Harvest Bible Chapel Responds to Anne Green’s Allegations

This evening Harvest Bible Chapel’s leadership (whoever that is now) posted the following response to Anne Green’s allegations of sexual harassment against James MacDonald. Green disclosed an allegation involving James MacDonald in 2005 on Mancow Muller’s radio program earlier today.

Harvest Bible Chapel received a report in September of 2018 of an alleged inappropriate incident, which took place on a private flight in 2005, between Dr. James MacDonald and Mrs. Anne Green. The Elders took the matter seriously and began investigating immediately.

After hearing of the accusation, the Human Resources department of Harvest Bible Chapel proactively reached out to Mrs. Green on September 30, 2018, via email and text. Below is the email. Please note, for privacy, the name of the other woman on the plane has been omitted.

Dear Anne:

We have been made aware that you may have a concern about something from your time of employment or ministry involvement at Harvest. 

We care about all who have labored for the Lord with us, past and present and since it was not reported at the time, we want to offer an opportunity to tell your story to a couple of women who remain here and remember you fondly. 

I would like to schedule a call with you and [other woman on plane], maybe an Elder’s wife and myself, as I work in our HR department. We are offering a safe environment to share your story without fear and understand if you choose not to. Also, be assured this offer does not expire should you wish to talk with us in the future. 

Just know that we care for you and would appreciate some response at your earliest convenience – at least to know we have connected with you to express our care and support.

Mrs. Green did not respond to the email or text invitation. Additionally, Mrs. Green never filed a police report regarding the alleged incident.

The three other passengers from that flight were interviewed. The passengers stated that they did not recall seeing or hearing anything suspicious or inappropriate.

With no complaint filed by Mrs. Green, no report to the police and the testimony of three witnesses on the flight, Harvest Bible Chapel closed the investigation with the Elders considering the case appropriately vetted and no further action required.

In light of today’s radio interview that Mrs. Green provided to WLS Radio, Harvest Bible Chapel would like to reiterate a sentence from the email sent to Mrs. Green in September, “be assured this offer does not expire should you wish to talk with us in the future.”

22 thoughts on “Harvest Bible Chapel Responds to Anne Green’s Allegations”

  1. Sandy Song was the other worship leader on the plane. So Harvest makes an offer for her to meet with an HR rep, perhaps Todd Rukes the head of HR, and an Elder’s wife. Would you recommend that Anne participate in that? Is that an unbiased independent sexual harassment investigation?

  2. James MacDonald’s two sons, Landon and Luke resigned from Harvest Bible Chapel this evening. (Tuesday)

    1. Inevitable, really. Their position was untenable the moment their father was removed in disgrace. Dynastic ministries are never a good thing. If they’re good pastors, and not there because daddy was the senior pastor (who am I kidding, of course they were), there are plenty of other churches out there where they can ply their trade.

  3. Some quotes from the interview that speak for themselves: (these sound a whole lot like things I and other regulars here have been saying since this controversy started)

    Anne: “I was able to start seeing through it, without having my whole life supported by him. And I really just started seeing through it and I really started understanding that he just to seemed have an agenda that really wasn’t about Jesus…”
    “James MacDonald’s on the plane, along with Trei Tatum, Andy Rosier, who’s a worship leader, and Sandy Song.”
    ” I was shocked and immediately said, “You can’t touch me there!” And I said it loud. And I heard giggles, from the others, I thought.”
    Mancow: “And you heard the tape I have, which is allegedly him, ‘I can earn a hundred thousand dollars in a minute with my act.’ And it is an act, folks, it is an act.”

    1. hypocrite: one who puts on a mask and acts on a stage for the amusement of a passive audience.

      Messiah Yeshua sure had their number, didn’t He?

  4. Once the giving units start deserting ship in droves and they can’t make payroll, HBC will fold like the house of cards it is, a la Mars Hill.

    1. I agree. This is a slow-motion free-fall version of the Mars Hill implosion. A cult of personality cannot survive when the personality is gone.

