Summary

Allegations of Coverup:

David Platt began serving as interim teaching pastor at McLean Bible Church in Vienna, Virginia in February 2017 while continuing his primary role as president of the International Mission Board. In September 2017, Platt was hired as pastor-teacher of McLean Bible Church.

Sources: https://www.christianpost.com/news/david-platt-joins-mclean-bible-church-as-interim-pastor-megachurchs-senior-pastor-stepping-down.html https://www.sbcv.org/david-platt-all-in-as-imb-president-as-he-accepts-teaching-pastor-role/

“When informed by parents of grooming actions and abuse by a youth volunteer named Scott Woods, and the cover-up by McLean Bible Church leaders (Lead Pastor Dale Sutherland, Youth Pastor DJ Corkey, and Lucius Thompson, Head of MBC Security) and elders (Larry Cooper, Chairman and Tom McMahon, Vice Chairman):

• Ignored victims and parents for several months after arriving at McLean Bible Church, before acknowledging them in April 2019
• After finally meeting with parents over a period of 6 months, called for third-party investigation into the actions of MBC leaders, policies and procedures regarding Scott Woods (Nov 24, 2019 sermon) by the law firm, Gammon and Grange, McLean, VA
• Told parents the investigation was almost complete in April 2020, but would not respond to questions about the release of the report and planned actions,
• Has ceased communication with victims and parents and ignores inquiries as to the status of the third-party investigation,
• Is protecting the men (Dale Sutherland, DJ Corkey, Lucius Thompson, Larry Cooper, Tom McMahon) who covered up a predator (Scott Woods) at McLean Bible Church and continues to protection the institution, instead of the children of McLean Bible Church

2017-and-2018-mbc-letters

Timeline

• Dec 2016-March 2017 – Parents contact MBC leaders (Dale Sutherland and DJ Corkey) with concerns about Scott Woods
• Feb 2017-DJ Corkey confronts Scott Woods, alerting him to parent’s concerns and probably allowing him to destroy evidence on phone and computer
• Jan-Mar-2017-conducted internal investigation and did not contact authorities
• June-2017—Parents contact authorities and realize MBC did not contact authorities earlier, like they said they did
• June 2017-Parents begin contacting other parents and informing them of Scott Woods’ actions.
• August 2017- MBC reaches out to families and promises to 1) reach out to families of children who were direct contract with Scott Woods, 2) inform the church members to see if there were other victims, 3) minister to victims, 4) change security procedures, and 5) contact Dallas Theological Seminary where Scott was attending
• Fall 2017-MBC did not do what they promised. Instead, MBC letter 2017 to inform parents of security changes, but omits any information related to Scott Woods (insert uploaded 2017 MBC letter image here) and https://wonderingeagle.files.wordpress.com/2019/09/image1.png
• Late 2017-August 2018–parents contact MBC multiple times and ask why MBC sent out a letter that covered-up Scott Woods and lied to parents as to the reason for security changes. No response.
• Summer 2018- Statement by David Platt (at that time, President of International Missions Board-IMB) on sexual abuse https://www.imb.org/imb-statement-from-platt/

