Fall, 2002
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Dear Pastor:
As the overseer of your congregation, you deserve to be fully informed about Gary Ezzo, including his character and his ethics. By teaching his materials, your church is identifying with him as a man of integrity and one who is to be trusted. You have a serious responsibility to your congregation to know who and what you are endorsing.
In churches where Gary Ezzo’s materials are taught, his philosophy of parenting very often becomes viewed as the only accepted way of rearing children. This frequently leads to tension within the church when Ezzo parents view non-Ezzo parents as unwilling to train their children “God’s Way” and are therefore viewed as being deficient and inferior parents.
In numerous churches throughout the United States, Gary Ezzo’s parenting materials have created an “Us-Versus-Them” mentality that is unhealthy for any church. In fact, one pastor recently emailed me to say that when Ezzo’s materials were taught at his church, it became the most divisive thing his church had ever done. He stopped allowing Ezzo’s materials to be taught two years ago, but is still trying to rebuild a sense of unity and trust between parents who had split over Gary Ezzo’s teachings.
As one who worked on Gary Ezzo’s staff for two years as his editorial director, I think you might be interested in learning more about my experiences working with him from April, 1996 to May 11, 1998.
I am including a link to a recent article I wrote for Midwest Christian Outreach, a reputable cult-watch group based in Illinois. The article, “Adventure in Ezzoland,” describes my experience working with the Ezzos and reveals a number of disturbing facts about Gary Ezzo—including his plagiarism of the work of a psychologist, his untruths, and his shameful mistreatment of family members. You can access my article here: “Adventure in Ezzoland”
I am also aware that Gary has distributed a letter to GFI-supportive churches to explain away the controversies surrounding questions about his character and teaching materials. In his letter, he has targeted a number of individuals, including myself. His comments about me and others are a series of untruths.
I am writing to you to set the record straight about the things he has written about me. You may have received one of these letters and have assumed that he is telling the truth. So, in the interest of fairness, I am going to include a number of links to materials that will show you that Gary is disseminating untruths and libelous statements about his critics.
Just to give you a bit of my background: I served for eight years as an editor with Focus on the Family; served as staff writer for Tim and Beverly LaHaye in the mid-1980s; and worked as a writer/researcher for the Christian Broadcasting Network in the early 1980s. Focus and Tyndale Publishers recently published my book, Protecting Your Child in an X-Rated World, which is being sold by Focus on the Family and by various other ministries. I have also written for WorldNetDaily and other Christian organizations during the past 22 years.
My experience on the GFI staff is explained in three letters I wrote to his former publisher, Multnomah, over an eight-month period last year.
Here are the links to those letters:
http://www.ezzo.info/York/yorkletter1.htm
http://www.ezzo.info/York/yorkletter2.htm
http://www.ezzo.info/York/yorkletter3.htm
In the link below, I have responded to letter that Gary sent out to churches that are supportive of his teachings. His lengthy letter attacks each person who has criticized him. I know all of these people and their integrity is unquestioned. I have responded point-by-point to Gary’s fabrications about me. As you read these accounts, you will observe a troubling pattern on the part of Ezzo’s responses to criticism and concerns about his teaching and personal character issues.
http://www.ezzo.info/York/yorkresponse_feb2001.htm
I am also including links to other resources for you to read about Gary Ezzo.
If you will honestly examine these materials, you will come to the same conclusion that I did—along with two of his former pastors, another former employee, several former contact moms, his former accountant, etc.—that as Dr. John MacArthur has written: “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).”
I am sure that when your church adopted GFI’s curricula, there was not as much known in the Body of Christ about the unsound aspects of GFI’s teaching, nor had Gary Ezzo’s background been exposed.
This link below will take you to the ezzo.info site. You will find the full text of Grace Community Church’s and Living Hope Evangelical Fellowship’s public rebukes of Gary for being a liar and slanderer. Gary typically leaves a church before the church leadership can complete its disciplinary process of his sins. You will find a wealth of other information about Gary on this site.
In November, 2000, Christianity Today did an expose on Gary. I was interviewed for this article because of my insider knowledge of how Gary operates his organization and how he treats his critics. Here it is:
Unprepared to Teach Parenting?
http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2000/013/6.70.html
In July, 2000, Christianity Today published a story indicating that Multnomah had decided to drop Gary as an author. Immediately, Multnomah Publisher, Don Jacobson overruled others at the company and published a statement that the investigation was still in process. The link to this story is below:
Babywise almost dropped
http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2001/009/12.20.html
On September 12, 2001, Multnomah issued a statement saying it was returning publishing rights to Gary Ezzo for all of his books. The statement praised Ezzo and attacked his critics who are accused of refusing to meet with Multnomah in a “reconciliation” meeting with Ezzo. The critics, including myself, declined to meet with Multnomah because we knew this was nothing more than a public relations ploy to make Multnomah and Ezzo look good. The press statement was classic spin-doctoring.
I hope you will read each of the articles I’ve linked to in this letter. You have probably only heard Gary Ezzo’s side of this controversy. It is important for you to hear the other side.
Yours in Christ—and for the truth,
Frank York