Panel Report on Brent Detwiler’s Dismissal from Grace Community Church

All three panel reports along with C.J. and the SGM Board's responses are viewable at http://www.scribd.com/doc/79373928/Panel-Reports-and-Board-s-Response or on the SGM website.  

If you haven't heard, C.J. is back as President of Sovereign Grace Ministries and I’ve been thrown under the Sovereign Grace bus - again.  This time with all my "allegations."  No surprise.  Every time I crawl out they back up and run over me again.  This time they will leave me in the dust and hope I die on the side of the road.  They are moving on.  If you're not with them, get off the bus.     

Here is what I posted three months ago about the strategy the SGM Board would employ in the months to come.  All eight points have been fulfilled.  That doesn’t make me a prophet.  It just means I know my audience and their predictable sins. 

C.J. Mahaney Convinced He Is Above Reproach & Fit to be President of SGM!  SGM Board Rejects Impartial, Just and Thorough Adjudication Process!  
Tuesday, October 11, 2011 at 2:di48 PM
Brent Detwiler

…In another major development, C.J. and the SGM Board forced upon me an “Adjudication and Adjudication Procedure” that was partial, unjust and contrary to every promise and commitment they made to me over the past year.  I had to reject it.  They also refused to consider my counter proposal for an impartial and just evaluation of C.J. and SGM.  The corruption in SGM has reached new heights.  I expect the SGM Board will emphasize my rejection of their proposal and not mention (or barely mention) their rejection of my proposal.

I anticipate a strong reaction against me from SGM much like their July 13 blog post, “Sovereign Grace Ministries Board of Directors announcement regarding C.J. Mahaney.”  They will continue to disparage my documents but they will not provide open, honest and accountable answers.  They will continue to distort the truth.  They will spin, manipulate, and deceive.  It breaks my heart.  Things have only gotten worse.  The moral decline continues.  Integrity has been tossed to the wind.  C.J., Dave, and the SGM Board are unwilling to repent and acknowledge serious wrong doing on a wide scale basis…. In a nutshell, the SGM Board is committed to control the flow of all information.    

Here is their basic strategy. 

1. Defend and reinstate C.J. as President.
2. Acknowledge little or no wrong doing to the public. 
3. Withhold indicting information or incriminating evidence from the SGM pastors and public. 
4. Refuse to answer hard questions that hold them accountable. 
5. Misrepresent the past two years. 
6. Disparage credible people and vital evidence as gossip and slander.
7. Put forth a positive image of SGM.
8. Cut their losses, put things behind them, and move on.

##

This afternoon I wrote the three men who conducted my panel hearing in December.  This is an initial installment.  It captures my thoughts and sentiments tonight.  More to follow. 

From: Brent Detwiler
Sent: Wednesday, January 25, 2012 4:14 PM
To: :Ron Boomsma; Warren Boettcher; Mark Prater
Subject: A Great Injustice

Mark, Warren and Ron,

You have written a totally one sided report!  It contains none of the concerns I voiced or any of the evidence I presented orally or in writing.  The report is a total whitewash!  I could not be more disappointed.  What you include, exclude, and conclude in the report is extraordinarily biased.  It is the work of partial insiders, not the work of impartial outsiders.  You demonstrate no integrity by presenting all the facts fairly. 

The entire report is favorable to SGM.  No one sinned against me in my assessment and dismissal from ministry.  No one needs to ask forgiveness.  No wrong was done.  No restitution is needed.  I am singularly guilty.  No one else.  But of course, your report doesn’t deal with any of the horrendous realities I brought to your attention.  It doesn’t begin to address the atrocities cited in “The Untold Story.”  Betrayal, conspiracy, deceit, hatred, false testimony, cover-up, and injustice are all condoned by you!      

Of course, this is exactly what the SGM Board had in mind when they came up with the three panel approach.  They hatched that plan on their own.  Ambassadors of Reconciliation was not involved in conceiving such a machination.  No, AoR put forward a plan that allowed me four days of testimony (nor four hours), the presentation of witnesses against C.J., the presentation of witnesses on my behalf, the cross examination of C.J. and other agents of SGM, and a selection process for panelists that was “blind” and included all the sr. pastors. 

The SGM Board shut down this kind of adjudication hearing and came up with the three panel approach.  That allowed them to control everything.  As a result they got away with the following.     

• Put a biased Board Member on each panel. 
• Hand-picked mostly pro C.J./SGM panelists. 
• Kept sr. pastors with concerns for C.J./SGM off the panels.
• Concealed the process for choosing the panelists.
• Designed narrow questions for each panel that do not begin to address my allegations. 
• Limited my participation to only one of the three panels. 
• Refused to provide me the list of unfavorable witnesses.
• Did not allow me to put forward favorable witnesses. 
• Limited me to three hours. 
• Did not inform me in advance that I could address issues beyond the assigned question which meant I was terribly unprepared.   
• Forbid me from hearing or knowing about the evidence presented against me behind closed doors.
• Allowed no cross examination of witnesses by me.
• Had Bryce Thomas forbid me from recording the hearing in order to prevent an unjust report like this one.
• Had Bryce instruct you not to include the whole of my testimony in your written report.

