UNITED STATES
The Courier-Journal
[Statement from Mark Dever, Ligon Duncan, and Albert Mohler]
Posted on May 29, 2013 by Peter Smith
Southern Baptist Theological Seminary President Albert Mohler and other leading New Calvinist figures have issued statements of confidence in one of their partners in ministry, C.J. Mahaney — ending their months of silence over a lawsuit alleging that Mahaney and his denomination conspired to cover up claims of sexual abuse.
The statements by Mohler and others came days after a Maryland judge dismissed, on legal grounds, what had been a growing lawsuit alleging a cover-up by Mahaney and other leaders in Sovereign Grace Ministries and its congregations. (Two of the 11 plaintiffs can re-file in the same court, and their lawyers say they’ll appeal the rest to the next level.) That decision in itself came just days after the lawsuit was amended for a second time, alleging a series of sex crimes allegedly committed by various people associated with the denomination. (Previous coverage is here.)
Sovereign Grace Ministries, which recently relocated to Louisville, was until last year based in Maryland, and many of the alleged incidents are said to have occurred in the D.C. area.
Mohler’s statement was co-signed by two other men who — along with Mohler and Mahaney — head up a cross-denominational group, Together for the Gospel (T4G). It hosts conferences every two years in Louisville drawing thousands of mostly male attendees, many of them pastors or seminarians. The other two are Mark Dever, pastor of a Southern Baptist congregation in Washington, D.C., and Ligon Duncan, a Jackson, Miss., pastor in the Presbyterian Church of America.
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