Judge Delays Ruling on Focus on Family

Superior Court Judge Theodore Piatt last week postponed a ruling on whether to dismiss lawsuits filed by two ex-employees of the conservative Christian media empire Focus on the Family.

Gilbert Moegerle, a former co-host of the Focus on the Family radio program, which is heard on 1,450 stations in the United States and abroad, claims that he was forced to resign in 1987 after he divorced his first wife and announced that he intended to marry a co-worker.

His new wife, Carolyn, who worked for Focus on the Family as a secretary and coordinator of children’s video materials, claims in a separate suit that she too was forced to resign.

Saying he was fascinated by the constitutional issues that have been raised, Piatt said the lawsuits may hinge on whether Focus on the Family, which promotes family life and Christian values through radio broadcasts and publications, is a religious institution protected by the First Amendment.

Piatt asked attorneys for both sides to concentrate on this and several other issues when they return to court July 25 to argue a motion by Focus on the Family and its founder, James Dobson, to dismiss the lawsuits.

Dobson and his lawyers contend that the suits should be dismissed because Focus on the Family is a religious organization protected from court scrutiny.

They also contend that Moegerle and his wife, who took the name Alexander-Moegerle after their marriage, resigned voluntarily. And they argue that Focus on the Family had ample reasons to dismiss them anyway, because they violated the organization’s teachings on the permanency of marriage.

Attorney David Warren, representing the couple, said they were singled out for unfair treatment.

“There are multiple individuals in the organization and on the board of directors who are divorced and remarried,” he said, and yet none have had their marital histories scrutinized or been forced to leave.

Focus on the Family, which is based in Pomona, has 750 employees. Officials of the nonprofit organization, which earned nearly $55 million last year and this year expects to take in $63 million, announced on Thursday that Focus on the Family may sell its Pomona property and relocate to Colorado Springs, Colo.