Church Vows to Fight Repayment Order

A lawyer representing a bankrupt fundamentalist church--ordered to return $6.6 million in donations to an heiress who says she was manipulated by the church’s pastor--vows to appeal the decision to the Supreme Court if necessary.

“I think the case is so important that the Supreme Court would want to hear it,” said Norman Roy Grutman, who represented the Lenox, Mass.-based The Bible Speaks church in a suit filed by Elizabeth Dovydenas.

Grutman, who also represents the scandalized PTL ministry in a variety of lawsuits brought against that evangelical group, said he will appeal the bankruptcy court ruling first to U.S. District Court, and will not hesitate to appeal the decision to a higher jurisdiction.

Judge James Queenan Jr. ruled Tuesday that The Bible Speaks and its pastor, Carl Stevens, must return the $6.6 million that Dovydenas, heiress to the Dayton Hudson Corp. retail chain-store fortune, gave to the church between 1984 and 1985 while she was a member of the congregation.

Grutman had argued that the First Amendment right to separation of church and state was the central issue of the case, but Queenan disagreed, saying Stevens had used influence outside of his role as a minister in efforts to persuade Dovydenas to donate to the church.

The judge said that The Bible Speaks case was one of “undue influence exerted upon a church donor . . . (revealing) an astonishing saga of clerical deceit, avarice and subjugation on the part of the church’s founder.”

But Grutman said: “(The decision) represents a knifepoint threat to every church, to every charitable institution, by any donor who should decide at sometime subsequent to having made a gift that he wishes to change his mind.”

Dovydenas’ attorney, Gordon Walker, denied that the lawsuit was an attempt to close down the church.

“The First Amendment is not an issue. This is not an attack on the religious beliefs of The Bible Speaks,” he said. “This suit was focused on the conduct of Carl Stevens as an individual.”

Dovydenas, 34, held a news conference Tuesday at Walker’s Boston office, and said she hoped Queenan’s ruling in her favor will protect others from becoming “penniless” through religious manipulation.

“I think that what happened to me can happen to any good, decent person,” she said. “The groups like The Bible Speaks, that intend to control people, very much know what they’re doing.”

“I think the message this case sends out is there is accountability even on the part of the churches and especially in the area of fund-raising,” Walker said. “The message this case sends out is that even evangelists, fundamentalist pastors, have to play by the rules.”

Queenan set a June 5 hearing date to determine how the church payments to Dovydenas will be made.