Regarding our article from 8/25/11, Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa named in Child Sexual Abuse Lawsuit, Lighthouse Trails received many responses. We have decided to post some of them as we think it is important for our readers to see what is being said by others. We have included the negative comments we received also.
Thank you for this e-mail and for your stand on truth. Even though I am a Calvary Chapel pastor and choose to continue to be affiliated, things like this do need to be exposed. No denomination or affiliation is perfect, and it’s my prayer that I and all the other CC Pastors and leaders would take a closer look at these kinds of things (doctrine as well) that are taking place within the Calvary Chapel fellowships, and repent. May the Lord have mercy on us all. Only By His Grace, ( John, not real name, a Calvary Chapel pastor)
I am stunned, shocked, sickened and grieved by this article. As a survivor of child abuse within my own family, I know the after affects of this type of abuse. And as a member of a CC church in ________, it grieves me to be aware that such a thing can go on within the CC movement and not be condemned from the highest platform. As difficult as it must have been for your organization to report this, I, for one, thank you for having the courage to report it; and pray your organization can stand strong against what will probably be strong resistance to this report. May God continue to bless you. My prayers are with you. (Joyce, not real name, a Calvary Chapel church member)
Dear Friends, Thanks for ALWAYS REPORTING THE TRUTH. Keep up the great work your doing. (Pastor K.)
Truth is Truth no mater where it leads you. We understand this is like Ezekiel 8 all over again. (G.L.)
It just sickens me as to how bad everything is getting out there. Pastor Raul Reis is one that I always recommended to people to listen to and now this! I do attend a Calvary Chapel and from the time I first walked in the doors, I have continuously kept my eyes and ears open. But I do have to say, that it was not because of everything that I have learned about C.C.’s over the last year. It was just because I came out of a Word of Faith church and I am very careful as to what they are teaching or endorsing. Yes, I have noticed some things and have asked questions about my concerns but I am needing to get some more information/documentation. . . . Once I can get my hands on what I need, then I need the courage to step up again and present what I have. Yes, you did the right thing, I believe, in sending out this message. It is ‘scary’ where everything is going. If I have to leave this church, I seriously do not know where I will go. Oh, there are plenty of churches in the area but . . . I can point out where they are embracing the Emergent/Contemplative movement. (R., a Calvary Chapel church member)
Very sad indeed….God help us! (J.)
Thank you for having the courage to send this out. We attended the local Calvary Chapel a couple of times. We discovered that they supported Rick Warren’s 12-step program “Celebrate Recovery”, and the Dominionist 2000AD program. Then they advertised a special speaker. A man who was coming to speak on the topic of “All religions have truth”. I didn’t bother to go. We only went a few times after that. On one of the Sundays we were there, they had “The Shack” promoting Gayle Irwin as a speaker. (This was shortly before it was publicly known that he was doing this.) The last straw was after we talked to the assistant pastor about the heresies of Rick Warren and were met with skepticism. I thought, “Why would I want to sit in a pew where I know more than the pastor about what is going on?” We left with sorrow. (S.)
I would like to translate this into Swedish, because I believe this is important. Here in Sweden there hasn’t yet been any of this kind as far as I know, but I am convinced we will soon have reports on this here too. (from Sweden)
Sorry, but I feel this is a travesty being played out by lighthouse trails. We have been under the teaching of Raul Reis and Calvary Chapel for almost 30 years. I don’t believe for a moment that it is CC habit or intent to place pedophiles around children. I do believe that there are those who would and do target CC and other worthy ministries as tools of the enemy as told to us by scripture. Of course this accusation must be investigated and any guilty removed. As of now this is only a suit not a decided court case. I have no doubt that CC will fully cooperate with the investigation. But the self righteous gloating and the judgment of guilt of CC on the part of lighthouse reminds me of the Pharisees that were rebuked by Jesus. Why is it incumbent upon lighthouse to publish this and in doing so fracture the faith of many young believers? What is lighthouse trying to accomplish? Is their commission different then the rest of ours? Is John 13:19 and Gal 6:9 their commission? This is heresy. Why don’t they spend their time and money in spreading the Gospel and let God separate the wheat and the chaff. The court system and liberal media is more then able to shoot all the fiery arrows with out the likes of lighthouse. (a Calvary Chapel associate pastor)
After reading the court record (that you provided) it was more apparent than ever that you fairly and honestly represented the facts (allegations) in the case. In addition your correlation of the sad situation (I feel so deeply for the young victims) with the policies of CCCM et al, is a warning to us all that tampering (misinterpreting, etc.) with God’s Word is fraught with danger. At the same time we can’t forget there are many good people who worship at CCs. We pray for all involved. Shalom, (S.)
