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Macarthur Comments on Ezzo's break with LHEF

John MacArthur comments on Gary Ezzo's break with Living Hope Evangelical Fellowship

On July 25, 2000, John MacArthur wrote a letter that he would like to be publicly available to those researching Gary Ezzo and his parenting materials:

The following is the 9-14-2000 revision of that statement and has been approved of by Grace's board of elders.

Gary Ezzo and GFI


Almost three years ago, the elders of Grace Community Church issued a public statement about Growing Families International (GFI) and Gary Ezzo. In addition to several concerns about the extra-biblical content of GFI materials and divisive tendencies in the GFI program, we also initially voiced some rather significant concerns about Mr. Ezzo's personal character.

Specifically, we reported that he had shown a pattern of resisting accountability, and that he was not always truthful. (We had become aware of several instances in which Mr. Ezzo twisted the truth, ranging from a false claim that he held a degree he had never really earned, to the spreading of false reports about our church in a manner that appeared to be deliberately divisive.)

Mr. Ezzo subsequently met with one of our elders and expressed a desire to rectify our major concerns about his character. He assured us that he was making himself accountable to a group of men he trusted--the pastor and elders of Living Hope Evangelical Fellowship (LHEF).

In the interest of seeking peace, we issued a revised and abbreviated version of our public statement. In that revised statement, the concerns we had raised about Mr. Ezzo's integrity and accountability were no longer expressly mentioned, pending further action on Mr. Ezzo's part to mitigate or allay those concerns. After the revised statement was issued, however, Mr. Ezzo made no further attempt to address the larger concerns we had raised about his personal character.

Recent events have greatly troubled us and reminded us of the difficult and often painful duty that is ours as overseers who must warn the flock about divisive influences (cf. Acts 20:28-32). Recently, we learned that Mr. Ezzo has been excommunicated from LHEF.

Only the barest details about what led to LHEF's discipline against Mr. Ezzo have been made known. We have nonetheless been able to verify that LHEF's discipline of Mr. Ezzo involves the very same issues we raised in our initial public statement: Gary Ezzo's lack of truthfulness and his refusal to be held accountable. It is not without significance that the men who have excommunicated him are the same men to whom he claimed to be making himself accountable. This has clearly become a pattern of behavior with Mr. Ezzo. LHEF is at least the third church Mr. Ezzo has left with questions pending about his character.

It appears rather obvious on biblical grounds that Mr. Ezzo's refusal to heed his own church's discipline disqualifies him from Christian leadership or public ministry in any context. After all, the first and most important qualification for those who would lead the church is that they be above reproach (1 Timothy 3:2, 10; Titus 1:6).

We believe Scripture demands that unrepentant sin in cases such as this should not be covered up or handled in secret (cf. Matthew 18:17; 1 Timothy 5:20). Regretfully, therefore, we also need to state that the concerns we initially raised about Mr. Ezzo's character were never satisfactorily addressed by him.

We are deeply saddened to have to make such a statement, but because Mr. Ezzo was once an elder in our church, we believe we have a particular duty to sound a clear warning to the church at large about an influence that continues to be divisive.


Board of Elders
Grace Community Church
Sun Valley, CA

A Statement Regarding Gary Ezzo and Growing Families International (revised)

The following is a revised version of the public statement Grace Community Church is making about GFI and Gary Ezzo:

A Statement Regarding Gary Ezzo and Growing Families International

Grace Community Church is no longer affiliated in any way with Growing Families International (GFI). For several years we have had growing concerns about GFI's undue stress on non-biblical matters. For example, we see no biblical basis for the stance GFI takes on infant feeding methods.

A corresponding effect of the stress on non-biblical issues is that important biblical issues, particularly the doctrine of depravity and the child's need for regeneration, do not, in our opinion, receive sufficient emphasis. When the doctrine of human depravity is dealt with, it is sometimes handled in a confusing fashion.

We are also troubled about a divisive tendency we have seen associated with GFI, beginning with parents who isolate their children from others not trained in GFI principles. That can lead to an elitist attitude, which has proved to be a threat to unity in several churches--including our own.

We have shared these and other concerns with Gary Ezzo, and do not believe it would be helpful for us to make any further public statements about these matters.

Phil Johnson on Gary Ezzo and Growing Families International

In October 1997 the elders of Grace Church issued a longer statement regarding Gary Ezzo and Growing Families International (GFI). The statement was our response to many inquiries. Part of our intention was to quell a brewing controversy rather than to provoke a greater one. Unfortunately, the controversy grew rather than diminishing after our statement was issued, partly because of public discussion that has taken place on the Internet.

It was certainly not our intention to wage an open dispute via the Internet. The elders declined to publish the October statement on Grace Church's Web site, but we granted permission for the statement to be posted in a couple of Internet forums on Christian parenting where these issues were already under discussion. The mass of e-mail generated by the statement and its posting on the Internet has far exceeded anything we anticipated.

