A previously dismissed lawsuit against McLean Bible Church in Tysons Corner, Virginia, which is led by pastor and author David Platt, has been revived by an appellate judge who said in an opinion that “factual disputes” remain between the church’s current leadership and a group of disgruntled former members who allege that Platt and other church leaders violated the church’s constitution when appointing new elders.
The legal dispute began back in June 2021, shortly after a highly contested elder election, which needed to be conducted a second time after a failed attempt to confirm three new elders to the board.
According to Platt, an alleged whisper campaign conducted by a group of members within the congregation caused a number of church members to believe that Platt intended to sell the church’s property so that a Muslim mosque could be built in its place, among other allegations.
As a result, the three prospective elders that were set to be appointed by the church were voted down by the congregation for the first time in the church’s nearly 60-year history. Per the church’s constitution, three new prospective elders needed to be proposed to the church and a subsequent vote cast.
Between the two votes, Platt criticized the group allegedly spreading misinformation about him. Church leadership also became aware that inactive members of McLean Bible Church had allegedly been called upon to travel to the congregational meeting to scuttle the elder election. Thus, church leaders sought to restrict the subsequent vote to only active members, as defined by regular attendance.
After the second set of proposed elders was confirmed, a group of former members filed suit, alleging that Platt and the other elders had manipulated the vote to go in the church leaders’ favor by disallowing votes that would have otherwise been legitimately cast. The former members’ argument centered on the fact that active membership as defined by regular attendance was impossible to determine in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic.
In May 2022, McLean Bible Church held another elder election that adhered to the demands of the lawsuit against them. As a result, the case was dismissed a month later.
However, in an opinion filed earlier this month, Judge Frank K. Friedman argued that even though the church amended its election processes, dismissing the case was an error as issues remain “regarding alleged ongoing member disenfranchisement.”
Friedman wrote, “We reverse the circuit court’s ruling that the entire case is moot. MBC bore the burden of establishing that appellants’ claims were moot. On this record, MBC’s evidence was insufficient to establish that the alleged ‘ongoing’ violations of MBC’s constitution failed to present a justiciable controversy.”
“We remand the case to permit the circuit court to address ongoing claims relating to disenfranchisement of members, transparency and notice, and the secret ballot dispute,” Friedman ruled.
Rick Boyer, a lawyer representing the plaintiffs in the case, celebrated the decision, telling WUSA9, “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.”