• Late 2018- MBC letter in 2018 that informs parents of the “situation” that occurred, but again, omits the name of the predator, Scott Woods (insert uploaded 2018 MBC letter image here) and https://wonderingeagle.files.wordpress.com/2019/09/mbc-letter-to-tysons-campus-parents.pdf
• Feb. 2019, blog posts began to appear about MBC’s cover-up of Scott Woods. https://wonderingeagle.wordpress.com/2019/02/02/did-mclean-bible-cover-up-a-child-sexual-predatory-situation-a-comment-on-the-wondering-eagle-raises-that-question/
• April 2019, David Platt finally began contacting families whose children were targeting by Scott Woods when they were high school students in the MBC youth group to learn more about what had occurred previously.
• Sept 27, 2019—a blogger revealed Scott Wood’s name and very accurately provided details on the sexual targeting and grooming that had occurred at MBC. https://wonderingeagle.wordpress.com/2019/09/27/how-david-platt-never-learned-from-the-mark-aderholt-situation-the-disturbing-story-of-how-mclean-bible-mishandled-scott-woods-an-alleged-predator-in-the-rock-ministries/
• Sept 30, 2019, another post about MBC and Scott Woods https://wonderingeagle.wordpress.com/2019/09/30/anne-marie-millers-response-to-david-platts-mishandling-of-the-scott-woods-situation-at-mclean-bible/
• Nov 20, 2019, another blog post about MBC and Scott Woods https://wonderingeagle.wordpress.com/2019/11/20/what-is-grooming-and-how-an-alleged-predator-operated-in-the-rock-ministries-at-david-platts-mclean-bible/
• Nov 24, 2019, David Platt, preached a sermon on “Caring Better for the Flock” and about halfway through the sermon (16 minute mark), references a “situation” to took place several years ago, prior to his arrival at McLean Bible Church. David Platt announced during his sermon that he was initiating an “independent investigation” into MBC policies and how things were handled with the previous “situation”. David Platt also personally apologized to the families for their pain. https://radical.net/Caring-Better-for-the-Flock and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kGvhTmj2rXI and https://www.iheart.com/podcast/256-radical-with-david-platt-31124969/episode/caring-better-for-the-flock-53182557/ and https://mcleanbible.org/sermons/The-Story%20of%20Scripture/138/
• Nov 25, 2019 – a blog post in response to David Platt’s sermon on Nov 24.
https://wonderingeagle.wordpress.com/2019/11/25/david-platt-apologizes-for-mclean-bibles-mishandling-of-a-sexual-predator-while-its-a-step-in-the-right-direction-the-celebrity-pastor-still-will-not-name-scott-woods-as-the-alleged-predator/
• Nov 27, 2019-another blog post about MBC and Scott Woods https://wonderingeagle.wordpress.com/2019/11/27/from-the-paxton-singer-case-in-harvest-bible-chapel-in-chicago-to-the-scott-woods-situation-at-david-platts-mclean-bible-how-law-is-not-keeping-up-with-changes-in-technology/
• Dec 2, 2019 –Dee Parsons (another blogger) tweeted that David Platt should name the predator
• January 2020-another post with additional details about Scott Wood’s grooming of teenage boys at MBC. https://wonderingeagle.wordpress.com/2020/01/08/mclean-bible-changes-it-policies-after-the-scott-woods-grooming-situation-and-caleb-moore-allegedly-violates-those-policies-nathan-reed-communicates-coming-website-changes-and-social-media-policy-an/
• April 2020- David Platt informs families that the investigation is almost complete.
• July and August 2020-David Platt ignores emails from families when inquiring as the to status and result of the “independent investigation”.
• August 2020 – International Missions Board (IMB) corrects harmful statements made about the victim in its 2018 investigation, which was initiated by David Platt https://baptistcourier.com/2020/08/imb-issues-statement-regarding-aderholt-investigation/ and https://baptistcourier.com/2020/08/imb-issues-statement-regarding-aderholt-investigation/
• Sept 4, 2020–NOTHING else has been said to the victims, parents, or members of MBC about the “independent investigation” since David Platt announced its existence in November 2019 or the results. All but one of the MBC Elders (Larry Cooper and Tom McMahon) and Tysons staff (Lucius Thompson-head of security) involved initially remain in their positions or have been promoted within MBC (DJ Corkey). Dale Sutherland, senior Pastor at MBC Tysons, left to become President of International Care Ministries, USA in 2019, and serves as interim pastor of Veritas, an SBC and MBC church plant. https://wonderingeagle.wordpress.com/2019/07/20/dale-sutherland-is-leaving-mclean-bible-what-will-his-legacy-be/“