GUEST: PASTOR TRAVIS ALLEN, Grace Church (Greeley, CO)
Julie Roys calls herself a Christian investigative reporter, focusing on abuse and corruption within the Evangelical church. Hailing from Chicago, her reporting has led to prominent pastors and Christian leaders like James MacDonald, Bill Hybels, Ravi Zacharias, and Mark Driscoll being discredited and removed.
For the past several years, she has set her sights on John MacArthur, one of the most respected pastors of the last half century. MacArthur has pastored Grace Community Church in Los Angeles for 54 years and oversees a ministry of worldwide influence including, The Master’s Seminary, The Master’s University, and Grace to You, a daily radio program.
In column after column, Roys has accused Grace Community Church and John MacArthur of protecting male abusers of women in the church and shaming the women they allegedly abused. These are serious allegations.
The recurring thread in her accusations is that MacArthur’s complementarianism—the biblical doctrine based on 1 Corinthians 11:3; 14:33-34, Ephesians 5:22-24, 1 Timothy 2:12, 1 Peter 3:1-7, Colossians 3:18-19, and other passages that God has prescribed men only to be pastors and elders in the church and hold headship in the home—has led to abuse of women and excessive discipline of children.
Last week in Part 1 we looked into who Julie Roys is and what her beliefs are. We also examined two of the prominent counseling cases at Grace Community Church she has highlighted as proving abuse.
This week in Part 2, Pastor Travis Allen will join us. He currently pastors Grace Church in Greeley, CO but was formerly an elder at Grace Community Church and the managing director of Grace to You. He was at the church when the David and Eileen Gray counseling case took place.
Travis will discuss a recent Christianity Today article that featured an interview with the one elder out of 37 at Grace Community Church who sided with Julie Roys. Travis will also explain how these attacks on MacArthur are a battle in a larger war.