Just to let you know how much I appreciate your publishing this horrendous act. Shame on them for allowing this to happen to innocent children. Come quickly, Lord Jesus! (Karen)
I don’t understand how the Calvary Chapel case below is an apostasy? It sounds more like you’re a bearer of gossip rather than expositor of truth and apostasy. Does Calvary Chapel have problems with leaders? Yeah, sinful men not always submitting to the will of God and doing what is right. Their biggest fault and what I always dislike about Calvary is their refusal to apply proper church discipline and even common sense and their strong stance on defaulting on the side of grace even to a their own demise. One would not put an alcoholic to guard wine, by the same token a person struggling with sexual sin should not be placed in this situation. . . . But this amounts to little more than gossip. Is it egregious? Sure. Did the whole body need to know about it? I am not so sure. . . . You should have prayed a little more before releasing these documents. . . . They need to rid the church of the perpetrator, in this case the molester. Does it mean the entire church should be discarded? I say teach people how to spot the lies. . . . This is not a doctrinal error, this is men not following the rule of law. They should step down they obviously don’t know what the qualifications of leaders are. I will have to stay home and not fellowship if I were to avoid every church where sinful men make dumb decisions. This newsletter was not really necessary and it really has nothing to do with apostasy. Mores over, it has to do with moronic leaders. (C.S.)
Take me off your list. Don’t send this trash to me. God will deal with whoever He needs to. This trash tends to damage the whole church. Bad decision to send out this e-mail. (Anita)
We are glad you chose to bring this to the light on Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa. We have seen similar examples from churches in our area, one of them being a 12 year old girl in the past being told by the “pastor” that he would teach her the proper way to have “sexual intercourse.” It is not just the false Catholic system involved with this wretched sin, but sadly a number in the so called Protestant church as well. I do not know if you had seen this article on pedophiles that recently met an hour away from here in Baltimore: http://www.lifesitenews.com/news/evil-attendees-at-prominent-pro-pedophilia-conference-horrified-by-sessions. It stands to reason, when sodomites are allowed in “man’s” eyes to be “married” that pedophilia would be the next thing to consider as “normal” possibly being followed by bestiality… I do not see these past two earthquakes and hurricane Irene as coincidence but judgment from the Almighty for a nation that for the better part is trying to bite the Hand that feeds it…. Psa 2:1-5: “Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD, and against his anointed, saying, Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us. He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: the Lord shall have them in derision. Then shall he speak unto them in his wrath, and vex them in his sore displeasure. ” (Luke)
You did exactly the right thing in bringing this to the attention of the Church. Jude is quite clear that Christianity would be in this sad state of affairs. My husband and I have consistently fought for the past 35 years to ward off this evil day. Very few listen. Very few. This is a time for humility and repentance … neither of which is in evidence in these last days. Keep up this necessary work. Your reward is in heaven (and WE appreciate you right now). May the Lord bless and keep you until His soon coming. (C.M)
What a heart breaker. Thanks for publishing this news and providing such excellent documentation of the facts. Our family was also touched by early child sexual abuse. The Lord knows the terrible, far-reaching impact of this sin. I still pray for my daughter’s abuser, who was (at that time) a 12 year-old girl who was also being abused by her step-father… No doubt you will get a huge backlash…. Thanks for being willing to take it. (C. from Oregon)
Considering the last article written by Lighthouse Trails, the reader would certainly reconsider association with Calvary Chapels. I believe this is completely intentional on your part. This agenda is not helping the cause of leading lost souls to Christ. Look at what is happening in our world today! The end is surely near, lawlessness is everywhere, including among people in all kinds of churches, denominational or otherwise. Calling out all Calvary Chapels on the carpet when the issue is ONE Calvary that is dealing with a tragic situation is not beneficial to our collective cause of evangelism. You have gone too far. I pray you will use your site for the glory of the Lord and not for harm. I’m unsubscribing and I’m going to encourage others to not participate in this needless and nasty propaganda against those in Calvary who are following the Lord. Time is running out and we don’t have time to play into the enemy’s hand. (Samantha – a Calvary Chapel church member – not real name)
