December 2015 – Page 6 – Warren Throckmorton

Gospel for Asia's and Believers' Church's Lawsuit Against Google and Facebook Moved to District Court

Inexplicably, K.P. Yohannan is still claiming that Gospel for Asia and Believers’ Church won a defamation lawsuit which named Google and Facebook as defendants among many others. On the GFA website, Yohannan claims

The High Court thus issued a verdict, directing networking sites to remove and stop uploading any false information about Gospel for Asia and our various ministries. In addition, the High Court also had those who posted this misinformation arrested and the material they uploaded removed.

Yohannan’s web posting links to two articles in the Indian press (here and here) as evidence for his claims. However, as I pointed out previously, the articles don’t support Yohannan since they do not describe a verdict. Instead, the press articles report the initiation of a lawsuit against Google, Facebook and many others by Gospel for Asia in India and Believers’ Church. The case has not been, and probably won’t be, heard by the High Court.
Last week, the High Court transferred the case to District Court. Here is the court order:

A source in India told me that the case was sent to District Court (Saket District Court in Delhi) because the amount of damages claimed was too low to trigger the High Court’s involvement. By statute, cases under 2 crore (about $300,000) are sent to a lower court.
A search of the High Court record reveals no injunction in the case so it is puzzling that Yohannan would claim a verdict when the case hasn’t been tried.
Here is another situation where what GFA says is at odds with information that is publicly available. I call on Yohannan to retract his claims or provide an explanation supported by evidence which can be verified.
UPDATE: A reader sent along a December 3, 2012 email sent by GFA (click the link to see the image) with K.P. Yohannan’s article “A New Type of Persecution” article as an update from K.P. Yohannan. It is the same as the article on the website and was touted to donors and mailing list members. Apparently, this “news” was intended to help raise funds.

Petition Urges Gospel for Asia Board of Directors to Remove K.P. Yohannan

Former Gospel for Asia donor Jimmy Humphrey wants to send a message to the current board members at GFA. Humphey wants change at the giant mission organization and believes it should start at the top. Over the weekend, Humphrey started a petition at Change.org asking GFA’s board of directors to fire GFA’s founder and CEO K.P. Yohannan. In support of his petition, Humphrey wrote:

I originally discovered the ministry of K.P. Yohannan and GFA through listening to a sermon online, and was amazed at this ministry, and swayed powerfully by the presentation given by K.P. I was a supporter of multiple missionaries for just under a decade, and even gave some money to some various “emergency” situations to strike Asia. Now after recent discoveries, I wonder if the money ever made it into the hands of the people I gave towards. I want to give GFA the benefit of the doubt and believe nothing fraudulent happened, and that the ministry simply grew too big and too complex for the likes of K.P. Yohannan to run. But honestly, at the end of the day, I simply don’t know anymore. As a result, in good conscience I can no longer continue to give or support GFA. A change of leadership is in order.

The petition begins:

Recently it has come to light that the “Gospel For Asia” (GFA) missionary organization lost its “Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability” (ECFA) seal of approval and accreditation, due to numerous violations of the financial standards that the ECFA requires of its member organizations. The ECFA is regarded as the “gold standard” in the Evangelical Christian community for non-profit organizations, that attests to the fidelity of its member organizations faithfully handling the charity of its donors, acting as wise stewards, in keeping with Christian conduct and the highest of financial accounting standards.

As a result of these violations and the losing of its ECFA accreditation, GFA has suffered severe public reproach, not only in Evangelical Christian circles, but also in the secular media. The level of reproach brought upon GFA undermines the ability of the organization to carry out its mission, which is to ultimately spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ throughout all of Asia, by training, equipping, and financially supporting native missionaries within each country that GFA operates.

Humphrey calls on the board to take over day to day operations of GFA:

In order to save GFA, we the undersigned call on the independent board of directors to either fire or place on leave the current leadership team of K.P. Yohannan, David Carroll, John Beers, and Danny Yohannan.
We urge the board to take control of the daily operations of GFA.

