"Justice" Responds

FrederickaMay 17, 2012 11:07 AM 

I must confess myself mystified as to the nature of 'Justice's' complaint, which seems to be lacking in a certain, shall we say, precision. What exactly is it that he or she is alleging was done to him or her?

AnonymousMay 17, 2012 3:27 PM
@Fredericka
I am Justice. There are details to my story. Unfortunately, part of the oppression and fear that comes from being in a spiritually abusive relationship (in this case at BGBC), is exactly that fear. Fear of being pursued and hunted down as I have watched pastor chuck do to so many people I know. 


 I don't have any fear that he would call what I have to share defamation, I fear him trying to come back into my life to shame me, ridicule me, lie about me, and try to reinsinuate himself into the lives of my family and friends. I still have friends at BGBC. Oh, not those who are permitted to speak to me or of me, but friends that I hope that someday God will bring back into my life if not before we meet in heaven, then there. 


I know dozens of people who have left and I have watched chuck try to manipulate them even though they were gone from his church. And as more people leave, it's actually heartbreaking to watch some of them try to repair relationships - even among families - that chuck has destroyed with his LIES from his pulpit. And his victims are left questioning not only who they are to our Heavenly Father, but to sort through everything said about the other "defectors" in order to learn what was true and what was fictionalized.

I agree that Julie Anne's purpose wasn't to create a shocking forum to hear description after description of specifics on abuse by chuck. It was to create a safe haven to reach out to those in pain, and to shed light on a topic that I think even most christians are loathe to admit exists. 


We believe in a Heavenly Father who loves us so much that He is not willing that any should perish. He lays it on our hearts, even commands in His Word that we are to reach out to others, speak His truth in LOVE, in order to draw more of His people into a relationship with Him. 


It's hard to accept, and then to admit, that your pastor/church is preaching a gospel of works and hatred or intolerance, when in your heart you know that God is NOT that, and He is so much more. 


Our heartfelt desire is not that any of this should cause another to stumble in his walk or that some would use this as vindication to turn their backs on God. This was started to reach out to those who are hurting, minister to their brokenness, start the healing by surrounding them with God's love and let them know they aren't alone.
 
I will share more as time goes on, if this is allowed to continue to be that forum. But not to heap more coals on chucks head. 


It is because my fervent prayer for years has been this: if by my story, just one person can find healing, comfort, courage, and draw close to the Great Physician, then I will know He has graciously allowed me to do work for Him, and again fulfilled His promise to His people, that He is in control even over the affairs of men as Joseph said in Genesis 50:20 "But as for you, you meant evil against me; but God meant it for good, in order to bring it about as it is this day, to save many people alive".
  

Julie Anne's Musings

Countdown:  4 more days until court hearing, drawn by 9-yr old Resident Artist

I have been inundated with requests to set up a Legal Defense fund.  That blesses my socks off.  Thank you for your support in this practical way.  

 * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

I've got a Twitter account now:   Follow @DefendTheSheep

I'll probably need some hand holding.  If anyone can refer me to quick and easy tutorial, I'd appreciate it.    Twitter definitely helped to publicize this story. 

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Now this is funny.  I laughed and laughed some more.  This came in my mail (and I have permission to share it).  It comes from Pastor Ken Garrett from Portland:

We found out about your situation when our church (Grace Bible Church, Portland) began receiving tons of hits on our website--accidental visits from people who were actually looking for your old church.  Also, we've received a nasty phone call, and a couple of nasty/scolding emails that were intended for Beaverton GBC!  Strange world! Actually got my attention, since on a very heavy traffic day, our church website gets about 8 hits!  No worries, it was fun to think for a few nanoseconds that our site was going to go viral! :)

So people, please be careful not to send dear Pastor Ken Garrett nasty notes or phone calls.  He's on our side.  In fact, he along with his family has suffered spiritual abuse.   He tells me there are others in his church who are also on the road to healing.  Pastor Ken wrote about false teachers in his article The  Fingerprints of a False Teacher.  It's good and it's from Jude.  Love that book.

