{"id":2006,"date":"2023-04-14T20:29:26","date_gmt":"2023-04-15T01:29:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thelight.com\/?p=2006"},"modified":"2023-04-14T20:29:28","modified_gmt":"2023-04-15T01:29:28","slug":"james-macdonald-former-harvest-bible-pastor-charged-with-felony-assault-and-battery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/thelight.com\/index.php\/2023\/04\/14\/james-macdonald-former-harvest-bible-pastor-charged-with-felony-assault-and-battery\/","title":{"rendered":"James MacDonald, former Harvest Bible pastor, charged with felony assault and battery"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

We have talked about Pastor MacDonald before, esp. since one of our leaders here at the LIGHT! used to attend Pastor MacDonald’s church.<\/p>\n

With what we know right now we do NOT CONDONE assaulting a woman over a parking lot incident. \u00a0We will see this play out in the justice system that God has ordained. \u00a0“Rule of law” is one of our bedrock principles in this country. \u00a0Our Constitution is the highest written authority in all legal matters. \u00a0(Of course, the Bible is our highest written authority in all spiritual matters. \u00a0Please be sure to note that there is distinction between these two realms)<\/p>\n

\n

\"\"(RNS) \u2014 Former Chicago area megachurch pastor James MacDonald has been charged with two felonies for allegedly assaulting a woman during a dispute over parking.<\/p>\n

MacDonald, who was fired<\/a> from Harvest Bible Chapel in 2019 and later disqualified from ministry for what church leaders called<\/a> a \u201csubstantial pattern of sinful behavior,\u201d was arrested in Coronado, California, on March 22.<\/p>\n

According to details of the incident posted on social media by the Coronado Police Department, MacDonald, 62, was parking his truck when he hit a vehicle in an adjacent spot. When a 59-year-old woman got out of the other vehicle, MacDonald allegedly \u201cjumped out of his truck and attacked the victim,\u201d according to police.<\/p>\n

Witnesses came to the woman\u2019s aid and she was taken to the hospital.<\/p>\n

A gun was found in MacDonald\u2019s truck.<\/p>\n

A gun was found in the truck of James MacDonald in Coronado, California, on March 22, 2023. Photo by Coronado Police Department\/Facebook<\/p>\n

The former pastor was not identified by name in the initial post by Coronado police, but a police spokesperson later confirmed to the Roys Report<\/a>, a Christian website, that MacDonald was the suspect in the incident.<\/p>\n

Tanya Sierra, assistant director of communications for the San Diego County District Attorney\u2019s Office, told Religion News Service in an email that MacDonald was arraigned on March 29 and pleaded not guilty. He faces a June 14 readiness hearing before a July 6 preliminary hearing.<\/p>\n

MacDonald has been charged with \u201cassault by means likely to produce great bodily injury\u201d and battery with serious bodily injury, according to a complaint filed in the Superior Court of California for the County of San Diego. If convicted, he could face up to seven years in prison.<\/p>\n

Defense attorney Michael Pancer, who represents MacDonald, said in a statement that MacDonald \u201chas never, nor would ever, intentionally harm another human being.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe charges as written are not accurate as to what took place,\u201d Pancer said in the statement. \u201cWe believe the evidence will show Dr. MacDonald\u2019s intent and conduct was neither malicious nor correctly assigned, in the charges filed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Police at the scene of an alleged assault involving former megachurch pastor James MacDonald in Coronado, California, on March 22, 2023. Photo by Coronado Police Department\/Facebook<\/p>\n

MacDonald was once pastor of what had been one of the largest churches in the Chicago area and the voice of Walk in the Word, a broadcast Harvest shut down<\/a> in 2019. \u00a0His final years at the church were marked by a series of controversies over finances and conflicts, much of them fueled by his confrontational leadership style.<\/p>\n

During those controversies, Harvest sued<\/a> Julie Roys, founder of the Roys Report, and a pair of bloggers who were critical of the church. The church later apologized for the lawsuit.<\/p>\n

Since leaving the church, MacDonald has run an online<\/a> preaching ministry and has appeared as a guest preacher. He has also devoted much of his Twitter<\/a> feed, where he has more than a quarter of a million followers, to an ongoing legal battle with Harvest and a forensic accountant the church hired to review church finances. MacDonald has argued that church leaders and the accountant conspired against him and defamed him.<\/p>\n

In 2019, Harvest elders said they were thankful for MacDonald\u2019s 30 years of ministry and that he could be returned to ministry in the future if he goes through a restoration process.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have communicated to James that he needs to find a small group of godly brothers to restore him biblically in the spirit of gentleness. He needs an extended period of time away from ministry in order to focus on repentance and to seek relational reconciliation and restitution where it is possible,\u201d they said in a 2019 statement that ruled MacDonald unfit for ministry. \u201cWe are all in need of God\u2019s grace, and we have implored James to humble himself and fully surrender to the Lord.\u201d<\/p>\n

This content was originally published here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We have talked about Pastor MacDonald before, esp. since one of our leaders here at the LIGHT! used to attend Pastor MacDonald’s church. With what we know right now we do NOT CONDONE assaulting a woman over a parking lot incident. \u00a0We will see this play out in the justice system that God has ordained. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2008,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2006","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-uncategorized","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8kHU7-wm","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thelight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/webRNS-James-MacDonald2-121619.jpg?fit=1600%2C900","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/thelight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2006","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/thelight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/thelight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thelight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thelight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2006"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/thelight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2006\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2009,"href":"http:\/\/thelight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2006\/revisions\/2009"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thelight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2008"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/thelight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2006"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thelight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2006"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thelight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2006"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}