Click the link below to read the rest and sign the petition:
GFA PETITION

Note to Gospel for Asia: Indian Customs Also Requires Declaration of Aggregate Cash Transfers Over $10,000 (UPDATED)

Advisory: Due to questions presented by commenter JP below, I am investigating this issue again. There is no question that Gospel for Asia’s actions violated U.S. law but it is unclear to me now if GFA violated India regulations. I thought the form I attached below required declarations of aggregate amounts of cash over $10,000. Due to information brought by JP, I am not so sure as of 12/24/15. The information I have gotten is conflicting and so I contacted Indian authorities and will be report the results back here when I get an answer. Thanks to JP for raising the questions. Stay tuned…
……………………………………………….
Original post:
While Gospel for Asia has admitted that GFA groups traveling together to India violated U.S. law by taking aggregate amounts of cash over $10,000 out of the U.S. without customs declaration, little has been said about Indian law.
Those who carried cash to India were told they had $4500 in an envelope which was to be given to officials at Believers’ Church headquarters in Kerala. The $4500 in cash was under the limit for an individual traveler. However, since whole groups traveling together transferred more than $10,000 from GFA-US to GFA-India, someone in the group should have declared the total amount.
As it turns out, Indian law also requires declaration of cash if the total per transfer is over $10,000. This is clear on Indian customs forms which would have been filled out by those entering India. See the customs forms below and check item 10, subpoint ix.

It is hard to imagine that frequent India travelers like K.P. Yohannan and other senior GFA leaders had not seen this form.

Mark Driscoll Listed as Director of Newly Incorporated The Trinity Church in Phoenix

The next big thing appears to be just around the corner.
Mark Driscoll is listed as a director of recently registered The Trinity Church in Phoenix, along with Randall Taylor and Jimmy Evans. The address is the same UPS store listed as the Mark Driscoll Ministries address (the church has a different box number):

Mark Driscoll Ministries
21001 North Tatum Blvd Ste 1630-527
Phoenix, AZ 85050

Click here for the Articles of Incorporation. According to the incorporation document, The Trinity Church will be a “Bible based Christian Church.” To these gentlemen, “Bible based” may not mean congregational. According to the articles of incorporation, there won’t be any members.
The same attorney, Steven Goodspeed, who incorporated Mark Driscoll Ministries, also incorporated The Trinity Church in Arizona at the end of November. Goodspeed also handled the sale of The Resurgence assets to Driscoll.

Launch in January?

Christianity Today On the Release of Gayle Erwin's and ECFA's Reports on Gospel for Asia

Bob Smietana at Christianity Today has put together a great summary of both the ECFA and Gayle Erwin reports to the board of Gospel for Asia. I encourage readers to go read it.
Here are some highlights:
In the article, Smietana pointed out the misleading nature of GFA leaders’ communications with the ECFA, GFA board, and the donors.
From the article:

Despite running a ministry that collects hundreds of millions in donations, Yohannan appeared to be unaware of the basics of nonprofit management.

GFA appears to be cultivating a narrative which casts Yohannan and COO David Carroll as incompetent rather than deceptive.
In a first, Yohannan sent a note to Smietana saying he appreciated the GFA review. As I noted in my post about Gayle Erwin’s report, Yohannan did not appreciate Erwin’s candid report.
A scapegoat for Yohannan in his note to Smietana is the rapid growth of GFA. Remember, GFA was a charter member of the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability. GFA has had access to ECFA materials and guidance for well over 30 years. GFA’s website is full of promises to be financially astute, still using the Independent Charities of America Seal. Blaming their growth is another way of passing the buck.
Smietana pointed out that Gayle Erwin was told to rewrite his report on the allegations from the GFA Diaspora.
Smietana pointed out that David Carroll told CBS 11News Dallas that GFA was kicked out of ECFA over minor infractions. Smietana contrasted that claim with the serious problems highlighted by the ECFA report.
Go take a look, there is much more.