This is the really good part of his e-mail right here - from a pastor who gets it:

The main reason I've written is to share with you that my wife and I were involved in an abusive "bible-based" church for 12 years.  We did the whole thing: "discipleship training," high-pressure evangelism, spiritual elitism, criticism and disdain for other "backslidden" local churches, etc.  What dark hole!  What a painful exit it was for us, and our poor daughters!  It was here in Portland, is still in existence, although they've changed their name.

Now, we're at Grace Bible Church in downtown Portland, where I'm the pastor.  The main reason I wanted to write to you is to tell you that you are certainly not alone, the phenomena of abusive bible-based churches is not only real, it is largely unrecognized, and unappreciated by the church at large (just my opinion, here!).  Of course, we are still, as a family, processing and healing from the whole experience, although we've been free for over 15 years now.  I think the healing goes on until we finally see our tender-hearted Lord face to face!  But, I just wanted to reach out and encourage you to hang in there, keep praying, and trusting in God. 

Don't you feel the compassion?  And look how long this takes - it's a process.  People who have walked our path understand it can be such a wonderful resource for us.  Now Ken is using his pain for God's glory by helping others.

And he offers more insight in today's e-mail to me:

A strange thing I've noticed along the way of healing is that once people leave spiritually abusive churches they (most of the time) will never again subject themselves to another one (assuming that they left because of the abuse).  The problem is, many of them simply will never step into another church again, either!

Julie Anne's comment:  Yes, this is so true!  Go to the msnbc.com or katu.com articles (referenced in my sidebar at the top right) and scroll through the  thousands of commenters who say this is why they left the church and won't go back.  Many have left comments on my blog to that effect as well.

An abusive church rarely grows (numerically) beyond the size that the narcissistic pastor is able to control.  Ours never grew beyond 50 adults, and that's about as many as our guy could effectively control and bully.  More than that, and he felt out of control, and would find a way to drive the "fringe" people away.  As these leaders get older, their ministries often begin to shrink, because of their diminished abilities to control effectively....  Fun, huh?

Ouch!!   nailed it.

Now, Ken, I don't know if you saw this, but when I told Hannah about your sweet e-mail to me, she was multi-tasking on her computer and looked up your church's Google reviews and look what she found:

How funny is that!  At least no one mistakenly left you a negative one!

So anyway, friends, there really are some decent pastors around - ones who understand what we have gone through, will guide us, and not lord over us. 

 * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

And last, but not least, here's a public shout-out to Rachel, my massage therapist - - - - I got my first complete night of sleep in some time.    Thanks, sweet thang!     Woohoo!   zzzzzzzzzz

 

Justice: Becoming Free

"Flying Free" by 9-yr old Resident Artist

Now, on to much lovelier topics.  I really want you to read this . . .

I want to share a story with you about a person named Justice.  Justice is not this person's real name and you'll have to pardon the awkwardness of pronouns in this article because I am not going to reveal whether Justice is male or female for privacy reasons.

A number of weeks ago, I got word from someone who was formerly at the church that he/she had been reading the blog and wanted to contact me and tell me his/her story.    Because I've been getting so many e-mails from strangers, I wanted to see if this person was legitimate.  Justice gave me the names of a couple former members I might know for verification, so I contacted them. 

Both contacts told me:  you must hear this person's story.  Could this person really share more with me than I had already heard?  I didn't think so, but agreed to talk.  We exchanged information and set up a time for a phone call. 

The scheduled time came for Justice to call me and the phone didn't ring.  Thirty minutes passed and the phone remained silent.  I sent a couple messages to those mutual friends on Facebook to see if they knew what was going on.  One of those friends sent me a message saying they were speaking with Justice on the phone at that moment.  I asked if they could tell Justice that I was ready to speak.   My friend replied that Justice knew, but he/she was scared to talk with me.   I thought to myself:  come on, you've read my blog,  I'm on your side, there's nothing to worry about.


