“Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven. “Thus, when you give to the needy, sound no trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be praised by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.
-Jesus Christ
“Well, I don’t want to just encourage you this morning, I want to make a statement to you from Covenant Life Church and from all the churches I represent in Sovereign Grace Ministries. So, I come not only with encouraging words, but I come with dough as well; I come with money as well. We want to make a statement this morning to you, we want to invest in this church. This is a small way we can say thank you for the model you provide, thank you for your unselfishness, thank you. So I brought with me two checks, totalling ten thousand dollars; not to impress anybody, not to draw attention to me, but to make a statement to you of our love and our respect for this church and the difference you are making and the way you are serving. So, Mark, I want you to have these if you would please.” (Applause.)
-C.J. Mahaney
The audio below is a three-minute excerpt containing the Mahaney quote above. It is taken from a sermon Mahaney delivered at Mark Dever’s Capitol Hill Baptist Church on March 30, 2003. You can listen to the complete sermon here. The sermon is 60 minutes in length. Be advised the first 15 minutes are the usual Mahaney fare of jokes, flattery and small talk.
“War is peace.
Freedom is slavery.
Ignorance is strength.”
George Orwell, 1984
C.J. Mahaney’s 1984-speak:
This is a small way we can say thank you is this is a large way we can say thank you.
Not to impress anybody is to impress everybody.
Not to draw attention to me is to draw attention to me.
Mahaney has shown himself to be an expert at self-promotion and ingratiating himself to the powerful Christian celebrities. His throwing $10,000 Mark Dever’s way had, in my opinion, nothing to do with what he claimed, rather, it had everything to do with purchasing Dever’s friendship. Why does a man from a wealthy church donate the church’s money to another wealthy church that is not even in his denomination? I wonder who approved this use of funds? Was Mahaney able to freely throw Sovereign Grace’s money at whomever he wanted or was there a board that had to approve it? We know that a few years later Mahaney donated $200,000 of Sovereign Grace and Covenant Life Church funds to Al Mohler’s Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. Meanwhile, there are numerous stories on the Survivor blogs of Sovereign Grace members taking extreme measures to tighten their personal budgets so they could sacrificially donate more money to their local SGM church.
Additionally, I am certain there were numerous churches in the Sovereign Grace family of churches who really could have used that money. I was once a member of the Sovereign Grace in Gilbert, AZ. We had a paved parking lot in the front of the church, but the parking lot in the rear of the church was and still is, gravel. I recall the church discussing, on at least two occassions, the desire to pave the rear lot. Ultimately it was never done because of lack of funds. I am certain that $210,000 could have paved that gravel lot several times over. Instead, it was used to propel Mahaney into celebrity status. We will probably never know how much money Mahaney gave to increase his stature. We know that he also gave money to Wayne Grudem, although we have no idea of the amount.
Aerial view of Sovereign Grace Church, Gilbert, Arizona
Ironically, after listening to Mahaney’s fluff for the first 15 minutes of the sermon linked to above, I came across this Tweet of Mark Dever’s, retweeted by Mahaney. It’s hard to believe that Christians are paying good money to listen to these clowns preach! Dever and Mahaney have been best pals for years, as a matter of fact, in the sermon linked to above, Mahaney calls Dever his instructor. I wonder if instructor Dever has ever chastised pupil Mahaney for his clowning around in the pulpit?
Then we have this quote from the Sovereign Grace Louisville church website: “The preaching event, being addressed by God through the reading and proclamation of His Word, is the most important event in the life of this church every week.” Really? I would guess that Mahaney really believes it if only because he thinks whatever he utters is of utmost importantance.
I saw this comment on the SGM Survivors website and thought this individual summed up Mahaney’s act quite accurately:
“If you want to call attention to your good deed then it isn’t a good deed, it’s a self-serving one. Why? Not only have you patted yourself on the back but you’re fishing for others to do the same.”
-Donna Lynn Hope
wpDiscuz