Sovereign Grace Elders Denounce Critic
By Peter Smith
The Council of Elders of the Louisville-based Sovereign Grace Ministries is denouncing as a slanderer a former high-ranking official in the denomination who sparked upheaval in the denomination after his 2011 release of internal church documents. Brent Detwiler of North Carolina, who has been a vocal and persistent critic of the ministry’s leadership, said he would respond on Friday to the charges. The statement by the elders — who represent local churches in the denomination — defends the church and its former longtime president, C.J. Mahaney, pastor of Sovereign Grace Church of Louisville. Here are excerpts: “…we believe that Brent Detwiler has repeatedly and grievously slandered our churches and our leaders. We denounce as sinful and unbiblical his determined effort to accuse our brethren. Consequently, we urge our brothers and sisters in Christ to avoid giving audience to Brent Detwiler’s unbiblical speech until such a time that he repents of this ungodly pattern. Such harmful speech is ruinous to the church of God.The denomination has dozens of congregations worldwide, although several have left in the wake of controversies over its leadership, and is influential in the wider New Calvinist movement, which includes many conservative Southern Baptists and Presbyterians. The controversies expanded last year with the filing of a lawsuit in Maryland on behalf of several plaintiffs alleging coverups of sexual abuse in Sovereign Grace churches. A judge dismissed most of the case as having been filed too long after the alleged incidents, but the plaintiffs are seeking to get the case reinstated.
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