Another Illustration of Dave Harvey’s Deceit

Is anyone addressing Dave Harvey’s deceit?  C.J.’s deceit?  Mickey’s deceit?  The SGM Board’s deceit?  I don’t know but I sure hope so!  If not, Sovereign Grace Ministries will continue to meet with God’s opposition.      

This must be priority number one for Ambassadors of Reconciliation, Peacemakers, the CLC pastors, the SGM pastors, the SGM administrative staff, and the nine men who served on the three panels back in December.  Dave needs to be held accountable for his blatant and repeated lying, deceit, manipulation and spin.  His actions can’t be ignored.  Those who really care about the future of SGM will address him head on and call for a thorough investigation.

I am concerned for the SGM Board with respect to many issues.  For example, their heavy handed leadership, self-appointment as Board Members (i.e., picked by C.J. and Dave), secretive control of the present process, hypocrisy, excessive devotion to C.J. and absence of accountability beyond themselves.  But my greatest concern is for the fundamental lack of integrity they have demonstrated time and again.  Especially, under Dave’s interim leadership.  Anyone who allows him to continue in this role shows himself to be a fool.

I told Warren B., Ron B., Mark P., and Bryce T. at my panel hearing that we should not be talking about, “Did C.J. Mahaney wrongly influence the dismissal of Brent Detwiler from his church in Mooresville, NC?”  I said we should be talking about C.J.’s lying, deceit and hypocrisy.  Dave’s too.

I’ve repeatedly asked for an evaluation of Dave over the last 2½ years.  I was promised the opportunity to present evidence against Dave and others.  Instead, Dave killed the adjudication hearing during which this was supposed to happen.  Here is what I told him and the SGM Board on October 5.

“You totally misrepresent the facts.  I don’t know if that is due to deceit, or incompetence, or a combination of the two; but it is most certainly the case.  This is a predictable pattern for you.  It has happened time and time again over the last two years.  You make claims, assertions, or charges but you never provide any evidence to back them up.  You constantly distort the truth.  As a part of the evaluation promised me, I want to present a large body of material regarding you to a fair and impartial group of evaluators.  You must be assessed.  Your fitness for ministry must be reviewed.  There is a mountain of evidence that must be evaluated because I have found you extremely manipulative and repeatedly deceitful.”

I recently wrote two posts illustrating examples of deceit.  See “The Five Resolutions” (January 13) and “Trust – the One Thing that Changes Everything” (January 15).  Here is an additional example, I recently wrote up for Dave, the SGM Board, the CLC pastors and others. 

From: Brent Detwiler 
Sent: Monday, January 23, 2012 11:00 AM
To: Aron Osborne; C. J. Mahaney; Craig Cabaniss; Dave Harvey; Jeff Purswell; John Loftness; Mark Prater; Mickey Connolly; Pete Greasley; Rick Gamache; Steve Shank; Andrew Mahr; Bob Kauflin; Gary Ricucci; Tommy Hill; Tony Reinke
Cc: Ted Kober; Edgar Keinath; Ken Sande; Bryce Thomas; Warren Boettcher; Ron Boomsma; Adam Malcolm; Ben Wikner; Bob Schickler; Braden Greer; Corby Megorden; Dave Brewer; Don DeVries; Eric Sheffer; Eric Simmons; Grant Layman; Greg Somerville; Issac Hydoski; Jamie Leach; Joe Lee; Jon Smith; Joshua Harris; Kenneth Maresco; Mark Mitchell; Matt Maka; Robin Boisvert
Subject: Another Example of Lying & Deceit

Dave,

Here is another example of your lying and deceit carried out with the full support of the new Board in order to prevent an adjudication hearing.  You posted this on the SGM blog on October 28, 2011.

“But first, a word on the latest with Brent.  Two weeks after declining our offer, Brent wrote us to say that he changed his mind and wanted to participate.  Unfortunately, he also said that he considers the [adjudication] process “unjust” and “bogus,” the logical implication being that even if he participated, he would also consider any unfavorable results for him unjust and bogus.” 

First, I never used the word “bogus” to described the adjudication process you put forward.  I used the word “bogus” in other contexts but never in relation to the adjudication process or “any unfavorable results.”  This is another example of manipulation.  You ripped my use of “bogus” completely out of context and then used it to make a deceitful argument for slamming the door on a hearing.  Your lack of integrity astounds me. 

Second, I did say the adjudication process you imposed upon me was “unjust” because it violated every promise you made to me over a 12 month period and it did not include objective, outside evaluators which you and the new Board said were absolutely “vital” to a just proceeding.  You and the SGM Board broke your word.  Furthermore, you exaggerate or spin my use of the word “unjust.”  I never said an unjust process would necessarily result in “unfavorable results.”  Your “logical implication” was an embellishment.

Bottom line, you made up a bogus (fake, false, pretended) use of the word “bogus” in order to make a bogus argument for shutting down the adjudication hearing.  You did the same by your unjust use of the word “unjust” in order to make an unjust argument for killing a hearing of evidence.  You conjured up these excuses.  There were no good and honest reasons for preventing a hearing of my charges against C.J. and others.

