Tag: sued

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News

FTC Suing Largest Christian University in US (Grand Canyon) for ‘Deceptive and Abusive Telemarketing Practices’

Months after it was announced that Grand Canyon University (GCU), the country’s largest Christian university, was being fined $37.7 million by the federal government for allegations that they misled students about the full costs of some of their programs, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has also announced they’re suing the 120,000-student school for “deception.”

According to a recent notice on their website, the FTC is suing GCU, Grand Canyon Education (GCE) and GCU president Brain Mueller for “deceiving prospective doctoral students about the cost and course requirements of its doctoral programs and about being a nonprofit” while also engaging in “deceptive and abusive telemarketing practices.”

For the former, the FTC says that some of GCU’s doctoral programs advertise one price to finish, when in reality, 98% of students require additional “continuation courses” to complete, adding thousands of dollars to the cost of their program. They also say that “the defendants also used abusive telemarketing calls to try to boost enrollment at GC” and that “GCE advertised on websites and social media urging prospective students to submit their contact information on digital forms. GCE telemarketers then used the information to illegally contact people who have specifically requested not to be called, as well as people on the National Do Not Call Registry. GCE has also made illegal calls to numbers it purchased from lead generators.

Responding to the varied allegations, GCU claims they are being “unjustly targetted” by the government and that this is much ado about nothing.

“To be frank, the substance of these claims is so frivolous that they could have easily been resolved in a 10-minute phone call had the agencies chosen to do so. We would have disagreed with the agencies’ conclusions but believe a reasonable accommodation could have been reached in each case in a spirit of cooperation. Instead, the agencies have chosen to, quite literally, make a federal case out of what should be minor disagreements.”

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News

Benny Hinn Sued: Handed Legal Paper in the Middle of His Sermon

Rank heretic Benny Hinn, who was last seen offering invitations to his birthday party for $5000 a person, found himself served with legal papers in the middle of a sermon, the result of being sued for defamation. 

Hinn, along with publicist Ron Torossian and associate Donald B. Price, were named in the lawsuit filed by Norman Quintero, the CEO of TeleAmerica Television Network and Senior Pastor of Iglesia Getsemani in California. 

Quintero is accusing Price, a close friend, confidant, and strategist for Hinn, of creating a website designed to “destroy Dr. Quintero’s personal reputation.” The since-deleted but archived website  contains a bevvy of claims, such that he “has been declared a criminal by the State Of California” and that he is a “Democrat Pastor” who has gone “bankrupt.” 

It is unclear at this time what role if any Hinn played in the fabrication of this website.

h/t Trinity Fi

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Featured Heresies Scandal

Hillsong Church Hit With $20,000,000 Lawsuit for ‘Immoral Acts’ +Damages

Hillsong Church is gearing up to meet their financial maker, becoming the defendants in a series of lawsuits over breaches of contract and damages, according to a series of recently filed suits against the scandal-ridden Australian megachurch.

On this side of the pond, Hillsong’s Connecticut plant is being sued by The Wall Street Theater Company. Hillsong rented the theater from them for their weekly Sunday church service at a cost of nearly $6000 a month. They signed a fresh lease a few months before the pandemic hit, and then when the world went sideways, sought to take advantage of the agreement’s 120-day termination clause.

The theater agreed, but the clause to exit the lease was $100,899.25, which Hillsong refused to pay. Connecticut doesn’t have a pandemic-related moratorium on commercial rent payment that many states do, and so Hillsong would be liable for it. The suit alleges that Hillsong acted in an “immoral way” and also stole electronic equipment from them.


Hillsong Connecticut made the news a few months ago when their lead pastors Blaze Robertson and wife Desiree Noel Robertson jumped ship and slinked away to a new church, with no formal document being made to the congregation.

Meanwhile, back in Australia, owners of a 300-apartment complex are suing the Church for shoddy construction work done when building their homes, alleging that the apartments which were purchased for up to a million dollars are structurally unsound, making them near impossible to sell in the future.

Lest you wonder what that has to do with Hillsong, the apartments were built by Sydney Christian Life Centre, who is the developer and part of Hillsong’s property arm. (Think of Hillsong as a multinational corporation. They have their hand in many cookie jars.)

A 2019 report deemed that the windows and balconies to the units were structurally unsound, but the Sydney Christian Life Centre (aka Hillsong) are saying that the real culprit is Icon Construction Australia, who they subcontracted to do the work, and who they filed a lawsuit against, deeming them to be the real culprits.






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News

Thom Rainer Caves To LifeWay Legal Pressure, Will Honor Non-Compete Contract

The peddler of theological poison known as LifeWay Christian Resources, the publishing arm of the Southern Baptist Convention and publisher of all things Beth Moore, announced late Tuesday that they’ve reached an amicable agreement with former President Thom Rainer, one that was settled out of court and will end all legal proceedings.

You’ll recall that we leaked emails a few days ago from LifeWay’s board revealing these four salient points, in the process serving as a bit of a reputation wrecker in the eyes of the commonfolk SBC peasants, unaware that their favored son was acting quite poorly.

1. Dr. Rainer entered into a very lucrative transition agreement that was not disclosed to the board’s compensation and executive committees that would pay him in excess of $1 million.

2. Since his retirement on Feb. 28, 2019, Dr. Rainer has been paid in excess of $1 million plus benefits, not including royalty payments.

3. The transition agreement carried a non-compete clause.

4. Dr. Rainer has clearly violated the non-compete clause by entering into a partnership agreement with a competitor explicitly against his transition agreement.

