Sorry that I'm late to this, but here's a blockbuster: last week, from the pulpit of the Calvary Chapel mothership in SanTana (even though they call themselves CC Costa Mesa), head Chuck Smith blasted an abuse survivor of one of his pastors and promised divine retribution upon the victim for daring to criticize him.
The survivor was Alex Grenier, stepson of Calvary Chapel Visalia pastor Bob Grenier, whose story we've documented here at Navel Gazing, including a recent meeting between Grenier and Smith in which Chuckie essentially called Grenier a liar and refused to remove Bob from the pulpit.
Well, savaging Alex in person wasn't enough for Chuckie: he had to do it publicly, as well.
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You're going to have to go over to Alex's blog to hear the full slam (and you should visit Alex's blog, anyway), in which Smith acknowledges Alex's stepfather was abusive but never mentions him by name to his minions or even bothers to let them know that Bob Grenier is a Calvary Chapel pastor–for all Chuckie's cult knows, Alex is just a random stranger.
But the best part comes near his remarks on Grenier. “I feel sorry for the guy,” Smith tells his followers, “because…what I could do wouldn't hurt much, but I'll tell you what the Lord can do can really…” Smith chuckled a bit, then ended, “I'm glad I have the Lord on my side.”
This is the exact card Smith pulled in 2007, when Christianity Today–hardly a radical voice in Christian circles–published an exposé on Smith's lax oversight of sex abuse at Calvary Chapel. The story noted that Smith told the CT reporter. “The Lord warns, 'Don't touch my anointed. Do my prophet no harm.' I think that you are trying to do harm to the work of God. I surely wouldn't want to be in your shoes.”
Is Chuck Smith now taking PR lessons from Diocese of Orange Bishop Tod D. Brown? Heckuva job, Brownie!