LOS ANGELES (CA)
Christian Post [Washington DC]
November 25, 2025
By Michael Gryboski
A new lawsuit alleges that Grace Community Church of Sun Valley, California, a prominent nondenominational church once led by John MacArthur, aided and abetted a child abuser.
A plaintiff identified as Jane Doe and three minors identified as “J.J.,” “A.J.,” and “R.J.” filed a complaint for damages against GCC and an individual named Clinton Jung in the Superior Court of the State of California in Sacramento County back in September.
According to the complaint, a copy of which was provided to The Christian Post on Nov. 17, Doe was married to Jung and had reported to Grace Community leaders in early 2021 that he had sexually abused their toddler-aged daughter.
Doe alleges that GCC leadership attempted to conceal Jung’s abusive behavior despite being legally required to report such abuse to authorities and told her to “submit” to Jung’s authority as he continued to abuse her and their children.
“At numerous points, the Church colluded with Clinton to force Plaintiff to remain in the home with him and under his control despite knowing he had engaged in domestic violence and was likely to do it again in the future,” the complaint claims.
“Clinton was emboldened to repeatedly engage in his conduct, including by sexually abusing his toddler again and again — conduct that a single report by the Church to proper authorities, at any of the numerous points during which the Church became aware of suspected abuse, could have prevented.”
Additionally, according to the suit, when Doe and her children finally left Jung, church leaders testified on his behalf in support of being allowed weekly supervised visitation.
On one of these weekly visits, Jung allegedly forced J.J. to touch his penis. While at another visit, he allegedly took J.J. to a hotel bathroom and forced her to look at his penis.
The complaint alleges childhood sexual abuse, negligence, domestic violence, and aiding and abetting domestic violence, and demands a jury trial for the proceedings.
Following what the complaint called “a lengthy investigation,” a district attorney could not file charges against Jung “due to an inability to prove intent beyond a reasonable doubt.”
The lawsuit also cites a 2023 letter from the Sacramento County District Attorney’s Office to investigating officers, which involved rebuking the church over the alleged incident.
“[T]he pastor and elders at Grace Community Church muddled what could have been helpful evidence as to [Clinton’s] intent,” states the letter, which is quoted in the suit.
“Their arrogance in attempting to handle such a delicate — and potentially criminal — matter, in house, and without the due diligence that certainly would have triggered their mandatory reporting edicts, hinders our ability to use the prior events to ascertain the suspect’s intent.”
Shounak Dharap, an attorney and partner at the San Francisco, California-based Arns Davis Law, who is representing the plaintiffs, told CP in an interview on Friday that the complaint was in the process of being served to GCC.
“The allegations in this case are about an ongoing pattern,” said Dharap. “My client Jane Doe and the kids allege that this was a pattern, an ongoing pattern for a long time.”
“Parents should be able to trust that houses of faith and worship protect our children from harm, not facilitate it and cover it up. And this case alleges that Grace Community Church did exactly the opposite, it alleges that they not only covered up sexual abuse and other abuse, but they facilitated it.”
The Christian Post reached out to Grace Community Church of Sun Valley for this article; however, a spokesperson said that the church does not have a comment at this time.
Doe is not the first woman to accuse GCC of mistreatment after approaching church leaders with credible allegations of suffering domestic abuse.
In March 2022, The Roys Report published a piece alleging that MacArthur, the then-senior pastor, had publicly shamed and excommunicated a mother in 2002 for filing for separation from her husband, David Gray, a former teacher at GCC who was later convicted of child molestation.
When the woman reported Gray’s behavior to church leaders, they allegedly never reported her allegations to authorities and even harassed her in an attempt to get her to change her mind about the separation.
Last year, a woman named Lorraine Zielinski accused GCC of disciplining her when she tried to get a separation from her husband, who had allegedly been abusive toward her.
In an email sent to GCC leaders in August 2024 that was forwarded to CP, Zielinski claimed that the church “has sadly defamed me and subjected me to church discipline in an inappropriate way.”
She said that when she and her husband underwent marriage counseling at Grace, she “often felt bullied and talked down to” and that “what I had said was not taken into consideration and was usually dismissed.”
“I was so stressed by these meetings that my doctor, who has been treating me for brain lesions, advised me to the best of my ability and if it was in my power, to not enter into any stressful situations, including meetings such as these,” wrote Zielinski.
“Sadly, every time I raised this point with the pastors, it was completely ignored and unaddressed in what seemed like a shocking display of lack of care for my physical health. I came to notice that this became a pattern of those I would be in counseling with.”