Appellate Judge Revives Lawsuit Against David Platt’s McLean Bible Church

The lawsuit, dismissed last summer, stemmed from an elder election dispute at the Washington, D.C.-area megachurch.

A lawsuit filed against McLean Bible Church in Virginia has been revived by an appellate judge after being dismissed last summer.

David Platt / Video screengrab via McLean Bible Church

The original suit was filed by disgruntled members after a failed June 2021 election of elders for the Washington, D.C.- area megachurch. It alleged that the church’s Lead Pastor David Platt and other leaders then manipulated the elder-election process for the second vote to favor candidates they wanted, violating the church’s constitution. The lawsuit was dismissed in June 2022.

But Appellate Judge Frank K. Friedman said in an opinion earlier this month that McLean Bible Church had not presented sufficient evidence to establish that the alleged violations failed to present a “justiciable controversy,” and reversed the circuit court’s ruling that the entire case was moot, ChurchLeaders reported.

Friedman said dismissing the case was wrong because of “alleged ongoing member disenfranchisement,” and remanded it to the circuit court.

The church said in a statement:

As we continue to seek ways to fully and finally move past all of this, our church family will respond in the same ways we have from the beginning: working with courts to show that this group’s repetitive lawsuits and claims are completely without merit, while at the same time remaining steadfast in our commitment to show the love of God in our city and the world around us.

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The dispute originated from an elder election held in June 2021 that resulted in the slate of prospective elders who had been put forward by church leaders being voted down for the first time in the church’s history. Three new candidates were then proposed for consideration, per the church’s constitution, and a second election date set.

But Platt said that between the original and second votes, he became aware of rumors circulating among the congregation that he planned to sell the Washington, D.C. megachurch’s property so a Muslim mosque could be built in its place, an alleged effort to turn congregants against him and the elder candidates he supported.

Church leaders also said they heard during that time that inactive members of the church were being asked to disrupt the second elder election, so they moved to restrict the second vote to active church members only, a status determined by regular attendance.

After the second slate of elders was approved, some former members filed the lawsuit alleging the criteria for voting were improper, since active church membership was impossible to determine during the period when the COVID-19 pandemic kept people away from church, and that the new rule violated the church’s constitution.

In May 2022, the church held another elder election taking those concerns into account, and the lawsuit was dismissed the next month.

A lawyer for the plaintiffs in the case, Rick Boyer, applauded the judge’s decision to reverse the circuit court ruling, saying disallowing people from voting “if you don’t think they’ll vote the right way” constitutes breach of contract.

“God through the Holy Spirit ought to be able to lead his people to vote their consciences and choose the direction of the church that way,” Boyer said.