Sovereign Grace Church has hit back at allegations of abuse and cover-up by former US gymnast Rachael Denhollander, branding her accusations as 'irresponsible'.
The US-based ministry, which was former Sovereign Grace Ministries (SGM) — a coalition of 80 reformed churches — is embroiled in an abuse scandal after Nathaniel Morales was convicted in 2015 of abusing three underage boys during his time as a volunteer at Covenant Life, the flagship SGM church.
Questions were asked over how much the church's leadership knew of his abuse and CJ Mahaney, the founder of SGM, was accused of being aware of the youth leader's crimes and failing to take action against him.
In a separate lawsuit he along with several other leaders of SGM, including Larry Tomczak, was accused repeatedly physically abusing a woman across two decades. The case was dropped in May 2013 due to the statute of limitations.
Denhollander, who was the first to bring accusations of abuse against Larry Nassar, the disgraced gymnast coach, is reigniting the controversy. In her impact statement against Nassar she said that speaking out for sexual abuse victims had 'cost me my church and our closest friends'. Later she clarified that remark was directed at Sovereign Grace Ministries (SGM), now Sovereign Grace Church (SGC), describing it 'one of the worst, if not the worst, instances of evangelical cover-up of sexual abuse' in an interview with Christianity Today.
In a follow-up Facebook post she called for GRACE (Godly Response to Abuse in the Christian Environment) to be allowed to conduct an independent investigation in SGC.
Now in a lengthy statement on Tuesday SGC is hitting back saying her allegations are 'on the basis of false allegations' and have 'profoundly damaged the reputations and gospel ministries of innocent pastors and churches'.
The statement refuses to allow GRACE to carry out an independent investigation. 'Boz Tchividjian, the leader of GRACE, has on multiple occasions written and spoken publicly in ways that suggest he has already prejudged the case against SGC,' the statement read. 'He has publicly indicted the motives of SGC as it relates to those allegations, and he has publicly criticized others who have expressed any support for SGC.'
The lengthy statement then issues a series of rebuttals to Denhollander's claims and denying allegations of a cover-up although it said 'in hindsight that there were grave errors in judgment, and the abuse should have been reported regardless of the circumstances or a victim's wishes'. The statement can be read in full here.
Responding on behalf of his wife, Jacob Denhollander said while the SGC statement was 'extremely disappointing, it is not unexpected'.
'I won't be commenting on it for now - it will be better to let the smarter one reply to it first,' he added.