In the process, our statement has been dissected and critiqued in meticulous detail. Some, including Gary Ezzo, have challenged the accuracy of the way we represented GFI's teaching. For example, our statement included this charge: "GFI curriculum also teaches . . . that moms should never sleep next to their babies." Few would deny that GFI's teaching is strongly opposed to mother-infant co-sleeping. However, Gary Ezzo has pointed out a place in the GFI curriculum where he does state that moms may occasionally nap next to their babies. So our statement as it stands is inaccurate on that point.

Some readers also questioned whether all our quotations came from the latest editions of GFI curriculum. Upon checking, we learned that in some cases there were later editions where some of the quotations we cited had been revised or removed.

So in the interest of speaking the truth, we want to recognize these errors in our earlier statement, and we acknowledge that these had the effect of portraying GFI teaching in a worse light than if our statement had been free from such inaccuracies.

As the person who drafted the original statement, I take full responsibility for all its deficiencies, and I am eager to correct them. Since one of my complaints was that Gary Ezzo has made exaggerated claims against his critics, I think it only right to acknowledge my own failure in this regard.

Our statement also mentioned other concerns about the way Gary Ezzo has dealt with critics, and those comments broached issues related to Gary's personal character. Since our statement was released, Gary and I have had personal meetings, in which he has indicated a desire to rectify several of the character-related issues we raised. I wanted to give him time to do so, and when I informed the elders of Grace Church about my meetings with Gary, they agreed.

So we have removed the character-related issues from our public statement, and we are praying that the time will come when it might be possible to say that all those concerns have been fully resolved. In the meantime, as long as any hope of reconciliation exists, we think it prudent to say less, not more, in answer to those who ask about Grace Community Church's stance on GFI. It is my hope that our new, more succinct statement will minimize the strife and debate that followed in the wake of our earlier statement.

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Invitation for Connection

2024 Update: If you are looking to connect with others, a group of volunteers (not affiliated with this website) is organizing the next phase of activism to further expose Gary Ezzo. Contact them here
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Rosemary Shy, MD , FAAP
Director, Children's Choice of Michigan Ambulatory Pediatrics
Assistant Professor of Pediatrics, Wayne State University, Children's Hospital of Michigan, Detroit, Mich

"It is dangerous to do it the way he describes," Pediatrician Dr. Rosemary Shy says of Ezzo's technique. "It puts these babies at risk for jaundice, at risk for dehydration, and at risk for failing to thrive, all of which we’ve seen." -- Wilson, Steve, "Baby Care Controversy," WXYZ-Detroit, November 14, 2004

 

Arnold Tanis, MD, FAAP
1999 recipient, John H. Whitcomb Outstanding Pediatrician Award, presented by the Florida Pediatric Society and the Florida Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP)

"There is no scientific basis whatsoever in their philosophy....It is contrary to what nature intended.

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Although Babywise says to feed a hungry baby, it usually instructs parents to observe a time interval between feedings, or a certain order of events, such as only feeding the baby after she wakes up. There's another way to tell that your baby is hungry. You can watch your baby for her own signs of hunger.

The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends watching for the following early signs or cues by which your baby lets you know when she's hungry.

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Brown A, Arnott B (2014) Breastfeeding Duration and Early Parenting Behaviour: The Importance of an Infant-Led, Responsive Style. PLoS ONE 9(2): e83893. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0083893

"Results: Formula use at birth or short breastfeeding duration were significantly associated with low levels of nurturance, high levels of reported anxiety and increased maternal use of Parent-led routines . Conversely an infant-led approach characterised by responding to and following infant cues was associated with longer breastfeeding duration."

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Our first child was born in the summer of 09, and I promptly began trying to apply the Babywise method. The book had been highly recommended by a distant relative, and promised structure and sanity amidst the exhaustion and upheaval I felt as a new mother. However, our baby did not respond the way the book promised he would if we followed the schedule. All my attempts to adhere to the book led to deep frustration, arguments with my husband (who knew better than to let a book dictate our newborn's schedule), feeling like a failure, and the worst--resentment of my infant. Why couldn't he sleep and eat like the book said he should be doing? The Ezzos presented their arguments as infallible.
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Babywise and Preparation for Parenting

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Key Documentation

LIVING HOPE EVANGELICAL FELLOWSHIP:
Excommunication Statement

GRACE COMMUNITY CHURCH:
Statement about Ezzo - Materials

GRACE COMMUNITY CHURCH:
Statement about Ezzo - Character

CHRISTIAN RESEARCH INSTITUTE:
"The Cultic Characteristics of Growing Families International"
(originally titled "More than a Parenting Ministry")

CHRISTIAN RESEARCH INSTITUTE:
"GFI"
(orginally titled "A Matter of Bias?")

CHRISTIANITY TODAY:
Unprepared to Teach Parenting?

CHRISTIANITY TODAY:
Babywise Publisher Plans Contract Cancellation

AMERICAN ACADEMY of PEDIATRICS:
Media Alert