See “C.J. Mahaney Convinced He Is above Reproach and Fit to be President of Sovereign Grace Ministries!  SGM Board Rejects Impartial, Just and Thorough Arbitration Process!” from October 11, 2011 at BrentDetwiler.com for the facts.

Dave, you cannot be trusted.  You will say and do almost anything in order to sinfully manage the image of Sovereign Grace Ministries. 

##

This is not an insignificant illustration!  Dave corruptly used two words, “unjust” and “bogus,” to justify before all of SGM his sole reason for shutting down the adjudication hearing that was set up to evaluate him, C.J. and all of SGM.  He never provided any quotes to support his argument.  He never provided any contexts to verify his usage.  No, he just  made up the use of “bogus” and he applied a manipulative meaning to “unjust.”  He intentionally misled all of SGM by misrepresenting me.   

This was an outrage.  People should be holy angry.  I hope folks throughout the churches of SGM increasingly see how untrustworthy Dave, C.J., Steve, Mickey, and others are.  These illustrations are not made up.  They need to insist on their replacement and ask their pastors to do the same!  

Post Script - January 16, 2012 at 3:36 PM

Thomas Hardy
Facebook
January 26 2012

Brent, might want to check your facts on this stuff before you post it.  In an October post you did, in fact, call the adjudication process “bogus.”

Quote: “C.J.’s actions have been reactive and due to external pressures.  Never proactive. Dave’s description of C.J.’s initiative is unfounded.  The real C.J. has confessed very little, left his church, repudiated his pastors, blamed Joshua Harris, refused to walk in the light, lined up support from Christian celebrities, blocked a real evaluation by signing the bogus Adjudication Agreement, is headed to a SGM church other than CLC, and may soon come back as President from which he can continue draw a big salary, write books, get royalties, hit the speaking tour, collect honoraria, tell the world how he has been mistreated and be adored in the Reformed world.” 

From: Brent Detwiler 
Sent: Thursday, January 26, 2012 3:33 PM
To: Thomas Hardy
Subject: Response to Correction

I don’t know how I missed this since a I did an extensive word search of my documents before posting.  To be honest, I vaguely remembered using the word “bogus” to describe the adjudication procedure but when I didn’t find any evidence I proceeded with my blog post.  I work hard to check my facts.  It is vital to my credibility.  I am glad you pointed our my error.   

I’ve written approximately 500,000 words over the last two years.  This is now my third mistake.  The other two were minor.  This is more serious.  Whenever I make a mistake I am open and honest about it.   Thank you for the correction.  I will add a postscript to “Another Illustration of Dave Harvey’s Deceit” and ask his forgiveness for my false accusation.  He did not make up my use of the word “bogus” with respect to the Adjudication Procedure.  I was wrong and came to an unrighteous conclusion.    

I also want to clarify the extent of my wrong.  In context, I used “bogus” as  a synonym for “unjust” but only in relation to the Adjudication Procedure forced upon me – not the potential results.  That is, the procedure was unjust and bogus in relation to the 12 months of promises it totally contradicted.  It was a bogus and unjust imposition of terms.  It did not comply with previous commitments.  Here are my two usages of the word. 

“That commitment was broken when the SGM Board put forward their bogus arbitration agreement on October 1.” (“The Mona Lisa of Spin by Dave Harvey,” p. 2)

“The real C.J. has confessed very little, left his church, repudiated his pastors, blamed Joshua Harris, refused to walk in the light, lined up support from Christian celebrities, blocked a real evaluation by signing the bogus Adjudication Agreement, is headed to a SGM church other than CLC, and may soon come back as President from which he can continue draw a big salary, write books, get royalties, hit the speaking tour, collect honoraria, tell the world how he has been mistreated and be adored in the Reformed world.” (The Mona Lisa of Spin by Dave Harvey,” footnote 57, p. 13)

 Here is what Dave said about my use of the words, “unjust” and “bogus.” 

“But first, a word on the latest with Brent.  Two weeks after declining our offer, Brent wrote us to say that he changed his mind and wanted to participate.  Unfortunately, he also said that he considers the [adjudication] process “unjust” and “bogus,” the logical implication being that even if he participated, he would also consider any unfavorable results for him unjust and bogus.”  (Dave Harvey, October 28, 2012)

I never said, or implied, by the use of these words that the Adjudication Process would produce unjust and bogus results that were unfavorable to me.  That was not my meaning.  I said the procedure was unjust and bogus in relation to all the commitments made to me.  Dave took these words out of context and deceitfully gave them a meaning I never intended and then used them as an excuse to shut down the hearing proposed by AoR. 

Moreover, it doesn’t matter if I thought any unfavorable results would be unjust and bogus which was not the case.  Do the adjudication hearing anyway!  This was a lame excuse.  Here’s the thing and I just learned about this yesterday.  At the time, Dave and the SGM Board were already working on the three panel approach with narrow questions and terms all favorable to C.J.  They used “unjust” and “bogus” to reject the AoR proposal and create their own proposal which was far, far worse.  There was no comparison between the two approaches.  Furthermore, I felt even more strongly that the three panel approach was unjust and bogus.  That certainly did not prevent the SGM Board from proceeding!  They did a bait and switch.  Just more manipulation and dishonesty.  My charge of fraud and deceit stands.