By Beau Crosetto
Prophets always die.
They come against majority culture with correction and when you anger the majority culture, you will die…Biblically in a literal sense and today in America in reputation and standing.
Today Zach Hoag has been going off on twitter about the recent conviction of the youth pastor of Covenant Life Church in Maryland for the repeated sexual abuse of three minors (keep reading for details).
Nathanael Morales found guilty on all counts, @covenantlife pastors proven to be complicit in coverup, still NOT A PEEP from @TGC.
— Zach J. Hoag (@zhoag) May 15, 2014
And his prophetic word is not being received and some people are starting to anger.
But prophets are hardly heard in the moment because the truth they bring offends too much.
They also are many times the first to see things so they are marginalized because it feels weird to join them.
We second-guess them because they are “so out there”.
- If they are right then why aren’t more people seeing it?
- If they are right then why wouldn’t the majority they are fighting admit?
- If they are right why are so many God fearing people opposing them?
Because no person/organization is ever fully above reproach and sometimes even the best of us get off track and need a prophetic word – a correction from God.
Because sometimes people, even the best of them, want to protect themselves.
Sexual Abuse Cover Up?
Today Zach Hoag has been going off on twitter about the recent conviction of the youth pastor of Covenant Life Church in Maryland for the repeated sexual abuse of three minors.
Read more here
Why Zach is going off so hard is that the Sovereign Grace Movement, which was birthed out of this church, has been accused of covering up sexual abuse for years including this sickening case.
And now with this most recent verdict Sovereign Grace Ministries (SGM) and others like The Gospel Coalition (TGC) that are aligned with them are NOT STADNING with the victims of abuse but protecting themselves legally and staying quite.
Zach is calling for them to come clean, admit they have a problem in their movement and bring justice to the people by examining why cover ups are happening.
From the article linked above,
“Palmer says Covenant Life Church has a longstanding reputation of burying sex abuse allegations. In fact, during Morales’ trial this week, public defender Alan Drew drilled former pastor Grant Layman while on the stand.
Drew: “Did you have an obligation to report the alleged abuse?”
Layman: “I believe so.”
Drew: “And you didn’t?”
Layman: “No.”
Montgomery County State’s Attorney John McCarthy says his office cannot prosecute anyone unless crimes are reported to police.”
But all Zach and others are getting from SGM and TGC is silence and alienation.
Attempts by Zach and others to ask for TGC and SGM to come out publically and admit wrong in their movement have been met with snide remarks, ignoring, and now rapid deletion of Facebook posts on their timeline. The Gospel Coalition is censoring comments on their Facebook timeline now. They are blocking anyone and immediately deleting comments that have to do with “standing with the victims”.
That sucks. That is wrong. Why so defensive if there is no problem?
So I am with Zach and others as they prophetically call out this cover up and ask a movement to come clean.
They aren’t going to die literally, but its not fun to be the prophet and call for repentance. You take some shots. So who is with me in joining Zach and others and taking some shots with him for the important cause of standing with the victims we know about and any more that are out their that have had their horrifying abuses covered up by religious authorities?
Sovereign Grace Needs to own up to the fact that sexual abuse has run rampant in their movement and many have not done anything about it and in some cases lied.
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How are the Gospel Coalition aligned with SGM? How should TGC admit “they have a problem in their movement”? Do you mean their is child abuse happening within the TGC and it’s being covered up? Or do you mean they aren’t condemning SGM loudly and publicly enough for your tastes? Or do you mean their previous public statements on this issue aren’t enough and they ought to be releasing new statements every week as the trial goes on?
I don’t see anything prophetic in this. I see you trying to smear TGC by using guilt by association and doing so in the most emotive terms.
The dichotomy you are drawing is obvious, either you are standing with the victims or you are deserting them (perhaps on the side of the abusers by implication), either you are on the side of Zach and God, or you are on the side of evil. Either you are supporting this prophet and accept what he says uncritically, or you are on the side of the persecutors who want to see him dead. Well, I push back and I am prepared to be told by you how awful I am, how evil I am. So be it, because I don’t see anything holy in this post.
Tom, thanks for engaging. Great questions. I would say a few things that TGC has done are alarming. One, they aren’t coming out with public statements backing the victims when two council members were connected. Two, they are repeatedly blocking people from their groups online that are calling for standing with the victims. Three the recent developments with Tullian and now him being pushed out early. http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=2&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0CDgQqQIwAQ&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.christianpost.com%2Fnews%2Ftullian-tchividjian-calls-gospel-coalitions-claims-attributed-to-tim-keller-d-a-carson-about-his-exit-a-flat-out-lie-120272%2F&ei=_feAU9KnO4y9oQSih4GADA&usg=AFQjCNGc_K6v2_KWeOzvJTzMx88l0xruQg&sig2=itfuYaNc5vcILtv8K7O8bg&bvm=bv.67720277,d.cGU
I think that Zach is and was acting prophetically in this issue and to not recognize that is a miss. That was the thrust of the post. I do think any cover up is evil.