Now that LifeWay has lifted up Rainer by the scruff of his neck, yelled at him for peeing the proverbial bed, and smacked him on the nose so that he won’t do it again, Rainer acquiesced to the organization’s demands and will honor the terms of his non-compete contract after all, meaning that he can’t move ahead with all those books planned for Tyndale until November 2021, 14 months away.

Rainer also must immediately discontinue any references to Tyndale and the promoting of certain company-owned products according to RNS who have seen a draft, writing:

Under the terms of the agreement, a draft of which was provided to Religion News Service, Rainer must also ‘cease using any and all tags such as @Tyndale, #Tyndale @NLT, #NLT or any other reference to any competitor of Plaintiff, Tyndale,’ on social media. (NLT is the New Living Translation, a Tyndale Bible.)

Rainer has also started returning a portion of the $1,000,000 severance packaged he received, though it’s not clear how much he will or has actually given back . In a statement, Todd Fanning, chairman of LifeWay’s board of trustees said:

Our prayer has always been that this could be resolved between LifeWay and Dr. Rainer amicably. We’re thankful Dr. Rainer agreed to honor his word and commitment to LifeWay, which has been our goal from the beginning. The trustees and Dr. Rainer are looking forward to putting this behind us.

Categories
abortion News Righteous Defiance

Judge Orders Church at Planned Parenthood to Stop Services Outside Building – The Church Worships Anyway

A Washington state judge sided with Planned Parenthood, the Apex Predator of the baby-killing world, and issued a preliminary injunction against The Church At Planned Parenthood (TCAPP), blocking them from holding services outside of the abortuary and mandating when they can and cannot have services.

TCAPP is a non-denominational, ecumenical gathering comprised of multiple church congregations that gather weekly outside the doors of the abortion giant’s clinic for a service of worship, prayers, preaching, and rallying cries to get involved in ending abortion. They have services in several cities, including Spokane, Indianapolis, and Oklahoma City, with more on the way.

Here is a brief video from their latest service yesterday evening:

Planned Parenthood (otherwise known as the Bringer Of Death, or BOD, or whatever nasty name we can think for such a hideously ghoulish business) sued TCAPP back in July, alleging they were bullying and terrorizing patients with their noisy singing and loud demonstrations. The BOD claimed they were interfering with their ability to perform “medical treatments” and that their services have scared and intimidated staff and patients procuring services. The lawsuit sought damages and a permanent injunction to prevent TCAPP from gathering.

While the Flesh-Flaying Factory won the initial injunction, the judge did not disband the group completely. Rather, he made them modify their locations and time. Instead of meeting on the grass right next to the building, they have to move across the street and stay at least 35 feet away. Instead of having the service at 6:00 pm, which is when the killing fields normally close, the service has been moved back to 7:00 pm

Ken Peters, one of the founding pastors who has led TCCAP from its inception, had the church move across the street for now and changed the start time, complying with the orders while the case works through the courts, saying of the decision:

The injunction is totally unconstitutional. We completely disagree with it. But it’s Washington State. Washington State is run by leftists.”

Given that the results from the injunction were sprung on them so late, Pastor Peters said they complied due to the short notice, “punting” for the time being so they can review options to see to see what degree they will comply for their next gathering.

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Church Featured News

Judge Rules John MacArthur’s GCC Can Have Indoor Services: Church Agrees to Wear Masks and Socially Distance

A California Court has ruled that John MacArthur and Grace Community Church have a constitutionally protected right to remain open and hold indoor services in their sanctuary, upholding the church’s stance that they are indeed essential, but also imposing some restrictions for mask-wearing and social distancing, which GCC indicated they will comply with.

According to a press released by Grace Community Church

Hours after Grace Community Church filed suit to invalidate Los Angeles County’s unconstitutional restrictions on churches, the County filed for a temporary restraining order to force the church to stop holding indoor services and comply with every unreasonable and over-broad demand. At hearing today in Los Angeles Superior Court, Judge James Chalfant denied almost all of the County’s requests, agreeing with Pastor MacArthur and the Church that it is the County’s burden to show why it should be permitted to infringe on the constitutionally protected rights of churches to freely exercise religion. The judge did also express concern for some safety protocols.

To address those concerns and after explaining that the County was being unreasonable in its demands, counsel for Grace Community Church offered to comply with mask wearing and social distancing indoors until the matter could be fully heard, rather than the County simply rushing to shut down the Church. The judge agreed this was reasonable, set the full hearing for September 4, 2020, and ordered the Church to have congregants wear masks and social distance between family groups indoors.

Pastor MacArthur said he was pleased with the ruling, commenting

“I am very grateful the Court has allowed us to meet inside and we are happy for a few weeks to comply and respect what the judge has asked of us because he is allowing us to meet. This vindicates our desire to stay open and serve our people. This also gives us an opportunity to show that we are not trying to be rebellious or unreasonable, but that we will stand firm to protect our church against unreasonable, unconstitutional restrictions.”

The church’s lawyer, Charles LiMandri, said:

“This result is indeed a great victory for all citizens’ constitutional right to freedom of religion. Pastor MacArthur’s love of God and country motivated him and all the GCC church elders to resist the unjust government shut-down orders targeting people of faith. Their devotion and patriotism has brought about a result that respects the legitimate interests of both the church and state. This result makes it possible for the thousands of congregants of GCC to continue to gather together in their church to worship, while at the same time honoring the court’s requirement that reasonable and temporary safety measures be observed. This court ruling should stay in effect at least until there can be a full court hearing in this case on September 4, 2020. Please continue to pray that the courts allow this enlightened judge’s decision to stand so that all Californians can soon resume the worship of God in their respective churches.”