon, C.J. Mahaney, Sovereign Grace Ministries (SGM), two SGM churches, one SGM school, and ten other SGM leaders.¹ Truth is, I couldn't go on. It's most horrifying and even solicits the deepest anger and rage from a person's soul.

Norm Miller, opportunists, and a whole lotta chokin goin on

Norm Miller serves as Director of Communications at Truett-McConnell College (TMC) in Cleveland, GA. Before going to TMC, Miller served for a number of years as a denominational journalist. He was writer and editor in the public relations department of Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, staff writer for the IMB, and in 1998 was named news and information director for Southern Baptist Theological Seminary under Al Mohler (//link). Words—written words—have been the giftedness God gave to Norm and, as his journey in Southern Baptist life attests, many have seen this gift and desired his gift to be used for God’s glory in their respective fields of harvest. I'm glad to call Norm Miller my friend.

Baptist Press reports on the 2013 John 3:16 Conference

Baptist Press posted a good summary article on The 2013 John 3:16 Conference held at North Metro First Baptist Church March 21-22. It rightly cast the differences between the earlier conference as a planned response to each of the five-points Calvinism (T.U.L.I.P.) and this year's conference:

A helpful visual image demonstrating the influence of a single man in the Southern Baptist Convention

Thanks to Dr. Adam Harwood, the helpful visual below shows how powerfully influential one man can be in a convention of churches like Southern Baptists. In itself, the image is neutral. That is, the visual only depicts what is without necessarily suggesting what ought to be. Hence, while my inference from the visual might produce alarming concern, a concern the reality of which I see inevitably leading to top-down, centralized authority going against the grain of free church tradition, another's inference might suggest an appreciation--or even inspiration--about how God uses certain people. Indeed, it's quite possible it might produce both of the above or neither of the above while yet producing another inference.

John MacArthur offers more skepticism on the YRR and "Flat-screen" Preachers

Yesterday I posted MacArthur's video wherein he pounded the young, restless, and reformed community for stepping over the moral threshold into a worldly lifestyle.¹ In a real sense, MacArthur's concern centers on classic antinomianism, a well-known temptation within the Reformed community.

In 2009, I wrote these words:

The Conservative Resurgence which officially began in 1979 made history by turning the theological clock backwards to its rightful, biblically authoritative moorings… Southern Baptists once again should heed the times: there is another coming crisis in our convention, just beyond the horizon. Before it was biblical belief--especially belief about the Bible itself--we stood to lose…

The coming crisis just ahead is exceedingly more subtle, wrapped in bright, colorful garments, yet no less a dangerous threat to Southern Baptists. It is not a crisis of belief per se, though undeniably connected to belief. Nor is it modernity's rationalism which, as before, stood as the doorkeeper to biblical authority with which our former crisis contended. Instead the coming crisis for Southern Baptists concerns behavior, a cataclysmic moral shift away from biblical holiness expressed in biblical Lordship, toward the relativistic, postmodern norms of American pop culture including its hedonistic obsession with fulfilling desires.

Before, the challenge concerned doctrine and the question was, "What do we believe?" The impending crisis Southern Baptists face concerns discipleship and the question is, "How will we behave?" The old prophets of Modernity imposed rationalism on the text of biblical revelation, serving to us an unholy Bible. The coming crisis threatens a relativistic ethic, shouting to us unholy behavior" (pp. 24-25, Alcohol Today: abstinence in an age of indulgence. Garland: Hannibal Books, 2009) 

 

¹my thanks to a commenter who offered the link to Part II and corrected the implication that MacArthur's words were spoken only recently 

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Dr. Jim Gifford

 The third assumption in Augustine's thinking is his experience, based on personal observation, that some humans are not saved. In his own life, Augustine observed that some babies die before being baptized. For Augustine, reconciliation to God in Christ is impossible without baptism.¹ Not everyone who was baptized was ultimately saved, but baptism for him was a "condition sine qua non" for salvation.² Therefore anyone who died without baptism likewise died without hope of salvation. Combined with his views of God's unlimited power and humanity's helplessness, Augustine reasoned that those who died without baptism were never elected to salvation in the first place.

Were Southern Baptists much more Calvinistic in 1925 than later in the 20th century?

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Covenant Life Church pulling away from C.J. Mahaney and Sovereign Grace Ministries?

UPDATE: North Carolina pastor Tim Rogers posts a piece raising the question whether Dr. Al Mohler and Southern Baptist Theological Seminary have connections so close to C.J. Mahaney and Sovereign Grace Ministries that the recent lawsuit against Mahaney and his ministry will legally bleed all over Southern Baptists. While I cannot see myself how that could happen, I happily concede I know much too little about the legalities of such a possibility to make a reasonable judgment. 

Note: do not fail to watch Mahaney's promo video featuring Al Mohler and John Bettler, Executive Director of Christian Counseling & Educational Foundation (CCEF). After both men appear to thoroughly pronounce Mahaney as the (re)incarnation of Peter, James, John and the Apostle Paul all rolled into one, Bettler goes on to congratulate Joshua Harris as the anointed successor of C.J. Mahaney to lead Sovereign Grace Ministries (approx. 8:50 mark), a succession hardly fathomable now if the report below is correct.

Read "A Question for Dr. Al Mohler in Houston" by Tim Rogers

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Recently, Sovereign Grace Ministries (SGM) relocated from Gaithersburg, Maryland to Louisville, Kentucky only to be served a devastating spiritual/sexual abuse lawsuit a mere two weeks after they opened their doors for a new church plant in Louisville, a lawsuit to which an initial response was thereafter released   >>> 

Must we define Mormonism as a cult? A Brief Response to Bart Barber

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Susan Burke represents plaintiffs against C.J. Mahaney and Sovereign Grace Ministries in sexual offenses lawsuit

A well-known litigator for sexual abuse claims is representing the three female plaintiffs who filed sexual abuse claims against Sovereign Grace Ministries and new Calvinist celebrity icon, C.J. Mahaney   >>>

Southwestern seminary trustee defends the Allen Nomination

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Tom Nettles and the takeover of the Southern Baptist Convention (part II) by Peter Lumpkins

In part I, we rehearsed the historical relationship Dr. Tom Nettles, professor of historical theology, at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary has had with Founders Ministries since its inception in 1982. Nettles still sits on the board of directors for Founders Ministries. Nor has Dr. Nettles been rhetorically shy about stating in forceful language precisely how he sees those Traditional Baptists who deviate from what Director of Founders Ministries, Tom Ascol, has called "historic Southern Baptist Orthodoxy." Nettles wrote: >>>