Thank you so much for having the fortitude in writing this article. You were absolutely right in doing so. For too long sexual abuse crime has been covered up by the churches. I have a son who has disabilities and who was sexually abused whilst he was in care. He had a massive, what I will call, “breakdown” and has never really recovered. He was 19 yrs at the time, and is now __ yrs. Life for him has been a very difficult road to tow. The last two years he has been in a melt down mode but is recovering slowly. PTL. The churches, in my view, need to be made aware that this abuse is a CRIME, and needs to be seen in this light, and be immediately reported to the police. When we hide sin, it will be found out and become very public, which gives people the impression that all Churches are alike. Will leave you now – am going to visit my son and take him out for the afternoon. So, keep up the God work and expose these scoundrels for what they are. Yours in Christ Jesus, (Rachel, not real name, from Australia)
Thank you for breaking the silence and publishing this. I personally know one of the accused pastors, and Chuck Smith, this has been happening for at least 25 years and the Calvary movement, run by Chuck is corrupt and blind. I will pray for those who are abused by these pastors. (Lucy – not real name)
Thank you lighthousetrails for this article my heart greived as I read. I am speechless but not prayerless God bless you all at lighthouse trails. (J. from California)
I read with distress and sadness your article about sexual abuse by a known pedophile within an Idaho Calvary Chapel Church who did so with the full knowledge of the pastoral leadership of that church. However, I take issue with the tone and judgement against the greater Calvary Chapel denomination. This author is painting most if not all of “Calvary Chapel” with certain characteristics, implying that the denomination itself is structured in such a way as to be open to such abuse and is even intrinsically aware of and condoning sexual abuse of children. Instead, there are how many CC Churches in the USA? And how many of them have more than one pastor along with a senior staff or board? This author makes it look like CC churches are led by power-mad dictators who wink at sin. How many of them have excellent youth programs, helping their parents raise Godly children? vs. depraved/flawed programs that expose the children to dangerous predators? . . . This writer and his broad brush should not go unchallenged! Were those who committed these crimes correctly prosecuted and exposed? Yes. Should the entire church be condemned for their sin? NO. I urge you to avoid such broadly inclusive accusations and characterizations. As a publication house of some stature, your editorial will be read by many as being wholly true and unbiased. . . . Please exercise better judgement in your choice of words, depictions and characterizations. (A.W.)
Necessary reporting yet repugnant and a shame that sin was tolerated and covered with wide-spread consequences! (John)
I agree. This step was absolutely necessary. As CC is drifting more and more into the emerging field, its other problems become visible as well. Or, one could assume that those “other problems” are actually the basis and background for the doctrinal drift. That wouldn’t be too surprising. Fully with you and your excellent ministry, and always thanking you for it. (J.H.)
Thank you for always exposing the truth! God bless you, Ephesians 5:11 (Susan)
I am so glad that you decided to send this to your readers. If you would have not done this, we would be in the dark about this issue as no other Christian organization has sent out any information as to this problem. I will be praying about for the children involved in this sad situation. Thanking you for your faithfulness in keeping your readers informed. (G&S)
Wow, what courage you have. It’s sickening, really, what you posted, but its MORE sickening NOT to expose this. I am in an emotionally abusive marriage, with such subtle deception, lies and denial that can break down the core of someone . . . The church so just pushes this under the rug, over and over and over, crossing denominational boundaries. I do not want to compare myself and my children to the sexually abused people in this case. But the principle is, the church can not keep silent on these things. Our God is a defender of the weak, the oppressed, those dealt with by the wicked. He will not remain silent and if HE deems it worth dealing with, surely He would find it in order for the church to deal with it. . . . . Still…. we MUST talk about these things….and THANK YOU for bringing up so often about the victims….praying for them. . . . Your stance is going to minister so much to those who are longing for the church to be a stable measure of truth when all around is crumbling. THANK YOU on their behalf, many who will not vocalize their thanks to you. . . ALSO THANK YOU for using a disclaimer when quoting Chuck Colson!! THAT has been one of my big arguments when I see churches and leaders quoting authors who promote the emergent and/or ecumenicalism. I hated to write all this, but am thinking you likely will wonder if you have supporters on this, will likely wonder what others are thinking, will likely need encouragement in this. . . . I hope to encourage you all in the midst of taking a strong and difficult stand. May you all see an amazing support of the Lord in unexpected ways as He Himself would show His encouragement, not in a way to bring about pride, but just enough to allow you to feel you can maintain and move ahead in obedience to what He is calling you to do and say. Boldly and humbly, (Susan, not real name)
The criminal bankers own the churches. They are part of the “beast” system. Hang in there and never have a second thought about doing what is right according to the WORD. (C.H.)
