Posted on 03/10/2016 12:15:02 AM PST by ppaul
Just when controversial pastor Mark Driscoll was hoping to make a new start, former members of his old stomping grounds at Seattle’s Mars Hill Church have filed a lawsuit alleging Driscoll and his chief elder ran the now-shuttered megachurch like an organized crime syndicate, in which church members became unwitting participants.
The lawsuit was filed on Monday in the Western District of Washington U.S. District Court in Seattle under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, a law originally created for prosecution of Mafia figures.
Former members have been threatening to file such a lawsuit for months to find out just where the members’ donations—some $30 million yearly, according to church reports—actually went...
“Driscoll and Turner engaged in a pattern of racketeering activity so deeply embedded, pervasive and continuous, that it was effectively institutionalized as a business practice, thereby corrupting the very mission Plaintiffs and other donors believed they were supporting.”
Elder Dave Bruskas, Mars Hill CFO Kerry Dodd, several corporations believed to hold some profits from Driscoll’s book Real Marriage, and a supposed financial standards watchdog—the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability—are all named as co-conspirators in the complaint.
(Excerpt) Read more at thedailybeast.com ...
Well,maybe I did a ready *FIRE* aim there: on a second read,the lawsuit was filed by former members, not a jihad-ing justice department.
So how is this different from what ANY government (local, fed) is doing today with our taxes?
It’s an outright abuse of the RICO law.
Oh, I’m sure about United Way. The people they pay get exactly the same amount whether you earmark or not.
I would be willing to bet that earmarks exceed actual contributions so some organizations.
I’m going to agree with you, because that’s how all the biggies operate
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*YBPDLN=Your Best Purpose Driven Life Now Now Rev. Ike was a megachurch pastor that had integrity. He made no secret of the fact that he was using the donations from the poor folks to pay for his extravagant lifestyle. Those Rolls Royces get poor gas mileage.
I am ambivalent on this. One one hand, it is a dangerous precedent for the Government to determine who is a ‘real church’. On the other hand, it would open the door to curb similar behavior in other businesses who claim to be a church like the Mormons.
Ping for Inmans
Well stated. The idea of profiting from the gospel goes back to the Apostles’ time. We read in Acts 8:
18When Simon saw that the Spirit was given at the laying on of the apostles’ hands, he offered them money 19and said, “Give me also this ability so that everyone on whom I lay my hands may receive the Holy Spirit.”
20Peter answered: “May your money perish with you, because you thought you could buy the gift of God with money! 21You have no part or share in this ministry, because your heart is not right before God. 22Repent of this wickedness and pray to the Lord in the hope that he may forgive you for having such a thought in your heart. 23For I see that you are full of bitterness and captive to sin.”
Yes. You are correct regarding general funds. However, when a separate fund is set up and promoted as such - for a designated purpose, those designated funds are to be segregated and not used for other purposes. And when funds donated to a charity are used for personal use by trustees, then you have another problem. When leaders of a charity conspire to deceive donors, then there’s another problem. It goes on and on.
This is not a government “attack on Christianity.”
It is a lawful action brought by people who gave money for specific purposes trusting that the money they gave would be used for those purposes, who discovered that they were intentionally mislead and the money was used for other purposes. If they can prove that there was a conspiracy to do so by the defendants, why shouldn’t they be able to bring the law to bear on the crooks?
“It’s an outright abuse of the RICO law.”
Really? How so?
And please understand, the plaintiffs in this case are not suing a church, or the church. They have brought an action against private parties who allegedly used their position of trust to deceptively raise money for a specific purpose, and then diverted those funds to other purposes for which the donors would have never approved. How is that any different from suing a building contractor who you pay to make repairs on your elderly next-door neighbors home, who then does not repair your neighbor’s home but uses the money to take a vacation to Hawaii?
If the Mars Hill Church is now closed, and yet it still owns millions of dollars of real estate and perhaps other assets, I wonder who controls that and how it will be distributed.
I believe that is exactly what the plaintiffs in the lawsuit hope to discover.
Driscoll allegedly set up a bunch of trusts and LLCs into which funds could be funneled.
I’m doing a presentation on mind control manipulation techniques used in religious settings at a conference in a few months and would like to use the video of the people jumping into the hole. Do you have any links to its origin so I might reference it and/or get a high resolution copy of the video?
Um - YOU said it was a religion organization
“This may be the first time, a the leaders of a religious organization are defendants in a federal R.I.C.O. (Racketeer Influenced Corrupt Organizations Act) lawsuit. This could have profound repercussions on how church leaders are accountable to their donors on where and how their offerings and donations are spent - “
It’s a religious charity ostensibly for religious purposes.
That’s why we have that pesky separation of church and state.
As for suing a building contractor.... As I pointed out before what these religious leaders did is peanuts to what our elected government officials have done time and time again. Why are they not subject to the same RICO laws?
I snatched it off the web. If you right click over the image you can get the link.
“This may be the first time, a the leaders of a religious organization are defendants in a federal R.I.C.O. (Racketeer Influenced Corrupt Organizations Act) lawsuit.”
The Leaders, NOT the organization.
Sorry I did not make that clear.
The “church” is not being sued.
The individuals who allegedly ripped off the church are.
Hope that clears things up.
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