Monday, May 20, 2013

The Ezzos' Qualifications

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

  • Health Care Professionals on Babywise +

    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

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  • Ezzo.info Notes With Sorrow... +

    Ezzo.info notes with sorrow the passing of Michael Mahurin, aka "Metochoi," a pastor who became concerned about the Ezzos' teachings on parenting when he encountered parents, even in his own flock, who believed that following the Ezzos' teachings was the only faithful approach to Christian parenting. Pastor Mike responded by vigorously teaching biblical hermeneutics, logic, and core Christian doctrines like grace and law, both in his congregation and in online discussions. A gifted teacher with an irrepressible sense of humor, Metochoi equipped many Christian parents to use basic biblical hermeneutics

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  • An Open Letter about the EzzoTruth Site +

    Summary of This Open Letter

    A site called Ezzotruth.com portrays authors Gary and Anne Marie Ezzo as victims of attacks on their parenting programs and personal character by unprincipled people. Because many of the accusations at the site have been discussed in the past, Ezzo.info simply suggests two things to consider: whether the Ezzos’ claims of victimhood at the hands of numerous reputable Christian leaders are believable and whether the results in the Ezzos’ own family support their teaching. The debate is wearying, but it is crucial to the Christian

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