Thank you so very much for having the courage to put forth the Calvary Chapel articles. Our prayers are with you as you are being used by God as TRUE WATCHMEN on the WALL. You guys are excellent writers that communicate TRUTH clearly. May your reward be great in Heaven. We LOVE YOU and appreciate who you are. (W&J from Oregon)
The same thing has happened in the Presbyterian Church USA (which has now jumped into Lake Apostasy). A young minister . . . has been charged with having child pornography. As of today, I can’t find out what has happened. All of the Presbyterian publications have “shut down” as far as this piece of news goes. It is because he is the son of a very well-respected author and minister, Dr. Donald Griggs, in the PCUSA. And so it is not just Calvary Chapel or Roman Catholicism, but at least we are hearing about them. No one seems to know what is going on with “the Reverend Dr. Mark Griggs”, son of Dr. Donald Griggs. Wish you would investigate. I have left, and so I don’t know. (Janice, not real name)
It’s called ‘breaking the silence’ regarding talking about molestation, regardless of whomever committed (perpetrated) the act or acts. Have been involved in the counseling field, and have dealt with molestation victims for over 20 years. It’s the silence that kills the heart, the soul, the person. . . . Thanks for breaking the silence re The Church and molestation. We must protect the children, as Jesus said to do. (G. from a women’s crisis center)
Thank you for the information. I prefer to know these things. God Bless your ministry . . .we appreciate you. (S&A)
I want to thank for printing the Calvary Chapel charges.I was a victim at a very young age and many people knew but kept quiet, and it never came to light for many years later. No help as I was left to wonder if I had caused it.I have read your books Laughter Calls Me. Keep doing what you do; I look forward to your every e-mail. (B. from Oregon)
Though I become devastated every time I hear of precious kids being maliciously and sexually abused, I thank God for all of you who diligently by the leading of the Holy Spirit expose the sin that is running rampant in various Calvary Chapels, as well as in other churches. Like Roger Oakland and you, I never thought this day would come of observing the Calvary Chapel Movement slowly sinking into sin, as well as covering it up. Thank God for His love and just position against sin. You are so right, He will expose the terrible crimes (sin) if the church doesn’t do the job necessary to protect children and other sheep who need a reliable pastor to lead the flock. Sadly, [my siblings] and I were also victims of sexual/physical child abuse . . . when we were young. . . . [We] purposed in our hearts not to repeat what our father sinfully committed. By the grace of God, our kids have not suffered in that way as we did. PTL! Because LHTR does its solid research with a loving spirit, please do not hesitate to keep me informed. I will get the word out to pray for the four precious kids who were abused. . . . Many whom I know here will be praying. Continue to do what the Lord has called you to do without waiver. No longer should the CC Movement be protected from sin that is not repented of. Cover up never pleases God. And we could never hide anything from our God, as you know so well. May God continue to bless all of you for His purpose and glory. (Jeff, not real name, a Calvary Chapel pastor)
“And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather [Expose] them”! Ephesians Ch. 5:11. P.S. You did the right thing, for I was a victim of mental child abuse, and how I wish someone like Lighthouse trails could have been around to shine God’s lighthouse into the darkness!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! May God richly bless you all for having the moral courage to save the hearts and minds of these children from anymore Predator abuse! {Selah}! {Emphasis mine}. Sincerely Mark
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