The fear that Justice was feeling hit me like a ton of bricks.  The fear was paralyzing him/her.   Justice, knew in his/her mind that I was a "safe" person to talk to, his/her friends had vouched for me, but Justice still had to overcome this fear. 

By the time we finally connected by phone, I could feel the fear in his/her voice.  Justice acknowledged to me that he/she was physically shaking.

With perfectly executed timing, my children started arguing.   Isn't that a universal phenomenon?  Parent gets on phone, children act up.  But what a beautiful time for Justice to catch his/her breath, hear that life is fairly normal at the Smith home with kids who act like kids and begin to argue when a parent is on the phone.  I think that interruption helped calm some nerves and that's how we started the conversation:  discussing that crazy phenomenon of kids' behavior while parents are on phones.    That broke the ice.  Thank you, dear children,  . . . . just this once.

After that intro, we started talking.   I heard story and then another.  The stories made my heart grieve.  I felt physically sick to my stomach.  I won't share specifics of what Justice endured.  That is his/her story to share.

But here is a small part of Justice's story.  Justice suffers from flashbacks.  Sometimes Justice would read a story from my blog and it would trigger his/her own memories from the past.  Justice would re-live what had happened to him/her all over again.  Sometimes it would take days to get rid of the memories so that the day could begin fresh.  This has happened time and again since reading my blog.   It's hard, but it's pushing him/her one more step to healing.  As time goes by, the flashbacks will diminish and be replaced with a calm peace with only a distant memory of the pain.  But at least the pain will not overwhelm anymore. 

When you have experienced emotional trauma in your life, one of the most scary feelings is the sense of being alone.  The cycle of triggering memories and re-living the pain has been difficult, but it was very helpful to finally realize that while Justice had once felt alone in these memories, reading the stories of others made him/her realize that he/she was not going crazy and imagining these situations.  These experiences he/she read about really did happen to others and it made Justice realize he/she was not alone.  Even though the stories I have posted may not have occurred at the same time as Justice's experiences, there was an emotional connection with the person in the story.

As time has gone by, this very timid and fearful Justice has gotten more bold.  Justice has realized how much he/she has lost because of his/her experiences at the church, and Justice wanted to speak out.  Perhaps you have read some of Justice's comments.  Even though Justice uses "Anonymous" to post,  Justice now has a voice.  For once, Justice's thoughts and words can be seen and read by everyone who reads this blog, including those who have and continue to shun him/her.  It is very powerful for someone who was hurt to finally have a voice.  That voice says:  I don't have to hide anymore, I can tell my story, I can express myself, I am free from the being held emotionally captive and the fear.

Come to me, 

all you who are weary and burdened, 

and I will give you rest. 

Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, 

for I am gentle and humble in heart, 

and you will find rest for your souls. 

For my yoke is easy and my burden is light. 

(Matthew 11: 28-31)

That is what this blog is about and I have been wonderfully thrilled to have a small part in this "gathering" place and discuss what was never, ever to be discussed.  People, if you have never experienced spiritual abuse, you need to really get this part of the picture - the emotional scars of spiritual abuse can take years and years to heal and only prolong in silence.  In order for healing, the truth must be exposed and the heart needs to feel safe to heal.

Amidst Justice's daily past emotional demons, Justice continued to send me private notes of support.  Wow, that blessed me.  He/she told me that what I was doing here was so important and was helping him/her as well.

And then, Justice did probably one of the most powerful things he/she has done.  Justice, whose voice was once silent, decided that this story needed to be shared on a larger scale.  Justice and a dear friend took it upon themselves to let the local media know of our case.  Within only hours, the e-mails were coming in requesting interviews and Justice and his/her friend coordinated those efforts with me.

Justice, it is because of YOU that this thing went viral.  This was such a monumental feat for you to do despite the amount of pain you have suffered.  I know there are days that are paralyzing for you, but what you did not only affects you and members from our former little church, but you enabled the world to know about the problem of spiritual abuse. 

