Editor’s Remark: Please note that Joshua Harris has told the Washington Post that he illegally covered up child sexual abuse:
“In an interview, Harris said the isolation of Covenant Life, and of a small cluster of churches of which it was a part, may have fed leadership mistakes, including the decision of pastors — himself among them — to handle a child sexual abuse case internally instead of going to police.”
Below is an excerpt of Joshua Harris speaking to the congregation of Covenant Life Church on May 18, 2014:
It is my opinion, shared by many, that Joshua Harris has been less than truthful in the sexual abuse scandal that has plagued his church, Sovereign Grace Ministries and C.J. Mahaney. Harris, after several years of standing by his statement that he and fellow pastors had no knowledge of sexual abuse taking place in his church, now admits that they did know. In his recent interview with the Washington Post Harris just admitted that he has been lying to everyone for years! Janet Mefferd commented brilliantly on this over one year ago, cutting to the core issue – lies and cover-up. You can listen to what she said below.
“Joshua Harris already knows the truth about many of the sex abuse crimes committed in Covenant Life Church and also about the massive criminal conspiracy that followed in their wake. He knows about C.J. Mahaney, John Loftness, Gary Ricucci, Grant Layman, Larry Tomczak, Nate Morales, David Adams, Steve Griney, Mark Hoffman, Dave Mayo, Charlie Llewellyn and others. The “pedophilic ring” is big and so is the cover up. Joshua is well aware of these facts. Joshua also knows he has contributed to the conspiracy. But guess what? He isn’t talking at least not for two years.”
-Brent Detwiler, June 25, 2013
Here is what Joshua Harris said in March, 2012:
I obtained the audio segment above from this news report.
Here is what Harris said on January 30, 2015:
“In an interview, Harris said the isolation of Covenant Life, and of a small cluster of churches of which it was a part, may have fed leadership mistakes, including the decision of pastors — himself among them — to handle a child sexual abuse case internally instead of going to police.
A former Covenant Life member who helped with the youth group was convicted last year of molesting three boys in the 1980s. Trial testimony showed that the victims or their families had gone to church leaders for help and that the church officials did not call police. Harris said the thinking of the church was that such allegations should be handled as an internal, spiritual issue.”
-Michelle Boorstein, The Washington Post
It appears that Joshua Harris has finally decided to come clean and start telling the truth about the cover-up of sexual abuse which took place in the Sovereign Grace denomination.
You can bet C.J. Mahaney is getting nervous.
I wonder if this will be enough to get the Gospel Glitterati to cease supporting C.J. Mahaney? Don’t hold your breath!
As a side note, Brent Detwiler has steadfastly revealed the truth in this whole matter. For doing so he has drawn the wrath of the Gospel Glitterati. He is once again vindicated. Here is a quote from Detwiler from May 19,2014:
“Joe Carter is employed by The Gospel Coalition as an editor. He tweeted a woman today, “Watch the actual sermon and you’ll see Detwiler is making it up. Harris makes no admission of knowing about the abuse.”
Harris doesn’t explicitly say in his sermon that he knew about the abuse in one comment. The acknowledgement comes from a number of remarks taken together in conjunction with the testimony given by Grant Layman at the Morales trial last week.
For instance, Harris refers to 2007 but doesn’t explain. He says, “The events related to 2007 are a significant issue for us and they are going to be fully addressed and accounted for by us. I can’t say any more than that.”
What is this “significant issue”? In 2007, Morales told Layman he sexually abused boys at Covenant Life Church. Layman testified under oath that he shared this information with the “pastoral team” at CLC. He further testified that he had a responsibility to report these crimes but didn’t do it.
Upon reception of this information, the “pastoral team” discussed how they should handle the situation and what they should do with the information. Like Laymen, they did nothing. None of the pastors reported the acknowledgment of sex crimes by Morales to the police. That is ever so serious.
Layman also testified at the trial that he knew about Morales’ sexual abuse all the way back in 1992. So did other pastors like C.J. Mahaney, Robin Boisvert and Chris Glass.”
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