David Platt Cries Lawfare In Rank Hypocrisy

Church Reform Initiative recently published a docuseries on JD Greear after having produced one on David Platt. McLean Bible Church has recently published a report to rebut the claims of the documentary. The 35-page report reeks of hypocrisy of David Platt cries lawfare, despite having employed it first against the people involved with the anti-Platt documentary. As an interesting aside, the report’s permalink indicates it was uploaded to their website in March 2025. Thus, its release while the JD Greear Unmasked documentary is suspicious.

Dear MBC Family,

Over recent years the Church across our country has experienced widespread division over issues ranging from responses to a pandemic to racial and political tensions. Professing Christians have lobbed labels at one another like stones, accusing some of being too “liberal” or “woke” and others of being too “conservative” or “oppressive.” Such divisiveness has been exacerbated by a culture that thrives on clicks, controversies, and accusations that spread through social media.

In the midst of this cultural climate, our church family has sought to unite around Jesus, the authority of His Word, and the centrality of His commission to make disciples of all nations over and above political parties and personal ideologies. In the process, our church family and leaders have been labeled in all the ways above (and more) by different people at different times. We realize this is part of the price of being a church filled with brothers and sisters in Christ from over 100 countries with different backgrounds and diverse perspectives, united together by a resolve to follow all of God’s Word and live for the spread of God’s glory in all of the world. We are not under any illusion that our mission together will ever be easy, and we are committed to carrying out Jesus’ commands with supreme love for God and selfless love for others, no matter what that may cost our church family or our church leaders.

Since at least 2021, a small group of members and non-members at MBC who labeled our church family and/or leaders “liberal” or “woke” has carried out a coordinated and stated strategy to deride and “oust” David Platt as well as other elders, pastors, and/or staff leaders who are committed to leading the church according to God’s Word instead of this group’s particular ideologies.

As part of this strategy, almost a dozen people in this group have filed an ongoing series of separate lawsuits, followed by multiple amended complaints, injunctions, and appeals against our church family regarding our church’s constitution. Over the course of almost four years of litigation, every single one of these legal claims has either been rejected or dismissed by the courts and/or withdrawn by the plaintiffs themselves. In December 2024, the last remaining active lawsuit was fully dismissed.

McLean Bible Church denies the claim that David Platt is woke or liberal, even though he locked down his church while promoting a Black Lives Matter protest.

Dear Jeremiah and Laura:

We have previously notified you of our desire to meet with you to discuss your persistent and public eXorts against the leadership and body of Christ at MBC. In light of your unwillingness to meet with us, and out of concern for the spiritual health of our Church fellowship, we are writing to inform you of the following:

In accord with God’s Word and in light of Article V, Section 6 of the MBC Constitution – which states that “Members of this Church who…engage in conduct that is a reproach to Christ and a derogatory reflection on the reputation of His Church, shall be publicly dismissed from the Church fellowship (Matthew 18:15-18)” – we are dismissing you from membership in our Church fellowship, eXective immediately, and will be communicating this to our Church fellowship appropriately.

Citing Matthew 18, McLean Bible Church excommunicated Jeremiah and Laura Burke over a non-sin. They use this as the justification for the trespassing charge. Then they claim lawfare.

Recently, a lawyer representing Jeremiah Burke stated publicly that Jeremiah Burke dismissed a lawsuit against MBC prior to trial as part of a “larger strategy.” Rather than acknowledging their own dismissal, however, the attorney stated that the “victory” in their dismissal of the lawsuit was that certain materials were discovered as part of the litigation that could then be shared with the public.

This approach is generally known as lawfare, which is the use of the courts to damage or delegitimize an opponent without actually seeking resolution by the court. This strategy enables someone to take information they find and form a narrative they want to promote without having to actually prove that narrative is true in light of all the information. Because the lawsuit was dismissed by the plaintiffs themselves prior to trial, they never had to actually prove their claims. However, documents from discovery have been used by this group in “documentary” attacks that aim to malign MBC leaders, specifically David Platt. These efforts are simply continuations of the tactics this group has used and accusations this group has spread for years.

David Platt’s church has already employed lawfare when they had law enforcement escort people out of a business meeting under threat of arrest. Nevertheless, the information that was disclosed, from discovery, showed the elders of MBC conspired to join the SBC against the culture of their church and specifically concealing it from Lon Solomon. Platt’s report seems to own the SBC partnership, where his previous posturing insisted that MBC was not Southern Baptist despite glaring evidence.