I began one Google review and blog which started things,  but what you have done is amazing!  I'm having a hard time keeping up with the personal stories in my e-mail that are telling me "thank you" for doing this.  Reporters introduce me by saying that this story (Justice, YOUR story) has gone crazy viral all over the world and back and around again   And I have to publicly say,  Justice you did it!  I am so proud of your strength.

The pain that you have experienced is now being used worldwide for His glory as He has given us the opportunity to expose to the world what some churches have been hiding for years - the problem of spiritual abuse.  It's time to clean up the churches.  There are so many spiritually abandoned sheep.  God is the Good Shepherd who tends His sheep and does not want to lose even one of them.

My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me.

John 10:27

I am so excited about this aspect of this story.  One person.  Just one person!  Do you see how valuable you are?  And I also want to give a shout-out to that dear friend who has stood beside you, showing you unconditional love, grace and genuine compassion.   

Justice's friend:  you know the true meaning of friendship.   Thank you, too!

My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you.   Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.  John 15:12-13

A Few Notes from Julie Anne

Countdown:  5 days till court date,  drawn by JA's 9-yr old

Just a few things to share before a "regular" blog post coming up as my 9-yr old is busy with his drawing for the post.

Phil Johnson from Grace Community Church (John MacArthur's church) reached out to me yesterday and we had a lengthy conversation.  As you may recall, in one of the earlier reviews that Chuck O'Neal posted on Google (oy, a lot of activity here!), he said something to the effect that a pastor had given him the okay to sue us.  John MacArthur has continuously preached/taught that Christians should not sue and so it was important to find out if they in fact had recommended Chuck sue us.  I don't know if there will be more of an official statement coming out than was issued yesterday, but I personally don't think they outright encouraged Chuck to sue.  This would make sense also by the fact that Chuck recently removed that particular review from the Google site.  There might have been some gray area in communication and understanding, but I just don't believe they encouraged it.  Regardless, I was very pleased with the conversation and I think he left with new insights regarding the situation between Chuck O'Neal and the defendants of the law suit or at least my perspective on situations.  I felt he was warm and genuine and really listened.   He said there would be a staff meeting today and would be bringing up this situation.   Ya think?   

During my first two conversations with pastors from Grace Community, I did not feel like our issues were heard very well or even acknowledged and this was conveyed to Phil.  He apologized for that.  In hindsight, they are probably aware that things could have been done differently.   Who ever would have thought this would have gone so viral?  Wow!   LOL  Go Streisand Effect!

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It appears that Chuck O'Neal has broke his silence.  MSNBC.com featured the first story I've seen which includes comments from Chuck.

* * * *New edit here:  Regarding the issue of were we asked to leave or did we leave on or own accord, this is the msnbc.com quote:

Smith, who used to play piano at the Beaverton church, said she and her family were asked to leave the congregation in November 2008, but it was almost a year before she took her grievances online. Church leaders, however, deny ever asking the Smiths to leave and claim her family left of their own accord.  (http://usnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/05/16/11698334-oregon-mom-sued-by-church-over-online-criticism#comments)

Oopsie:  look at this post and judge for yourself.

I copied the top part of the review.  I have underlined the important phrase:

Chuck O'Neal ‎ - Nov 18, 2009

JulieAnne's Destructive Slander Continues To Whom It May Concern: Almost a year ago JulieAnne and her husband were Biblically put out of Beaverton Grace Bible Church with a group of families and individuals that were engaged in ongoing divisive slander. 

This is Chuck's "review" on Google.  I have a screen shot of it in case it is removed from Google. 

Also, I found out early this morning that a press release was issued.  I've read it, it's long, drawn out and has no place here on my blog and he does not get to have a platform here.   Amen.  Amen.  And Amen! 

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I've added links to blog stories and interviews (both tv and radio) on the right side bar.  I did an interview with  Don Miller in FL and would love to find a copy of that.  If anyone can locate it, please send me an e-mail.  Don Miller was the first media personality to discuss the case as it pertains to spiritual abuse and I very much appreciated that.  I'd love for you to hear it.