You followed in their footsteps in the following ways.

• Provided me no information regarding the evidence presented against me so I could defend against it.
• Did not include in the report my main point regarding C.J. influence on Dave, Bob and Gene.
• Excluded in the report all my evidence against Dave, Bob, Gene, Ray, Eric, et. al.
• Exonerated everyone related to my evaluation and dismissal from ministry. 
• Included subject matter favorable to C.J./SGM and unfavorable to me that was not discussed or related to the question assigned by the SGM Board.
• Concluded I was proud and unentreatable in relation to Gene, Eric and Ray but never mentioned the subject or discussed the matter with me.   
• Did not include in the report the evidence I presented regarding systemic problems with the Board including lying, deceit, hypocrisy, cover-up, sinful judging, and much more.

All of this hurts!  But none of it is a surprise!  I've come to expect such deceitful treatment.  Here’s what I said three months ago.  It is followed by Jenn Grover’s comments.  You should also read my blog post, “Sovereign Grace Panels Are of Little Worth In Determining C.J.’s Fitness for Ministry” from November 28 at BrentDetwiler.com.  It has all come true! 

All Is Loss!
Saturday, October 29, 2011 at 6:40 PM
Brent Detwiler

The three panels Dave puts forth will be mini-kangaroo courts by definition.  I won’t have any idea what people are saying.  I can’t cross examine their statements.  I can’t challenge what they say.  As a result, the panels won’t be able to discern the lies, deceit, and “faulty” memory of those who testify against me like Bob Kauflin, Gene Emerson and Eric Kircher. This brings back really bad nightmares!  They’ve learned nothing about due process. 

If SGM was interested in truth they would allow every statement to be contested by me.  That is why the adjudication hearing was so important.  Every statement to panelists must be cross examined and must be backed up by primary source documents.  Not memory.  Memory often kills the truth.  People can say anything if memory is their guide.  This won’t happen now and I’ve never done so.  I’ve always sighted documents or quotes that were recorded or written down verbatim.  Not SGM.  They have never refuted me with documents.  Never corrected me with evidence.

If Dave Harvey and the SGM Board are really interested in the truth they would allow for an open trial.  Let it be recorded.  Let it be videoed.  Let it be streamed live on the internet.  But this will never happen.  They are obsessed with controlling the message and the process.

Why the 3 Panel Approach is a Sham 
Saturday, October 29, 2011 at 9:40 PM
Jenn Grover

1. The board didn’t want to do it [any kind of hearing], they are only doing it because they were pressured. They felt it was unnecessary.
2. Instead of a cohesive picture, three panels are going to split the issues and weigh them separate.  Like with any disease, things don’t look so bad if you fragment them but piece the whole thing together and you see the severity of the problems. Fragmentation has been part of the board’s strategy. When I submitted many questions, Mark Prater came to answer them directly (Sept. 21.)  I requested that it not just be me, that others have a chance to ask their questions, too.  That request was ignored.  I petitioned that answers to my questions be posted online somewhere so others could benefit from hearing the answers.  That was denied.  I did not and do not feel it was fair to only address my questions.
3. Panels have been shrunk to 3 members - 1 board member and 2 senior pastors.  If SGM believes that senior pastors are “first among equals” why the need for only senior pastors?  Why the need for a board member, they already want to reinstate CJ without adjudication, so they are clearly biased.  Do they not trust the pastors?
4. There is no detail explaining how the panels will be chosen.
5. The panels make recommendations; the board is not bound to them.  AoR chastised the board for being only accountable to themselves.  This set-up is a repeat of that problem.
6. It seems absurd to even bother with evaluating the circumstances of Brent’s removal without presenting his side.  Talk about a kangaroo court.

I am convinced the only way to evaluate these charges is to do it openly in front of all SGM pastors like the Council of Jerusalem (Acts 15) and throughout church history. Appeal to your pastors to appeal to the board, AoR, Ken Sande and others to press the SGM board for this.

##

The SGM Board has not changed one wit!  They are clue less about justice.  They continue to forbid due process, suppress evidence and come up with schemes to oppress and violate people.  They lie, deceive, manipulate and spin to achieve their desired ends.  You are now part of the grand cover-up.  What is happening is a mirror image of the Kangaroo Court I experienced in June/July 2009.  Its happening all over.  That’s to be expected when evaluators are biased, witnesses are shielded behind the veil of secrecy and lie with impunity, no defense is permitted by the accused, and cross examination is ruled out.  There are no controls.  There is no accountability.  There have been no polity changes!  And there have certainly been no heart changes!!!  I find your report a great injustice.