Lawyers for former Gateway Church pastor Robert Morris have asked a federal court to dismiss a lawsuit filed last October that accused Morris of fraud and breach of contract connected to statements the pastor made about congregants’ tithes.
In a February filing, Morris’ attorneys argued that the lawsuit, filed by former members of Gateway, infringed on religious exemption protections. The Plano-based nonprofit First Liberty Institute supported Morris’ religious exemption claim in a December filing in the case.
Former members of Gateway Church filed the October lawsuit in a Texas district court and named as defendants Gateway Church, Morris and three of the church’s former elders. The lawsuit accused the church and its former leaders of misrepresenting how tithes, or donated percentages of a congregant’s income, would be used.
It also alleged that Morris gave congregants a “money back guarantee” on their tithes and was therefore obligated to pay tithes back to dissatisfied congregants.
The Dallas Morning News spoke with the office of the attorneys representing Morris and with an assistant for one of those attorneys and asked for comment, and also sent the attorneys a request for comment over email. The attorneys did not immediately respond. The News reached out to attorneys representing the former Gateway members by phone and email and did not immediately receive a response.
Morris founded Southlake’s Gateway Church in 2000 and served as its senior pastor until last June.
That month, an Oklahoma woman alleged that Morris sexually abused her from the ages of 12 to 17 in the 1980s. Morris resigned from his role at the church four days after being publicly accused of child sexual abuse and has not responded to letters and at least five phone calls from The News seeking comment.
In the February filing, Morris’ lawyers argued that Morris never entered into an “enforceable contract” with Gateway members wherein he would be required to give tithing money back to congregants.
The February filing also argued that the former members’ lawsuit did not have enough facts or details to support a plausible claim of fraud, and did not make a viable argument that congregants justifiably relied on a specific, enforceable “money back guarantee” when making their decisions about tithing.
Morris’ lawyers argued that the “ecclesiastical abstention doctrine,” which protects religious organizations from unlawful government infringement, barred the court from considering the claims of the former Gateway members. The lawsuit asked the court to “tread upon matters of religious doctrine and internal church governance,” according to the February filing.
Morris’ lawyers brought up several procedural issues with the case, arguing that federal courts did not have jurisdiction over the case and that the alleged breach of contract happened outside the statute of limitations.
On Friday, a judge granted a motion to dismiss the original lawsuit’s claim against defendant Kevin Grove, one of three former Gateway elders originally listed as defendants.The News has attempted to reach Grove by calling a number listed in public records and mailing a letter to a registered address but has not heard back from him.
‘Financial irregularities’
The former Gateway members’ October lawsuit alleged that Gateway hired a certified public accountant in 2011 from a “well-known international accounting firm,” and that he observed “financial irregularities” in the church’s spending toward global missions.
The accountant, who is not named in the lawsuit, “never observed the Global Ministries fund give away more than $3 million in any year,” according to the lawsuit. The lawsuit says that, when Gateway hired the accountant, the church’s annual revenue was “in the $100 million range and rose to about $120 million by 2014.”
Fifteen percent of that amount would be $15 million to $18 million. The suit does not say how much of Gateway’s total revenue came from tithes.
Lawyers for the plaintiffs spoke to the accountant, whom they declined to name, and said they received documents from him to back up his characterizations of Gateway’s financials, according to a representative for Dortch Lindstrom Livingston Law Group.
During an October Gateway service the day after the original lawsuit was filed, Tra Willbanks, the chair of Gateway’s elder board, addressed the lawsuit from the church’s pulpit.
“I have to tell you that when I got this news yesterday, it was a moment of reflection, and I’ll tell you, it was kind of discouraging,” Willbanks said.
“We have decided to hire a third-party, independent accounting firm to complete a forensic analysis of our finances, which will include investigating the specific allegations of this last week,” he said. He also said the church has used a “nationally accredited” auditor since 2005 to review its finances each year, and the church has “never had any wrongdoing revealed through these audits.”
During the same service, Willbanks said the church was in the process of joining the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability. That group requires churches to share audited financial statements with the public upon written request, according to its website, and to have a governing body of which a majority are independent board members.
The group defines independent board members as individuals who, among other things, are not employed by the church or related by blood or marriage to church staff.
A spokesperson for Gateway said Tuesday that the church had no additional comment.
Adrian Ashford covers faith and religion in North Texas for The Dallas Morning News through a partnership with Report for America.