MacArthur's Statement

Our former pastor, Chuck O'Neal, said in a Google review (now removed) that a pastor from Grace Community encouraged him to sue us.  This is the public response from John MacArthur/Grace Community via The Wartburg Watch blog.  Dee, thanks for posting the information. 

---

"In a story currently circulating on the Internet, a claim is being made that the elders of Grace Community Church (John MacArthur, Pastor) advised a church in another state to file a defamation lawsuit against a former member.

For the record, we would not approve of such a lawsuit, for multiple reasons.


'First, Scripture expressly teaches that it is better to be defrauded than to take a fellow Christian to court: "Does any one of you, when he has a case against his neighbor, dare to go to law before the unrighteous and not before the saints? . . . It is already a defeat for you, that you have lawsuits with one another. Why not rather be wronged? Why not rather be defrauded?" (1 Corinthians 6:7). Here is what John MacArthur says about that passage:

Christians who take fellow Christians to court lose spiritually before the case is heard. The fact that they have lawsuits at all is a sign of moral and spiritual defeat (hettema, a word used of defeat in court). A believer who takes a fellow believer to court for any reason always loses the case in God's sight. He has already suffered a spiritual defeat. He is selfish, and he discredits the power, wisdom, and work of God, when he tries to get what he wants through the judgment of unbelievers.

The right attitude of a Christian is to rather be wronged, to rather be defrauded, than to sue a fellow Christian. It is far better to lose financially than to lose spiritually. Even when we are clearly in the legal right, we do not have the moral and spiritual right to insist on our legal right in a public court. . . .

. . . If we cannot convince the brother to make things right, and if he will not listen to fellow believers, we are better off to suffer the loss or the injustice than to bring a lawsuit against him. "Do not resist him who is evil," Jesus commanded, "but whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if anyone wants to sue you, and take your shirt, let him have your coat also" (Matt. 5:39-40). Contrary to the world's standard, it is better to be sued and lose than to sue and win. Spiritually, it is impossible for a Christian to sue and win. When we are deprived wrongfully we are to cast ourselves on the care of God, who is able to work that for our good and His glory. [The MacArthur New Testament Commentary: 1 Corinthians (Chicago: Moody, 1984), 139-40.]

Second , Jesus was very clear about what Christians should do even when we are vilified by unbelievers: "Blessed are you when people insult you and persecute you, and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of Me. Rejoice and be glad" (Matthew 5:11-12). "Do not resist an evil person; but whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also. If anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, let him have your coat also" (vv. 39-40).'

That is our official position, and it is not merely theoretical. Having been at times targets of malicious slander in various gossip-forums on the Internet, we do appreciate the frustration of dealing with relentless character assassination.

But the example we were given to follow by Christ Himself deals with exactly such situations: "While being reviled, He did not revile in return; while suffering, He uttered no threats, but kept entrusting Himself to Him who judges righteously" (1 Peter 2:23)."

Phil Johnson- Elder, Grace Community Church

Ok.  This pretty much confirms everything we know to be true about John MacArthur's teachings on the subject.  There's nothing different there.

But it still doesn't answer the question:  did anyone from Grace Community encourage/suggest/advise Pastor Chuck O'Neal to sue us?  I can't find the answer to that in the public response.

I hope Bill Shannon will respond to my e-mail.  I keep checking. 


* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Side note:  I am getting quite a few e-mails about donations to help with our legal fees.  I would like to thank all of those who have asked.  It warms our hearts to know that you want to support in a real practical way.  Thank you so much!!

Does anyone know how this can work with regard to taxes, etc, and how to easily facilitate this process? 

Why is this important?

The overwhelming amount of e-mail I have been getting lately is very supportive.  However, every once in a while I get a question that is not so encouraging, like the one below.  I already responded, but this person may speak for others who are wondering the same thing.   

This is blog about those who have been in spiritually abusive churches.  This is about those who right now are stuck, maybe afraid to ever step one foot in church again.  This is about those who are trying to sort out what they went through and figure out what's next.  This is a place to learn about spiritual abuse and get support.  I have a lot of readers dropping lately.  Who will chime in and inform this person and others who are wondering why I do this? 

