Federal Judge Allows Fraud Lawsuit Against Gateway Church To Proceed
A federal lawsuit filed against Gateway Church alleging fraud, misrepresentation, and breach of contract arising out of their alleged misappropriation of church members’ tithe funds can continue.
U.S. District Judge Amos Mazzant denied a motion to dismiss by the church and its former pastor Robert Morris on Sept. 17 and granted the plaintiffs an opportunity to amend their pleadings.
Gateway Church has been in the news after Cindy Clemishire publicly accused its founding pastor Robert Morris of sexually abusing her in the 1980s, starting when she was 12 years old. Morris resigned in June 2024 and is now facing criminal charges in Oklahoma.
Plaintiffs Katherine and Gary Leach and Mark and Terri Browder brought a class action last October alleging that Gateway Church falsely represented that it gave 15% of all donations to global missions and Jewish ministry partners. They claim Gateway “guaranteed Plaintiffs a refund of their donated funds if Plaintiffs were dissatisfied with Gateway’s use of such funds.”
The plaintiffs were church members who had faithfully contributed to Gateway Church for years.
They simply wanted the church to “open its books, answer questions, and demonstrate that the church is a good steward of these funds,” Micah Dortch, attorney for the plaintiffs, said in a press statement.
While Morris claimed that Gateway had sent more than $25 million overseas, a certified public accountant, who was also an executive pastor, allegedly said he never witnessed more than $3 million annually in global missions contributions.
According to the lawsuit, the CPA also noted financial irregularities in the Gateway Global Ministries fund balance and brought those to the attention of Gateway leaders.
The CPA claimed he told Executive Pastor Tom Lane that he could not be part of financial irregularities and would resign if they were not addressed. Lane said he spoke with Morris, and they accepted his resignation.
“Rather than practice transparent stewardship with one of its key pastors, who was hired to lead the directly relevant global ministry, the Church ignored and buried his concerns,” the lawsuit alleges.
Gateway argued the federal lawsuit should be dismissed based on the ecclesiastical abstention doctrine because the claims “will require the Court to impermissibly entangle itself in questions of religious doctrine and internal church administration.”
First Liberty Institute, a public interest law firm defending religious liberty, wrote in its “friend of the court” brief about the ecclesiastical abstention doctrine, “[A]djudicating these claims would require the Court to answer several religious questions, including (1) interpreting the meaning of a pastor’s sermon; (2) defining the meaning of “tithe”; and (3) conducting fact-finding into the religious purposes of every donation Gateway received or made during the relevant time period. All of these inquiries are constitutionally impermissible.”
At this point in the case, Mazzant said he cannot find that the alleged improper expenditure of tithing funds is a purely ecclesiastical question, writing, “The Court acknowledges the act of tithing is a religious act, but Plaintiffs do not dispute their tithing; rather, Plaintiffs allege their tithes were fraudulently allocated and Defendants misrepresented critical facts to Plaintiffs before tithing.”
He said the defendants can again assert this as a basis to dismiss the claim once the record in the case is better developed.
The court also allowed the plaintiffs 14 days to file an amended complaint to replead any causes of action and to add claims and parties to the lawsuit.
This article was originally published at MinistryWatch.
Kim Roberts is a freelance writer who holds a Juris Doctorate with honors from Baylor University and an undergraduate degree in government from Angelo State University. She has three young adult children who were home schooled and is happily married to her husband of 28 years.