      Technically, it is not too late for the church to recover. Historically though, when a church spirals down this far, they have passed the “event horizon” and beyond the point of no return.

      What would it take for HBC to recover? A miracle. It would require all of the leadership to confess and repent of their part in enabling James and being his accomplices. And having confessed and repented, stepping down. Not one person in that group can remain. (think Saul and his preserving King Agag)

      The congregants need to reflect and consider what warning signs they saw that they dismissed or allowed themselves to be convinced weren’t a problem. This is a great time for growth for the individual members of the church. They should reach out to their friends who DID see those things (when they didn’t)… find out from them how they were able to see those things, and learn those lessons.

      The challenge after that is for the congregation to identify those men who ARE Biblically qualified to lead the church. As a congregation, they lack discernment because they’ve been disarmed of their discernment by James and his leadership. Years of gaslighting and manipulation will have that effect. I’m confident that there are men there who are faithful and qualified to lead… will the congregation be able to see that?

      That’s the catch-22.

      I’ve heard some talk about recruiting Dave Corning to come back to lead the work of rebuilding the church. I can’t think of anyone more gifted and qualified to lead that work. That’s something specific that I can pray for… him or someone who is as well-respected as he is.

      1. Pretty sure James preached on the issue of the Agags in our lives on at least ONE occasion. A rather inconvenient message for him/them now.

  5. That was most certainly not the time for Anne to re-engage HBC on the issue. That letter was sent September 2018. How did they receive that report? Was it because Julie Roys was interviewing former HBC staff, spoke with Anne Green, and HBC thought Green’s story could end up in the World Report? So 13 years after the incident, they reach out to her.

    The Big Kahuna was still in power at HBC in September, and this was a couple weeks before the lawsuits were filed. They were scrambling to crush everything and everyone that threatened them, and they would have done it to Anne if she had met with them at that time.

    I believe Anne. At the very least, that was a fire-able act of sexual harassment. And the others on the plane who saw it and giggled… I realize that there was a culture of intimidation and fear, and James immediately played the “bring down my ministry” card… the others at least deserve a kick in the junk. They were complicit. The whole leadership culture enabled frat-like behavior. There is no way the Anne Green story is the only one in James’ ministry.

    1. In the leadership seminars I attended, James would regularly make reference to his “moral fences”… “What one pastor does to protect himself from himself for Christ and for others.”

      On the surface they sounded reasonable. But upon further reflection those principles were established mostly to provide an alibi against any truthful accusations.

      One response I’ve seen multiple times regarding Anne Green’s accusation… “well, the accusation can’t be true because James is never alone with a woman who is not his wife.”

      Those people obviously weren’t there and don’t know, but because James has repeated his “moral fences” so often, people believe it.

      What good is fleeing temptation if you leave a forwarding address? What good are moral fences if you jump over them?

        1. If Andi is still on the Harvest payroll then would he be able to confirm the truthfulness of Anne Green’s accusation?

          1. Andi’s still a worship leader at the Elgin campus. And after yesterday, I have to imagine someone is hunting him for a statement on Anne’s account. And like most things HBC, my guess is he’ll wait for a little while and consult some PR experts on how to cleverly wordsmith a statement that says very little.

            But all the “James is never alone” comments in other forums… James wasn’t alone, and he wasn’t alone with another woman. There are at least a couple of guys who can speak to the event, and I’ll bet they have a pretty good memory of it, even though it’s almost 14 years later.

  6. No one who has experienced sexual harassment should respond to an email like that.
    Good for Anne for choosing when and where she will speak.

    1. Yeah, especially given the likelihood that nothing would have come it even if she had reported and the interviewers had found her credible.

  7. The three other passengers from that flight were interviewed. The passengers stated that they did not recall seeing or hearing anything suspicious or inappropriate.

    Nuance is everything. Was one of the “three other passengers” interviewed a Mr. James MacDonald?

Comments are closed.