The thought coming to mind when reading your story and some of the blog is why.  It seems to me your extended relationship to the church was like leaving with a church load on your back and over time dumping a little off here and there.  The only thing I became aware of for a person who left the church a couple of years ago is an individual who wants to be right.  Why should you care about people who shun you since you can get involved in something else and make new friends. 

Anticipation

Six More Days Until Court Hearing

There are a number of Christian bloggers keeping up with our story.  Yesterday, two popular bloggers posted articles about our situation and I wanted to give more information so you can see how things fit together. 

I'll give a little background.  This is the original Google review that was posted February 25, 2012.  It has since been revised one or more times and I've had several readers tell me Chuck took it down entirely very recently after the media got the story.

Admin note:  If you click on the links below, you will see that the reviews have since been edited (in fact, multiple times).  Below is what was on the Google review site as of the date of this original posting. 

 Chuck O'Neal ‎ - Feb 25, 2012

DEFAMATION IS A CRIME: Pastor Chuck O' Neal, his wife, his children, and Beaverton Grace Bible Church as a whole, have suffered JulieAnne's hateful lying slander for well over three years. After seeking counsel from a pastor on staff with Grace Community Church (under Pastor John MacArthur) and reading him several excerpts from JulieAnne's endless defamation, he recommended that we FILE A LAWSUIT in an appeal to Caesar as the Apostle Paul did when falsely accused of crimes against God and the state. The lawsuit has been filed in the Washington County courthouse. JulieAnne and many of those involved in her present and historic slander will be served within the week. Her many lies and vicious criminal accusations will not stand in the light of day in the Washington County courthouse or in the coming courtroom before God. OVER THREE YEARS AGO the reviewer known as JulieAnne or “BROWN” was Biblically put out of Beaverton Grace Bible Church for ongoing vicious slander. You can see my 2009 response to her in the reviews below .

This "review" (it's not really a review of Beaverton Grace Church, it's a review of me, but strangely, I don't see "Julie Anne Smith" at the top of the Google site, but Beaverton Grace Bible Church).

Side note:  Can someone do me a favor and look up the rules on Google reviews and see if it is okay for a "business owner" to review the reviewer?   Also, can someone explain to me how my reviews were mysteriously removed?  I contacted Google to have one of Chuck's reviews removed (one where he is removing me) and they wouldn't do it.  They said they would need me to send them official court documentation before they would do it.  Well, nothing has gone to court yet, but many reviews of mine were removed.  How did they get removed?  Weird.   Sorry - that is just one thing that has bothered me for a while.  Anyway .  . 

Back to the story . . . . . after I saw that review stating we would be served, I made a phone call to Grace Community Church on February 27.  We played phone tag and I believe we finally connected on February 29.  I spoke with a "pastor of the day".   I explained to him my story about the threatened lawsuit, the difficulties and challenges our family had with the church and wanted to know if he had any way of determining if in fact Chuck O'Neal had indeed been told by pastor(s) of Grace Community Church (John MacArthur's church) to sue me.  

I don't have time to dig them up right now, but there are blog posts (on my blog) and/or comments discussing Grace Community Church's involvement in this.  A number of readers have quoted John MacArthur from his sermons/books/teachings where he discusses that Christians are not to sue other Christians.  In all of MacArthur's teachings that I saw, there was no exception for a Christian to sue another Christian, so that is why the interest in knowing if in fact a pastor from GCC recommended that Chuck O'Neal sue us.

The pastor told me, that as far as he could tell based on their record-keeping system, there was no record of Chuck calling any pastor regarding the lawsuit.  I made sure he spelled it correctly "O'Neal", not "O'Neil", and he again confirmed it.  He did say that if Chuck had a personal phone number of a pastor, then it was possible that he did hear from another pastor.   I was a bit surprised that this pastor didn't volunteer something like:  "Based on scripture, Christians should not be suing one another, so I highly doubt one of our pastor encouraged your pastor to sue you. "  John MacArthur does not mince words on this subject, so why wouldn't his pastors?  But that did not happen.

