For Julie Roys, investigating the 'evangelical industrial complex' is a 'sacred calling'

For 25 years, Americans have tied religious scandal to the Catholic Church. Julie Roys has built a news site showing that other Christian churches have their own failings, from sexual abuse to financial misconduct. 'There are wonderful pastors out there,' Roys said. 'But there are a lot of bad ones, too.' The problem, she said, is 'not just a few bad apples' but 'a system.'

A recent focus is Wheaton College, the evangelical school in the far west suburbs sometimes called the 'Harvard of Christian colleges.' Stories this year covered accusations that former administrator Dennis Massaro sexually abused male students. Massaro led the school's Office of Christian Outreach for 19 years before his 1998 dismissal, but Roys wrote that two administrations, under Presidents Duane Litfin and Philip Ryken, kept his alleged criminal sexual assault hidden until 2024, silence she said gave him access to 'unsuspecting young men.' Massaro has not been charged and could not be reached. The school said it was 'deeply sorry' for Massaro's abuse of students and apologized for not effectively enforcing his restriction from campus.

Ryken, Wheaton's president since 2010, was once censured by the Presbyterian Church in America for allegedly 'limiting the investigation into' another minister's alleged sexual misconduct and 'withholding information about the abuse,' the site reported. A Wheaton spokesman said Ryken apologized publicly for 'failing to take additional necessary steps of pastoral oversight.'

Other stories covered a Baptist missionary accused of molesting boys in Haiti, an Oklahoma youth pastor facing criminal charges for allegedly abusing teenage girls and a popular Christian writer confessing to an affair with a married woman. Roys said the site, which includes a YouTube channel, covers stories 'that Christian media is afraid to touch and that secular media often ignores.'

Roys, 61, said the goal is not to tear down faith but to serve an ideal shared by journalism and Christianity: truth. Her Wheaton professor, the late Paul Fromer, taught her that journalism was a 'sacred calling.' The site's tagline is 'Reporting the Truth. Restoring the Church.' A major donor funded the launch of restoringthechurch.com to provide resources for survivors, church leaders and donors.

Born in Zimbabwe to missionary parents, Roys was raised mostly in Pennsylvania, worked at Wheaton's student newspaper and earned a master's in broadcast journalism from Northwestern University. She worked in mainstream media and hosted nationally for Moody Radio. A 2018 series exposing corruption at the Moody Bible Institute led to the exit of three top officers, ended her Moody ties and turned her blog into an outlet covering the 'evangelical industrial complex.'

The coverage began locally, with stories on alleged 'bullying, deceit and financial abuse' by preacher James MacDonald and Harvest Bible Chapel in Rolling Meadows. MacDonald was fired and elders resigned. Harvest sued Roys and two critical bloggers, later apologized and settled by paying her legal fees. MacDonald still disputes much of the reporting, calling it 'tabloid journalism.' Roys stands by the facts.

Revenue grew from about $137,000 in 2019 to more than $600,000 last fiscal year, the staff numbers four full-time employees including former Christianity Today editor Daniel Silliman, and the site has drawn more than 12 million views this year. Roys said the reporting factored into Ravi Zacharias International Ministries commissioning a report finding its namesake abused women, the International House of Prayer in Kansas City parting with founder Mike Bickle and Truett McConnell University firing president Emir Caner in 2025. Caner has sued the Georgia school, saying he was wrongly fired.

Newsboys and affiliates sued the site for defamation after its reporting on former frontman Michael Tait, accused of drug use and 'predatory' sexual behavior dating back decades. Roys said in April the coverage was 'carefully reported, based on multiple independent sources and corroborated before publication.' Now part of a suburban house church, she said: 'I don't feel like I volunteered, I feel like I got drafted.'