Open Statement to the MorningStar Board and Current Leaders: 10.7.24

*Please note the following correction: in the video I say that Chris Reed was made President and CEO, when the more accurate language is that he was made acting President. I apologize for my error and have corrected it in the statement below.

{I haven’t been able to fully confirm current board members, but the information I have indicates the following individuals: Wellington Boone, Ricky Skaggs, General Jerry Boykin, Bobby Conner, Mike Gottfried, Marc Nuttle, Paul Zink, Janet Porter, Lance Wallnau, Bob Weiner, Tom Hardiman, and Nicholas Papanicolaou.

At MorningStar, I’m addressing Tom Hardiman, Gary Webb, Mary Anne Hardiman, Linda Armstrong, Kelanie Webb, and any other members of the executive leadership team I may have missed.}

I’m appealing to you publicly for a few reasons: 

First, I received an email response from Rick on Saturday, which strongly suggests that currently he is not open or flexible to other ways of responding to the current situation. (I’m attaching it for transparency) 

Second, I believe that you, the board and current leaders (ALL of you), have authority and collective power to influence a better approach to this situation. An approach that demonstrates compassion, transparency, truth, accountability, and justice. 

And third, I’ve privately messaged as many of you as I have found, but have heard nothing back. 

In one of his recent sermons, Rick Joyner has talked about how sexual perversion is everywhere and you can do everything right and they still get in. That’s just not true. There’s a great deal of research and resources available now on how to prevent sexual abuse in churches. And it’s been very well-established by true experts, not self-ordained ones, that an organization’s policies and responses to cases of abuse play a huge role in creating a permissive environment or not. 

Abuse like this happens in organizations and systems that lack transparency and accountability. Neither of which are things you do once or twice a year. Let’s take the Chris Reed example: from what we know, Rick Joyner, members of the leadership team, and the board knew about what Chris Reed had done (misusing his position to prey on a student in the ministry school) and determined to put him through a restoration process. Then, according to Justin Perry who was there at the time, a few months later Chris Reed was made *acting President without the people overseeing his restoration even being consulted. My question is–and the question I’m asking the board and current leaders to consider is, how and why did that happen? Who had a say in the matter? 

Who determines that a person is adequately restored and what is the criteria being used to make this judgment call? More fundamentally, who decides that the appropriate application of Galatians 6:1 is to give back a microphone and a position of authority to someone who has misused both for personal sexual gain? Have any of you stopped to consider what the victims of Bob Jones’ predatory sexual behavior feel when they visit MorningStar’s website and see his face plastered everywhere?

What if instead of this opaque “restoration” process, MorningStar had a zero-tolerance policy for misuse of authority in sexual ways? If I’m a person with predatory or immoral sexual tendencies, does MorningStar’s restoration policy or a zero-tolerance policy incentivize me to come or not come to your church? To seek positions in which I can volunteer? 

This isn’t just a matter for spiritual discernment. It’s also a matter for critical thinking and seeking input from actual experts. God gave us our brains for a reason, and Jesus himself commanded us to love God with our minds. Who says restored means give a mic to? Who decides when someone is restored enough? What’s the criteria and who's doing the evaluation? And why does it appear that Rick Joyner has authoritarian powers to decide on this and other critical decisions related to how MorningStar will respond and move forward in addressing extreme cases of abuse? 

I’m going to conclude with some additional questions I have, and I’m urging each of you

to engage publicly and use your positions to shine much-needed light. 

My first big question is who conducted the outside investigations that have taken place to date, and what were the findings and recommendations? What third-party investigations are planned for the future? The day after we published our statement calling for accountability measures, MorningStar Ministries Leadership put out a statement highlighting the “multiple independent investigations” that have taken place, and the pursuit of “even more thorough examinations by those with the highest standards and integrity.” They said they “will ensure complete transparency with any future findings.”

In his email to me, Rick Joyner said that MorningStar called in outside orgs that specialize in this “type of thing” to investigate and recommend changes. But he said MorningStar “lost confidence in them, because of what we concluded were counterproductive policies.”

Who were these outside organizations? What were the counterproductive policies they recommended, and why has there been no transparency on the findings of any investigations thus far?

My second big question is, have you, the board and current leaders, read in full the lawsuits from the three individuals abused as children at MorningStar? Further, have you sought to meet with them personally and hear their stories? And if you have, do you agree with Rick Joyner’s public assertions that their claims are “outrageous”? Have you personally sought to understand how it is that the son of your head of security was able to do what he did, using his formal role as leader of a program at your church, to abuse children for years?

As leaders, you have an obligation to be as informed as you possibly can (which includes seeking objective, outside input), and to make decisions based on that information. What research is being done on best-practices in response to situations of abuse in church, and who is leading that effort? What experts are being brought in to advise? What options have been presented for leadership consideration and deliberation? 

Perhaps you are seeking to influence behind the scenes, and I’d like to believe you are. But I would also like to draw your attention to the ongoing damage being done to the victims and the broader community as a result of Rick Joyner’s public response and your silence. Rick Joyner said in his email to me: we “are resolved to always do everything we can that is reasonable to protect everyone God has put in our care, especially the young and vulnerable.” Who decides what is reasonable, and what does reasonable even mean? What authority does the board and do other leaders have to weigh in on this? 

I realize and embrace the fact that my questions are pointed and uncomfortable. I’m asking them because I believe change that protects innocent people and holds leaders accountable will only happen if current MorningStar leaders and the board become very uncomfortable with the status quo and take bold steps to reform it.

I certainly don’t need to tell you that followers of Jesus’ teachings are called to love. But love looks like something in real life and in situations of abuse. I personally don’t believe it looks like publicly condemning the victims’ claims nor touting your most recent divine revelations while failing to to take credible, transparent, and expeditious steps to prevent further abuse from happening. 

Amos 5:21-24 - (The Message translation)

“I can’t stand your religious meetings.

    I’m fed up with your conferences and conventions.

I want nothing to do with your religion projects,

    your pretentious slogans and goals.

I’m sick of your fund-raising schemes,

    your public relations and image making.

I’ve had all I can take of your noisy ego-music.

    When was the last time you sang to me?

Do you know what I want?

    I want justice—oceans of it.

I want fairness—rivers of it.

    That’s what I want. That’s all I want.”

1 Corinthians 13: 1-7 - (The Message translation)

If I speak with human eloquence and angelic ecstasy but don’t love, I’m nothing but the creaking of a rusty gate.

If I speak God’s Word with power, revealing all his mysteries and making everything plain as day, and if I have faith that says to a mountain, “Jump,” and it jumps, but I don’t love, I’m nothing.

If I give everything I own to the poor and even go to the stake to be burned as a martyr, but I don’t love, I’ve gotten nowhere. So, no matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I’m bankrupt without love.

Best,

Emily Elston

*Please note: text in statement was updated 7 October 2024 to reflect that Chris Reed was made acting President. My apologies for this error.