Six days later, on March 1, 2012, my husband received the subpoena.  Whoa!  It's pretty weird to see the names in all caps:  CHUCK O'NEAL/BEAVERTON GRACE BIBLE CHURCH  vs JULIE ANNE SMITH (etc) on an official court document. 

The following week, I received a phone call and the Caller ID said "Grace Community".  I thought that was odd - perhaps a follow-up call from the previous pastor to see how I was doing?  No, it was a pastor from Grace Community, Bill Shannon.  I had no idea who this pastor was, but he said that he wanted to hear my side of the story regarding the lawsuit.  He told me that Chuck had requested counsel.   Chuck O'Neal and other men from church were in S. California to attend the annual Shepherd's Conference put on by Grace Community.  Bill asked me background questions and said they were planning on meeting with Chuck O'Neal later in the week.   At the very end of the conversation he asked what it would take for me to remove my posts off the internet.  I gave him conditions. 

Later on in the week, they did meet.  I had sent an additional e-mail of conditions we would like if Chuck agreed to drop the lawsuit.  Chuck did not agree and so I received a follow-up e-mail from Bill that Grace Community could no longer help.

What I failed to do was ask Bill if he could confirm or deny that any pastor encouraged Chuck to sue us.  

This is where things take off regarding Grace Community.  Of course I personally wanted to know GCC's stand on this issue, evidently FBX Jax did as well and made it part of the focus of his post.

After I saw FBX Jax' blog post on Mother's Day (Mother and Daughter Being Sued by Their Former Pastor - Pastor Claims He Was Told to Sue by John MacArthur's Church),  I remembered I had a draft copy of an e-mail I was going to send to Bill Shannon asking him to let me know whether or not he or any pastor at GCC had recommended to Chuck that he sue us.  This had been a matter of discussion on my blog recently, so I finally sent that e-mail to Bill yesterday (May 14) afternoon.

A few hours later, I noticed that Dee of Wartburg Watch Blog also took off on that same topic.  

Pastor Makes International News by Suing Blogging Critic-Is John MacArthur’s Church Involved?

There were a couple things I wanted to talk about regarding the post, so I called Dee.   I was surprised to learn that she, too, had contacted Grace Community on the same day - only a few hours earlier, asking about the same info.   That was a strange coincidence. 

Late night, I saw a reader comment from Phil Johnson:

Phil Johnson on Mon, May 14 2012 at 09:53 pm

Dee:
I just learned about this story for the first time at noon today. I couldn’t locate your e-mail address, bit if you’ll e-mail me, I’ll send you an official statement from Grace Church and John MacArthur that you can publish. If you want to talk further by phone, I’ll tell you what I learned about this situation this afternoon. I’ll give you my cell # by e-mail.

So I left this comment on Phil's blog since I couldn't find a place to e-mail him:

Julie Anne said...

Sorry, Phil, I see no other way of contacting you. Can you please have someone contact me regarding the situation with Beaverton Grace Bible Church lawsuit against 5 former members? I'm one of the defendants named in the lawsuit and most likely the primary reason Chuck O'Neal had a meeting with Bill and another pastor. I would like to have this information since it pertains more to me and friends (former church member) than anyone else.

Bill Shannon has my e-mail and phone number. Or else you may contact me at bgbcsurvivors@gmail.com

8:40 PM, May 14, 2012

Timeline:  

Feb 25 -  Chuck posts review saying he is suing us

Feb 29 - talked with pastor of the day from GCC

Mar 1 -  Received subpoena

Mar 5 or 6 -  Bill Shannon phoned me to ask questions

Mar 9 - Bill Shannon told me he can no longer help in our situation after meeting with Chuck

Did they or did they not encourage Chuck to sue us?  That is the question!

 

So, now we wait for Dee and Phil Johnson to connect so she can post the official statement from John MacArthur on this situation.  Would someone please send me a dose of patience?

Anticipation